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 30th January 2014
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Google Finally Agree To Its 1st Stock Spilt - Google (GOOG) announced a stock split by creating “Class C” shares which will carry no voting power. The stock split which is Google’s 1st,  is set for April 2nd. One share of C stock will be distributed for each share of voting Class A stock owned as of March 27. Initially, the value of the current stock will be divided equally between the two types of shares. But they will then trade separately with different ticker symbols. Class C shares will get the company’s existing “GOOG” ticker ... read more ...
 
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Pre-Seed.com Lost In UDRP To Trademark Filed Two Years After Domain - Lil’ Drug Store Products, Inc. just won control of the domain name pre-seed.com in a one member panel UDRP. The domain holder did not respond. The factual findings pertinent to the decision in this case are that: 1.    Complainant has since 2003 sold fertility enhancement preparations including non-spermicidal personal lubricants and moisturizers by reference to the trademark PRE-SEED; 2.    Complainant owns United States Trademark Reg. No. 2,972,756 registered July 19, 2005 for the word ... read more ...
 
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Google Reports: Paid Clicks Up 31%; Cost Per Click Down 11% - Google reported its financial results for the quarter ending December 31, 2013 after the market closed today Google’s consolidated net income was $3.38 billion, or $9.90 per share, compared to $2.89 billion, or $8.62 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, Google said it earned $12.01 per share. Google’s consolidated revenue, rose to $16.86 billion from $14.42 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. Paid click growth, rose 31% Y/Y after growing 26% in Q3 and 23% in Q2. At the ... read more ...
 
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Day 1 Donuts Trademark Review: Only 12 of 28 Top Brands Bought The Donuts Block (DPML) - According to the WorldtrademarkReview.com, (WTR) only 12 of the 28 top public companies the publication tracked apparently purchased the Donuts’ domain protected marks list (DPML) trademark blocking product. 7 New gTLD strings all by Donuts went live yesterday. .bike, clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, .singles and .ventures According to the WTR; Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, Samsung, Google, Vodafone, Wells Fargo, Chase, BMW, HSBC, Bank of America and McDonalds and Lego all bought the DPML and ... read more ...
 
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17 Year Old interbanking.com Saved In UDRP: 1 out 3 Panelist Vote For RDNH - Interbanking S.A. of Buenos Aires, Argentina, just lost its bid to grab the domain name interbanking.com from domain investor, Alexander Lerman who was represented by John Berryhill, Phd Esq. The domain name was registered on March 4, 1997. The Complainant was founded on September 25, 1996, when Datacash S.A. and Newnet S.A. merged to form Interbanking S.A. The Complainant owns a number of trademark registrations in Argentina including: INTERBANKING – Registration No. 2037652 dated June 21, 1996 ... read more ...
 
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.Brussels & .Vlaanderen Pick Pool For Sunrise, Landrush Auctions - The new gTLD’s .Brussels and .Vaanderen have selected Pool.com for its Sunrise and Landrush Auctions. “Today two more international geographical domains, .brussels and .vlaanderen, announce they have selected Pool.com and its auction services platform to help accelerate their introduction to global markets.” “Auctions are the best way to resolve contending applications during the introduction of new top-level domains,” says Pool.com CEO Richard Schreier. “They offer open access, quickly ... read more ...
 
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SHorter .UK Domains Are Launching On Jun 10th - Nominet announced that shorter .UK domains are going to become available on the 10th June 2014.   Nominet says: “We are proud to announce the upcoming launch of .uk – out on its own for the first time A shorter, sharper domain name which puts the emphasis firmly on your website name – exactly where it should be.” One of the most important aspects of the dotUK launch is that .co.uk domain owners will have first refusal when securing their respective .UK domain! “So if you have a unique ... read more ...
 
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Forbes: 7 Things To Consider Before Registering A New gTLD; What The Author Got Right & Wrong - Forbes.com just published a post entitled “Seven Things To Think About Before You Register That New Domain” clearly chatting about new gTLD domain names and I think of the 7 issues the author raises 6 are good points yes there is a counter point to each of the even “Potential buyers should take note of the following seven considerations before jumping in with both feet”: 1. Customer trust: “”Consumers have grown used to the existing set of domains, and with that familiarity comes trust.  ... read more ...
Wed 29th January 2014
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Go Daddy Statement on a @N Hack - Go Daddy addressed the situation about the @N Twitter user who had his account hacked. GoDaddy takes our customers’ security seriously. Here’s an update on the situation affecting @N_is_stolen: http://t.co/73tSkfkfTr — GoDaddy (@GoDaddy) January 29, 2014   Our review of the situation reveals that the hacker was already in possession of a large portion of the customer information needed to access the account at the time he contacted GoDaddy. The hacker then socially engineered an employee ... read more ...
 
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“The .com is a approach to attract trade and make it easier for your assembly to find you.” - Sharon Gaudin wrote an article on Computer World, “Brace Yourself For Flood of New Domain Names” In the article she spoke to James Cole from ICANN about the new gtlds coming to market.  She also spoke to Ezra Gottheil an analyst at Current Analysis. Current Analysis is a leading provider of timely, practical market intelligence and advice that helps global IT and telecom professionals compete, innovate and improve performance. For over 15 years, our independent experts and proprietary services ... read more ...
 
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Neustar Reports & Shares Are Down 25% Afterhours - Neustar, Inc. (NSR), today announced results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2013 and provided guidance for 2014. The market didn’t like the news, with shares of the company plummeting 25% after hours to $32 a share. Neustar has a 52 week high of over $57 a share. Of course the market may have not like Neustar’s updated statement it also issued today on “local number portability administrator selection” “”Neustar announced an update on the selection process for the local ... read more ...
 
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Public Company Files UDRP On Generic 15 Year Old Domain SteelBuildings.com - A UDRP was just filed on the domain name SteelBuildings.com by a public company in the metal building business: The UDRP was filed by NCI Group, Inc. which is publicly traded as NCI Building Systems Inc. (NYSE: NCS) “Founded in 1984, NCI is one of the top designers, manufacturers and vendors of metal coatings, components and buildings for nonresidential construction in North America.” The comapny has a market cap of over $1.4 Billion dollars. As for the term SteelBuildings.com, the term is ... read more ...
 
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Start adult Defense.net Covered on Tech Crunch - Its not everyday you see a start up built on a .net, I usually see more built on a .co or .me.  Defense.net is a start up focused on DDOS mitigation services. The company got a write up this morning on Tech Crunch. According to Crunchbase the company has raised $9.5 million. Domain wise the domain looks to have been owned by Marchex who sold the domain to the guys from Original.com in November of 2012, and they flipped it in 3 weeks to the founder of the start up. From the article: Now, one of the ... read more ...
 
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$1277 seems to be a sorcery series this week, though something does not seem right - In the Sedo weekly sales report it seems a lot of names that should fetch a price far greater than $1277 sold this week. As astutely pointed out in the comments by Dan, Jose and Todd there seems to be something odd here. Thighs, Their, Byline, Broth, Chose, Monologue, Gaiters, Chard, Succubus, Saviour, and Trying all bought for $1,277 each all by the same person. They were sold by the the same owner Virginia Comito. She was featured in Beta Beat back in 2011 Virginia Comito, d.b.a. V.L. Raymer, is ... read more ...
Tue 28th January 2014
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Epic Bet: Name.com Vs. Enom Who You Got? - Rightside, Enom and Name.com  is involved in an  epic bet between our eNom office in Seattle and our Name.com office in Denver. “So not only will this Sunday spell a showdown for Russell vs. Peyton, but for Registar’s eNom vs. Name as well.” Below I’ve posted blog and video links offering the details of our #BigBowlBet. We’ll have videos coming all week leading up to Sunday! So we are opening the poll up for your picks Rightside’s video Name.com statement The Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOS0HM-61AE eNom’s ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Transactions Total $1.7 Million - Over the past week, 769 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1.7 Million 48% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Highlights of public sales are: · Top .coms: true.com at 350,000 USD · Top ccTLD: lotterie.at at 15,000 EUR · Top “other” TLD: offer.net at 50,000 USD Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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TheDomains.com/Domaining.com Ticker Is Sold Out - We announced the release of the Domaining.com/TheDomains.com new gTLD ticker about two weeks ago and today I’m happy to announce that we are sold out. In announcing the new gTLD ticker that runs on both  TheDomains.com and Domaining.com, we said it was going to be strictly limited to 20 strings and today we sold the remaining strings meaning all 20 spots are sold out. If your a registry and want to be included in the ticker I’m opening up the waiting list which will be made on a first come first ... read more ...
 
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.Club Sunrise Period Starts Today - .CLUB Domains, LLC, the company formed to own and operate the new “.CLUB” generic top-level domain name (gTLD), announced today that it has officially begun its Trademark Sunrise Period. .CLUB Domains also announced it has signed agreements  with more than 50 registrars around the world, including Network Solutions, LLC, Register.com MarkMonitor, GoDaddy, Name.com, Melbourne IT, 1and1, United-Domains and many more to begin selling “yourname.club” Web addresses to clubs, membership organizations, ... read more ...
 
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Afternic/GoDaddy Sell $1.77 Million In Domain Names - Afternic/GoDaddy released its sales report for the week of 1/20/14 – 1/26/14 All sales for the week totalled $1,770,240. The top .com sale was lead by Heard.com for $40,000, with the top non-com sale lead by Hui.net for $8,125. Below is the complete report: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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Our Interview With .TV Domain Investor Kevin Lawrence Who Just Sold FYI.TV For $30,000 - Kevin Lawrence is a successful entrepreneur, developer, and .TV investor who resides in Southern California. Kevin just sold the domain name FYI.TV for $30,000 marking it the highest reported .TV sale of 2014. I did a short interview with Kevin to get the background of how he decided on the .TV extension to investment a large portion of this domain investments. So your a pretty big .TV domain investor can you tell me what  drew you to the space?   “Almost weekly I come in contact with .TV because ... read more ...
 
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Ex-Wrestler; Dancing With The Stars Contestant, Stacy Keibler Buys Her .Com For $5,500 - Stacy Keibler the ex-wrestling star and well as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and the ex-girlfriend of George Clooney just bought the her matching domain name of StacyKeibler.com which just sold for 3,333 GBP or $5,500. The domain is being directed to Ms Keibler’s site at Skphilosophy.com Based on her career and frequent television appearances Ms. Keibler might have been able to win this domain in a UDRP however it appears she just bought the domain instead for what it would have cost ... read more ...
 
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2nd Themed Above.com Auction Scheduled for Mar 2014: “Lead Generation Domain Auction” - Above.com announces that the “Lead Generation Domain Auction” will be its second Themed Auction starting on March 17, 2014 and ending on April 16, 2014 at 12pm PT 2014. “Themed auctions provide a better method of cost effectively selling domains to end-users,” says Victor Pitts, Director of Domain Services at Above.com. While not a new concept, themed auctions can be very effective in connecting the right domains to the right buyers en masse. Themed auctions are vastly more cost effective ... read more ...
 
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7 New Donuts gTLD’s Available For Registration Tomorrow - According to a press release out today, Tomorrow, Wednesday Donuts Inc., kicks off the general availability period for seven new Internet domain names, (gTLD’s). The gTLD the will be live available for registration are : .BIKE .CLOTHING .GURU .HOLDINGS .PLUMBING .SINGLES .VENTURES. Anyone can register names in these gTLDs on a first come, first-served basis from accredited registrars worldwide. Next Wednesday, February 5, .CAMERA, .EQUIPMENT, .ESTATE, .GALLERY, .GRAPHICS, .LIGHTING and .PHOTOGRAPHY ... read more ...
 
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Trademark Holder Loses UDRP Bid To Grab Domains Registered Early As in 1999 With 2012 TM - Ednovo d/b/a Gooru of Palo Alto, just lost its attempt to grab the domain names Gooru.com; Gooru.net; Gooru.org; and Gooru.biz registered in 1999 on the basis of a trademark filed in 2012 with a UDRP Panel Here are the relevant facts and findings from the one member panel The Complainant is a non-profit organization established in 2011, and based in the United States of America, that operates a free search engine via its domain name goorulearning.org, for teachers and students to search for learning ... read more ...
 
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John Turturro Stars In Godaddy Superbowl Ad Where Real Person, Quits Real Job - Actor John Turturro stars in GoDaddy’s 1st Half Super Bowl commercial where a real person quits a real job to pursue her passion and start her own business. In what is an historic commercial ‘first,’ you’ll see a real person quit a real job in front of 100-million people! During the big game, see how a gutsy go getter goes from working for someone else to following their dream and turning a hobby into their very own small business. Only the people involved with the commercial production ... read more ...