Author Archives: The Domains

About The Domains

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 5K domain names . Michael is also a Director of RightoftheDot.com which is a consultant in the new gTLD space and a broker of super premium domains. Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest this year.

Thu 3rd April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry Announces Affiliate Program - Frank Schilling Uniregistry registrar side of the business has just announced its affiliate program that promises to pay commission just not on new gTLD registrations but for renewals as well for the lifetime of the domain registration. Frank of course just didn’t announce the affiliate program but painted the picture of where we have been and were we are going in the domain space: “We get tens-of-thousands of banner clicks each day from hopeful dreamers like me, looking to buy the names of our ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Minds + Machines Issues New gTLD Update - In a press release sent out overnight, “The Directors of Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM: MMX) are pleased to provide an update on the launch programme of its portfolio of new top-level domains and the expansion of its registrar sales channel activity.” “gTLD Launch Programme On 1 April 2014, the first five of Minds + Machines wholly owned gTLD’s, .FISHING, .VODKA, .RODEO, .COOKING and .HORSE, as well as .COUNTRY in which the Company has a joint venture interest, were delegated into the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Out of The 1,735 .Builders Domains These Are My Favorite - I didn’t try to acquire domain names in the new gTLD of  .Builders but I reviewed the zone file and found these 80 domains which are my favorite registrations in the TLD. According to ntldstats.com/tld there are 1,735 domain name registrations under .Builders making it the 50th most registered new gTLD. Some creative uses for the extension as well as traditional one’s:   <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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Mark Karpeles Ordered to come to a US to plead Mt. Gox Bankruptcy - Reuters reported that the Mark Karpeles has to come to the US to discuss the Mt.Gox Chapter 15 bankruptcy. The company filed bankruptcy in Japan but are also dealing with a class action filed in Chicago. Last month, Karpeles asked a Dallas court to grant Mt. Gox Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, in part to put a stop to a class action that had been filed by U.S. customers in Chicago federal court. The chief executive of Japan’s Mt. Gox, once the world’s leading bitcoin exchange, was ordered ... read more ...
 
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HugeDomains.com Takes UDRP Loss On AustinPain.com to Federal Court: We Say Good Get Em - HugeDomains.com, LLC, just filed a lawsuit against ROBERT P. WILLS, MD. PA, a Texas Professional Association d/b/a AUSTIN PAIN ASSOCIATES for a declaratory judgement arising out of the UDRP decision against it on the domain name AustinPain.com. At the time we called the UDRP decision a bad one. While is you can not formally “appeal”  a UDRP, if a domain name is ordered to be transferred by a panel,  the domain owner has the right to file with a Federal Court an action for a declaratory judgement ... read more ...
Wed 2nd April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN
35 Senators Demand Answers On NTIA Plan Of Giving Up Oversight of ICANN - 35 U.S. Senators (all Republicans) led by John Thune (R-S.D.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Assistant Secretary of Commerce Larry Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), asking a lot of questions (I counted 13) on the recent announcement that NTIA intends to relinquish oversight responsibility over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)functions of ICANN to the global multistakeholder community. Here is the letter that was sent, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Vertical Axis Beats Back a UDRP on a Domain ThinkThin.com Registered in 2001 - Vertical Axis Inc which was as always represented by Esqwire.com beat back a UDRP on the domain name ThinkThin.com The trademark holder 1st registered their trademark and started selling their product in 2006, somehow they thought they were entitled to the domain although it was registered back in 2001. Typical. The three member panel should have found Reverse Domain Name Hijacking but instead just denied the UDRP: The factual findings pertinent to the decision in this case are that: 1. Complainant ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
18 Year Old Domain MyMachine.com Saved in UDRP - Sabrage Media, Inc. just lost his attempt to grab the 18 year old domain name mymachine.com through a UDRP to which the domain owner didn’t even bother to defend. The factual findings pertinent to the decision in this case are that: 1. Complainant has used the trademark MY MACHINE in connection with a magazine publication, website, and clothing products related generally to motorcycling; 2. Complainant owns United States Trademark Reg. No. 3,158,541, filed November 29, 2005, registered October ... read more ...
 
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Domains Acquired Through SnapNames Creds Will Be Managed By NetworkSolutions.com - Snapnames.com just announced that starting today, “domain names acquired at SnapNames®, through a SnapNames credential, will now be managed through Network Solutions. Before anyone freaks out about the price,  these domains will be subject to a special renewal rate of just $9.59 To quickly identify the registrar of record for purchased domains refer to your SnapNames confirmation email. Once your purchased domain is ready to manage, you will receive an email from Network Solutions containing ... read more ...
 
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Stuart Lawley Chats About ICANN & The New gTLD’s On Cavuto Fox Business Show - Stuart Lawley the CEO of the ICM Registry, which operates the .XXX top level domain name extension and an applicant for .sex, .porn and .adult was interviewed by Cavuto, on Fox Business News, in a segment which lasted over five minutes. My favorite quote from the Story from Lawley on new gTLD’s in response to Cavuto’s question won’t the new gTLD’s be confusing to users: “There will be confusion, but in 3-5 years from now people will look at the internet very different and people will look ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
BedLinens.com Sells On Namejet For 10% Of What It Sold For 3 1/2 Years Ago - One of the domain names in the DomainFest/Namejet.com auction that sold yesterday was BedLinens.com The domain sold yesterday on Namejet.com for $2,411 The same domain BedLinens.com sold back in September 2010 on Namejet.com  for $22,322 So we are looking at a loss of $20,000 on a purchase of $22K. A loss of 90% Brutal. Congrats to the winner of yesterday’s auction.     Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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WSJ: If The UN Gets Control Of ICANN Your Domain Registration Fees May Increase, A Lot - The Wall Street Journal just published a story by Karl Borden who is a professor of financial economics at the University of Nebraska who warns that if the US gives up its oversight control over ICANN and the United Nations winds up in that roll, expect that fees are going to be imposed on every domain registration to support not only ICANN but UN activities. The professor cites “As far back as 2001, a U.N. report, “Financing the Global Sharing Economy,” proposed that the U.N. be given the ... read more ...
 
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UK reaches pivotal miracle in cyber security - Warwick Ashford wrote a piece on ComputerWeekly.com that covered what is a significant event for cyber security in the United Kingdom. As the Internet grows to be more important to just about every facet of human life, the stakes are raised on how to protect what happens online. The Internet of Things will take this to another level and there really needs to be greater understanding and education for all those involved. Its good to see the UK taking a proactive attitude with regards to increasing ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Go Daddy/Afternic Sells $1.9 million in domains led by iAcademy.com -

Go Daddy/Afternic sole $1,940,630 in domains for a week of  3/24/14 – 3/30/14.

The tip sale was iAcademy.com for $55,000. The domain was sole by Frank Schilling’s Name Administration.

The tip non .com sale was Pod.ly for $6,500

<![CDATA[]]><![CDATA[]]>

Via: thedomains.com

Tue 1st April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Transactions Total $1.2 Million Led By Homelane.com For $24K - Sedo just reported that  737 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1.2 Million dollars for the week 44% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Highlights of public sales are: ·         Top .coms: homelane.com at 24,000 USD ·         Top ccTLD: mega.io at 10,000 USD ·         Top “other” TLD: we2.org at 5,000 USD Here are the reportable sales: <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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Namescon Already Tops 100 Paid Pre-Registrations For Jan Vegas Show - With no website, agenda, keynote speakers or press releases, NamesCon organizers say they have already exceeded 100 paid pre-registrations for its Jan 11-14, 2015 Las Vegas conference. The inaugural event got very positive reviews and the organizers are repeating the incredibly low $199 pre-registration price. However that $199 price is only valid until midnight tonight (April 1st) Some are predicting as many as 1,000 people will attend Namescon 2015. Companies that have already paid and registered ... read more ...
 
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Go Daddy Sells 41,242 Domains in Mar Led by QY.com - Go Daddy Auctions Market Report – March 2014 Go Daddy sold 41,242 domains in March vs 37, 408 domains in February. The top sale for the month was QY.com at $100,000. The February stats were changed in this report and Apple.net is now the top sale for February at $50,000. The most popular keywords sold were Online, Blog,Free,Design and Home. (click to enlarge) ... read more ...
 
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Strickling, Fadi, Steve DelBianco All Set To Testify In House Hearing On ICANN Tomorrow - There is going to be a house hearing tomorrow on the US giving up its oversight control over ICANN. The hearing is being held by the Energy Commerce Committee of the United States House of Representatives The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, April 2, 2014, at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. The title of the hearing is “Ensuring the Security, Stability, Resilience, and Freedom of the Global Internet.” Witnesses will be announced ... read more ...
 
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.NYC Go Live Scheduled for Oct 8th, 2014 - The launch policies for .NYC domain registry were just published by ICANN and they are lengthy. The “Plan has been developed to describe the Launch Program for the .nyc Top Level Domain (“TLD”) by The City of New York by and through the New York City Department of Information Technology Telecommunications (“Registry Operator”). Launch Schedule: The following is a brief overview of each of the periods that will be implemented in launching the TLD. These periods are described in ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Quick Poll: Which New gTLD Will Be The 1st To Hit 100K Registrations? - As of today there are over 414,000 new gTLD domain names registered. .Guru is still leading the pack with over 47,000 registrations and is growing at the rate of 75-100 domains a day. .Berlin is safely in second place for now, with  43K registrations and .Photography just topped 30K registrations. The question we have today is a simple one which new gTLD will hit 100,000 registrations first. We have included the three top new gTLD’s to date and have included some other what we consider likely ... read more ...
Mon 31st March 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
More Trademark Clearing House Abuse: Texas & Venture Triggers Notice - A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Trademark holders of generic terms applying to the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) where trademarks on many of which were causing some of those 500,000 “warnings” to go out to people trying to register a new gTLD domain name. Today we bring you the world famous trademarks for the term “Texas” and “Venture” “”1. TEXAS Jurisdiction: United States of America Goods: IC 041. US 107. G S: Educational Services-Namely, Providing College and Graduate Level ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
So Far Only Three Major 4 Year Colleges Have Registered a .Education Domain - The new gTLD .Education opens up for live registrations on April 2nd but of course had a Sunrise period early for trademark holders and its in the final day of the Early Access Program. Going through the zone file I only found only  three what you would consider major, 4 year brick and mortar universities that applied for a .Education domain; Arizona State University registered  ArizonaState.education,  ArizonaStateuniversity.education, Sundevil.education and  Sundevils.education. Auburn University ... read more ...
 
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.Berlin Dirk Krischenowski Blasts ICANN Over TMCH Which Has “Largely Failed” - Internetworld.de, interviewed Dirk Krischenowski of .Berlin who blasted ICANN and the performance of the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) The article was published in German and we used Google translate. Dirk chatted with the German publication about the recently completed Sunrise period for .Berlin, which is now in available to be registered. In the Sunrise Period trademark owner could register .Berlin domains with their trademark on the left of the dot. As most know to be allowed to file a Sunrise ... read more ...
 
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The .CLUB LAND RUSH Starts Tomorrow Apr 1st: Join The Landrush.CLUB - According to a press release this morning by .CLUB, “like the United States Land Rush of 1889 that changed the landscape of America and the lives of million of people, a new land grab is ensuing all over the Internet as new domain extensions come to market and .CLUB Domains, LLC announces its Land Rush Period starting tomorrow, April 1, 2014. “Its Land Rush signals the 30-day priority period when website domains with the .CLUB extension can be applied for, and the Company has posted more than ... read more ...
 
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Microsoft and a Bing Entity Engine - Frederic Lardinois wrote a piece on Tech Crunch tonight about Microsoft and their plan for their entity engine. The entity engine is Microsoft’s answer to the Google Knowledge Graph. These products are not the most desirable from a web developer standpoint. Google and Bing would both like to give people using their search engine a direct answer, keep them on their site and lessen the need to click through to a website. This will certainly not affect all niches, but someone running something like ... read more ...