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.

Tue 1st October 2013
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bang With Friends Settles Suit With Zynga & Rebrands As TheNextBang.com - According to several sources, Bang With Friends, Inc., will Re-brand the company name its website and the name of its app, to settle its trademark suit brought by Zynga. In July Zynga sued Bang With Friends, Inc. for infringing upon its trademark of “With Friends” brand. In a statement issued by the companies, “Zynga Inc. and Bang With Friends, Inc. are pleased that they have reached an amicable resolution of their dispute. Although the terms of the settlement are confidential, Bang With Friends, ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Publishes The Final Rights Protection Mechanism (RPM) Requirements For New gTLD Registries - Today ICANN published the final Rights Protection Mechanism (RPM) Requirements for new gTLD registries,  that enables trademark holders to protect their rights during the Domain Name System expansion. A set of trademark protections were developed by the ICANN community for incorporation into the New gTLD Program and include both trademark claims and sunrise services, which are required for all new gTLDs. These final RPM Requirements are part of all Registry Agreements and include practical details ... read more ...
 
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How Would we like to acquire over $100,000 a year? Domain Holdings Is Hiring - Domain Holdings which is located in Delray Beach Florida, is hiring an Account Executive / Premium Domain Broker / Rock Star According to its listing on Careerbuilder.com “Over the next year the domain name industry will see hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and this is your chance to be part of something great and earn a substantial income at the same time!” According to CEO of Domain Holdings Jason Boshoff: “We’ve worked tirelessly over the past 2+ years to optimize the ... read more ...
Mon 30th September 2013
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Pinterest Gets $7.2 Million Dollar Judgement Against Cybersquatter Over 100 Domain Names - According to Allthingsd.com, A San Francisco judge awarded Pinterest $7.2 million in damages and legal fees against  a Chinese cybersquatter Qian Jin, over 100 domain names including pinterests.com, pimterest.com and pinterost.com. The judge found the infringement to be “willful and serial,” noting, “There is no indication of good faith mistake or excusable neglect justifying defendant’s failure to respond or otherwise defend against plaintiff’s allegations.” Pinterest.com also was awarded ... read more ...
 
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Verisign Study: 9 out of 10 Small Business Prefer A .Com Domain For Company Website - Verisign released the results of a  global survey today that was conducted by Merrill Research of 1,050 small businesses (SMB) with an online presence, to get a better understanding of SMB’s sentiment around the benefits, barriers, and preferences for creating an online presence. The results of the survey found that in the U.S., 9 out of 10 small businesses with an online presence prefer a .com domain name for their company website. Globally, that number is 61%. Small businesses that choose to ... read more ...
 
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Twitch.TV Spun Off From Justin.TV Raises $20 Million - Allthingsd.com, is reporting that Twitch.TV “an online video network and gaming community, raised a $20 million series C round of funding. “The round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from WestSummit Capital and Take-Two Interactive Software, as well as existing investors Alsop Louie Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. “The company, which sees more than 45 million unique monthly visitors, will use the new capital to further scale its sales and infrastructure divisions.” According ... read more ...
 
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Moneta.com Sells On Sedo.com For $150,000 - The domain name Moneta.com just sold on Sedo.com for $150,000. The domain was owned by  Hanse Orga AG of Hamburg Germany. The domain has an original registration date of June 1996 The domain is now under privacy at Register.com. In Roman mythology, Moneta was a title given to two separate goddesses: the goddess of memory  and an epithet of Juno, called Juno Moneta More currently it seems to be the name of a popular band out of Seattle, and There are also a lot of suggested terms for Moneta on Google ... read more ...
 
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Is There Any Value In ACA (Obamacare) Related Domains? - This is a guest post by Sean Sullivan who is responsible for the content. Sean Sullivan is Founder CEO of BankAds a monetization solutions provider for financial related domains. Sean is also the owner of several other companies within digital advertising in a number of verticals, including Coups.com, a digital coupon services company. Sean and his wife Erika, are also founders of BreastWeddingEver!, a charitable organization that helps couples raise money to fight breast cancer through weddings. ... read more ...
 
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Desi Networks LLC Wins, Afilias Withdraws .Desi - Desi Networks LLC, in a press released announced they won a private auction, held by Innovative Auctions on August 13, 2013, it is now the sole applicant for the .desi gTLD. Other applicant in the private auction for .Desi was Afilias. The company will now move forward uncontested with the ICANN process with a target launch date sometime in the first half of 2014. According to the application of Desi Networks, LLC the new gTLD: “The term DESI refers to the people, culture and products from ... read more ...
 
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Sedo.com New gTLD Study Says 59% Said They Would Consider Using a Domain Other Than .Com - Sedo.com today announced the results of research study of whether those that work in the advertising and marketing industry (or their clients) are aware of the pending launch of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in 2013,  and whether they plan to take advantage of these new web addresses. I was at on Friday at a presentation by Sedo.com, on the subject and these are some of the results in the press release today. I’m going to point out some more results from the study that weren’t part of ... read more ...
 
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Blacknight’s CEO Michele Neylon Wins Overall Net Visionary Award From The Irish Internet Association - Web domain and hosting firm Blacknight’s CEO Michele Neylon won this year’s Overall Net Visionary Award handed out by  the Irish Internet Association (IIA) for his thought leadership and pioneering work as the chair of the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group. “Winning an IIA Dot ie Net Visionary Award means you’re the best at what you do but not in the run-of-the-mill ‘best’ kind of way but in a pretty standout innovative kind of way,” said Joan Mulvihill, CEO of the IIA.” “Neylon ... read more ...
 
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Finances.com Purchased For $500,000 -     Finances International, Ltd. just announced they purchased the domain name Finances.com for $500,000. “Finances.com is to become home to one of the most interactive online portals dedicated to financial markets and financial management. ” “The portal will be officially launched on November 1st, 2013. ” The new financial resource will act as a free independent information hub for people requesting timely updates on international business, political and technological developments as ... read more ...
Sun 29th September 2013
Written by The Domains in EN
Will There Be A Super Bowl Commercial For Legalized Marijuana? - Two different Commercials promoting  Legalized Marijuana have made it o the second round in the Intuit small business competition for a Super Bowl commercials. According to a press release,  MarijuanaDoctors.com,  which bills it self as the “The nation’s first online search-and-booking platform:” has made it to the second round of the Intuit Small Business Competition. Also an television commercial for NORML an organization who has been lobbying for the legalization of Marijuana for over ... read more ...
Sat 28th September 2013
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As The London Conference Closes Frank Schilling Responds To The 65 Comments On TheDomains.com - As the The Digital Marketing gTLD Strategy Congress Conference wrapped up yesterday in London Frank Schilling founder of Uniregistry an applicant for more than 50 new gTLD’s, posted a comment to our post to his opening remarks from the conference,  in response to over 65 comments made by readers on the original post the following: “””” this.stuff is.not that.hard There are only so many ways you can say things and language will not change. Only the location of the dot will change. It.seems.confusing today.but itwont.tomorrow Laugh.now but.this will.look normal.one.day Just ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Publishes Final Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) Guidelines - ICANN published final Community Priority Evaluation (CPE)  Guidelines last night,  in advance to the  (CPE) commencing. The “Guidelines are to ensure quality, consistency and transparency in the evaluation process. ” “The CPE Guidelines are an accompanying document to the Applicant Guidebook, and are meant to provide additional clarity around the process and scoring principles outlined in the AGB. ” “The Guidelines do not modify the framework or standards laid out in the AGB.” View ... read more ...
 
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Web.com Finally Completes Acquisition Of NetworkSolutions.com - According to an email we received tonight it looks like Web.com (WWWW) has finally completed the acquisition of NetworkSolutions.com Here is the email we got tonight: “I have great news for you! Network Solutions is now a Web.com company, and with that everything just got easier. Not only will you still have access to the Network Solutions products and services you currently enjoy but you will now be able to take advantage of Web.com’s acclaimed Build-it-for-Me products too! Web.com is focused ... read more ...
Fri 27th September 2013
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ANA Sounds The Alarm: US Tax Proposals Could Kill The Ad Industry & Domain Monetization - Under US tax law, advertisers are allowed to deduct 100% of the amount they spend on advertising on their tax returns. However according to The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), several pieces of legislation are expected to be introduced by House Ways and Means Committee which would require advertising costs to be amortized over three years, rather than deducted in the year the funds are spent or limit the amount of tax deductions for advertising to a percentage of the amount spent in any ... read more ...
 
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Non-Brokered MLS & BIN Sales Aren’t All Low Priced Sales; Here Are The Top 10 Highest Sedo MLS Sales - I was under the mistaken perception that those MLS sales and BIN sales we see every week reported in the marketplaces are all low dollar sales. However I just got some information from Sedo that shows some domain sold through the  MLS channel, even domain sold with BIN priced domains are fetching some excellent prices. MLS is the registrar distribution product of Sedo and one in which in which automated offers and counter offers are handled all online without the need  or participation of a live ... read more ...
 
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According To New Domain Name Registrations Enterprise Is Rolling Out My13days.com On Oct 10th - A bunch of new registrations by Enterprise Rental Car indicates the company is about to roll out a new advertising campaign using the domain name My13Days.com The company recently registered the domain names: My13Days.com MyThirteenDays.com 13LongDays.com Which all go to the domain name My13Days.com which has a picture of someone who looks like Kevin Spacey with the tag line: The Madness starts on October 10th. The domain name 13days.com seems to be owned by Vertical Axis. Guess we will have to wait ... read more ...
Thu 26th September 2013
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Archeo (Marchex) Premium Auction Ends Today On Snap & There Is Not A Single Bid - Archeo, the Marchex subsidiary is holding a premium domain name auction on SnapNames.com The auction closes later today at 3:15om EST and as of the time of publication there is not a bid in sight. Reserve ranges start at $2,500-$5,000 and go into the $1 Million dollar plus range. There are some really good domains up for auction but as of now there is not a single bid Here are the domains in the auction from lowest reserve range to highest <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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Frank Schilling Live From London: “.Com Will Become Like AM Radio” - The Digital Marketing gTLS Strategy Congress conference kicked off today with Frank Schilling of Unregistry, laying out how he see the future of the domain name space and its the new gTLD program. Mr. Schilling was being interviewed on stage by Kevin Murphy of Domainincite.com As always Mr. Schilling had some interesting observations and bold predictions: Big brands placed their internet presence on .com as it meant commerce smaller brands and companies followed them into .com Now we are going to ... read more ...
 
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LoveLive.TV Gets Another $2.7 Million In Funding & Is At $20 Million - Another site build out on a nice and brandable .TV domain name LoveLive.TV which started in 2012 just got an investment of $2.7 million dollars according to VentureBeat.com “LoveLive helps record and distribute live performances from musicians. It also helps copyright holders monetize those performances through paid sponsorships from major brands, charging pay-per-view fees to fans who want to see the live stream, and managing distribution channels like YouTube and Vevo. The startup processes over ... read more ...
Wed 25th September 2013
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Entrepreneur.com & Verisign Launch Vote For The Best 100 .Net Sites In The World - Entrepreneur.com along with Verisign,  just launched a poll to pick the best 100 .net sites in the world “.net is a bigger part of your digital life than you think. We visit .net sites for news, entertainment, business, and more. So help Verisign and Entrepreneur create the first annual.net 100 Ranking launching January 2014.“ “Just nominate your favorite .net or drag and drop the sites below to vote for your favorites.” “Voting ends Dec. 20th.” Here is the top 100 as of ... read more ...
 
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New gTLD .XYZ Rolls Out Site Out In German - Citing a “great response from the German market” the new gTLD .XYZ has launched their site in German as well. “Our initial outreach has shown Germans are likely to register a .xyz domain name when it becomes available. ” “We have had a successful outreach effort to generate pre registrations from individuals and businesses in Germany .” “Additionally German based registrars are all on board and given our previous success in the German market with .com.de we look to have Germany be one ... read more ...
 
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.Co Registry Sells Y.co To Monaco Yacht Company - Y.CO announced its newest sale of a .Co  single letter web address,  Y.co today as the 2013 Monaco Yacht Show gets underway. The purchase of y.co from .CO Internet S.A.S sees the super yacht brokerage and management company become the first luxury brand to migrate to a single letter domain and further reinforces the company’s position as an industry leader in digital marketing and innovation. Founded in Monaco in 2003, Y.CO is a different kind of yacht company – its founders and senior management ... read more ...