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.

Fri 13th September 2013
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Montblanc Files Federal CyberSquatting Lawsuit Over 126 Domain Names - Montblanc the luxury pen maker filed a federal lawsuit today in the Virginia Eastern District Court against a bunch of domain holders for CyberSquatting under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) seeking control of the domain names, $100,000 statutory damages for each domain name and attorney fees Here are the domain names subject to the lawsuit: bestmontblancpen.com boligrafomontblancespana.com boligrafomontblancespana.org boligrafosmontblanc.biz boligrafosmontblanc.org boligrafosmontblancespana.com boligrafosmontblancespana.net buymontblancpenau.com buymontblancpenonline.com buymontblancpensau.com buymontblancpensca.com buymontblancpensca.net buymontblancpensonline.com buymontblancpensonlineuk.com cheapmontblancpensaleuk.com cheapmontblancpensca.com cheapmontblancpenseau.biz cheapmontblancpenseau.com cheapmontblancpenseau.net cheapmontblancpenseau.org cheapmontblancpensshop.com cheapmontblancs.net cheappensmontblancsale.com cheappensmontblancsale.net discountmontblancpensuk.biz discountmontblancpensuk.com discountmontblancpensuk.net discountmontblancpensuk.org fullermontblanc.com fullermontblanconline.com fullfederahaltermontblanc.com kugelschreibermontblancsale.com montblancboligrafos.org montblancboligrafosespana.biz montblancboligrafosespana.net montblancboligrafosespana.org montblancfullergunstig.com montblancfullergunstig.net montblancfullerkaufen.com montblancfullfederkaufen.com montblanckugelschreibergunstig.biz montblanckugelschreibergunstig.com montblanckugelschreibergunstig.org montblanckugelschreiberkaufen.biz montblanckugelschreiberkaufen.net montblanckugelschreiberkaufen.org montblanckugelschreiberschweiz.com montblanckugelschreiberschweiz.net montblanckugelschreiberschweiz.org montblanckuglependk.com montblanckuglependk.net montblanckuglepenkob.com montblancloja.net montblancmeisterstuckpen.biz montblancmeisterstuckpen.net montblanconlinesale.net montblancoutletaustralia.com montblancpenau.net montblancpenau.org montblancpenaustralia.net montblancpenireland.com montblancpenireland.net montblancpenireland.org montblancpennen.net montblancpennenegozi.com montblancpennenoutlet.biz montblancpennenoutlet.com montblancpennenoutlet.net montblancpennenoutlet.org montblancpenneonline.com montblancpenonline.biz montblancpenonline.net montblancpenonline.org montblancpenonlinesale.com montblancpenonlineuk.com montblancpenonlineuk.net montblancpenonlineuk.org montblancpens-uk.net montblancpensaleau.com montblancpensaleca.com montblancpensaleca.net montblancpensau.biz montblancpensau.org montblancpensbuyonline.com montblancpenshopau.net montblancpensireland.biz montblancpensireland.net montblancpensireland.org montblancpensonlineau.com montblancpensonlineca.com montblancpensonlineie.com montblancpensonlineshop.com montblancpensoutletuk.com montblancpenssaleuk.net montblancpenssaleuk.org montblancpensstores.com montblancpensstores.net montblancpensukonline.biz montblancpensukonline.org montblancstarwalkerpen.com montblancstarwalkerpen.net montblancstylosfrance.net pascherstylomontblanc.com pascherstylomontblanc.net pascherstylomontblanc.org penmontblanc.net penmontblancaustralia.com penmontblancaustralia.net penmontblanccanada.com pennemontblancitalia.biz pennemontblancitalia.org pennormontblanc.biz pennormontblanc.net pennormontblanc.org pensmontblancca.com pensmontblancca.net pensmontblanccanada.com pensmontblancforsale.com salemontblanc.net shopmontblancpensuk.com stylobillemontblanc.com stylomontblancboutique.com stylomontblancpascher.biz stylomontblancpascher.net stylomontblancpascher.org utsoktmontblanc.net Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
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H2O.com/H20.com Gets A $200K Bid On Flippa - The domain names H20.com and H2O.com (one with the zero  and the other with the letter O) are at auction at Flippa.com and  has gotten a high bid as of publication of $200,000. The domain name has not hit reserve. In all there are 10 bidders on the domain name and 3 bidders who have bid $125K or more The auction closes on September 18th. Estibot.com values the domain names are $19,000 and $14,000 repectively Here is what the auction listing says:   Description   Worth more than oil or gas and ... read more ...
Thu 12th September 2013
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Infiniti Retail Limited of Mumbai Guilty Of RDNH On 17 Year Old Domain Croma.com - Infiniti Retail Limited of Mumbai, India, represented by Anand Anand, India was just found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. We don’t need to bore you with the details. The  domain name was registered on October 3, 1996 some 17 years ago, for use in connection with a business called Croma Web Services which operated from or around February 1997. This website subsequently became inactive around February 2011. On the Issue of RDNH: “The Panel finds as a fact that the Respondent registered ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
2.5 Million New Followers Of Twitter Accounts In Last 30 Days Can’t Be Wrong; Domains Are Hot - TheDomains.com has maintained a Twitter account for just about as long I we have been publishing the blog which is coming up to 6 years. In the last 30 days I have noticed a huge spike in new followers to @thedomains that have a huge amount of followers themselves. These are business oriented accounts, publications, money making guru’s and people from outside the domain name space. Obviously its a judgement call where  all these Twitter Whale accounts (yes I just made up that term) are coming ... read more ...
 
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TM Holder Pay Thousands Of Dollars To Get ConsumentengidsOnline2013.com In UDRP - Trademark holders, god love them. I still have a hard time understanding how large companies think, operate and spent their money when it comes to domain name and brand protection. Today we have a company Consumentenbond of The Hague,  who has a trademark on the term Consumentengids that went out and spent thousands of dollars in filing and attorney fees  and won a UDRP on the domain name ConsumentengidsOnline2013.com. “By registering the disputed domain name and using it to garner revenue via ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Sends Breach Notice To A Top 10 Domain Name Registrar, Register.com - ICANN sent a “Breach Notice” to Register.com yesterday giving the domain name registrar until October 2nd, to provide information to ICANN and cure the Breaches or face a possible Registrar termination. Register.com is owned by Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW) and is a top 10 domain name registrar in terms of domain name under management. Shares of Web.com traded down just about 4% in trading yesterday Here is the notice “”” Please be advised that as of 11 September 2013, Register.com, Inc. (“Register.com”) ... read more ...
 
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GAC Tells ICANN It Can Proceed Normal Evalution Process On .Wine and .Vin - The “GAC agreed in Durban to set a firm deadline for providing a potential safeguard advice regarding .wine and .vin. and in a letter to ICANN today, the Governmental Advisory Counsel, (GAC) advised the ICANN Board that the GAC has finalized its consideration of the strings .wine and .vin and “further advises that the applications should proceed through the normal evaluation process” The letter signed by Heather Dryden Chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) goes on to say: “While ... read more ...
 
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Valideus Asks ICANN To Clarify Details On Its Last Resort gTLD Auctions, All 16 Points - Valideus which is private company “currently managing 5% of all new gTLD applications”, including Amazon’s sent a letter to ICANN asking for a lot of details on ICANN’s “Last Resort Auctions” which are scheduled to begin in mid-October. Included in the requests are many valid concerns about the amount of the deposits that will be required to participate in the auction, who will hold the funds, when the winning bidders funds are have to be paid to ICANN and even when there will be a contract ... read more ...
Wed 11th September 2013
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Trademark Loses UDRP On Direct Match Domain Bongrille.com Used As A “Sucks” Site - Deskan S/A of Nassau, the Bahamas, which owns a trademark to the term Bon Grille In Brazil lost a UDRP seeking 3 domain names including the direct match domain bongrille.com. The other 2 domains sort in the UDRP were franquiabongrille.com and franquiabg.com The domain bongrille.com is basically a ‘sucks” type of site and the panel engaged in a very interesting discussion of free speech and the use of a domain containing a trademark and is worth a read. Here are the relevant findings and discussion ... read more ...
 
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9 Year Old TeleFire.com Saved In UDRP Despite Seller Asking $70K - A Telefire Fire Gas Detectors Ltd. of Petach Tikva, Israel just lost a one member panel UDRP decision on the domain name Telefire.com in what in my opinion was a unnecessarily long opinion. The Panelist basically calls out the Complainant attorney’s for doing a poor job of presenting the case and providing the panel with evidence that would have potentially changed the result and specifically for not using DomainTools.com to track ownership of the domain name over the years. Here are the relevant ... read more ...
Tue 10th September 2013
Written by The Domains in EN
Marchex’s Archeo Puts Up Its Zip Code Portfolio For Sale After Selling 1 Domain In The $50K-$100K Range - As I reported earlier today, Marchex’s (NASDAQ: MCHX) Archeo unit put up over 200,000 domains for sale on its new marketplace archeodomains.com. Yesterday in my chat with Rod Diefendorf the COO of Marchex I asked about Marchex project involving thousands of Zip Code .com domain names they company has acquired. Basically that project is off the table and all the Zip Code domains are for sale. A few weeks ago we wrote about that buyers from China were inquiring regularly on the “zip code” domains ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Transactions Total $930K Led By URFA.com For $30K - Over the past week, 639 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $930,000. This amounts to $47,3m in year-to-date sales revenue. Over 46% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Sedo wants to congratulate the buyer of urfa.com: Urfa is a city in the south-east of Turkey with a long ancient history. It is close to the Euphrates River and the Syrian border. Currently the website is announcing that a newscast project about the city and region is on its way. Highlights ... read more ...
 
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Afternic.com Sells $970K in Domains Led By HomesInc.com For $15K - Afternic.com just reported its  weekly domain sales for the week of 9/2/13 – 9/8/13. Total domain sales for the week, including confidential sales and sales under $1000, summed to $968,810.   Here are the reportable sales:   <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
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Nominet Opens Comment Period On Whether .UK Domains Should Contain “Offensive Words” - Nominet which runs the .Uk domain naming system, just opened up a comment period on whether .UK domain names should be allowed to contain “offensive words or phrases”. “Nominet is today launching a review of its registration policy for .uk domain names. ” “The scope of the review focuses on whether there should be restrictions on the words and expressions permitted in .uk domain name registrations.” “The goal is to deliver a report to Nominet’s board in December of this year, which ... read more ...
 
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UDRP Roundup: Enterprise Cars Gets Enterprise.tv; Philip Morris Gets MarlboroSucksBalls.com - A few UDRP decisions are out today worth noting. Enterprise Rental Cars won a UDRP and the rights to the domain name Enterprise.tv The domain name was registered in 2011, the domain was parked and the domain holder did not respond to the UDRP. “The panel noted that the domain Enterprise.tv went to  a pay-per-click website that hosts hyperlinks to websites of Complainant’s competitors in the car rental industry, to other third parties, as well as hyperlinks to the website of Complainant’s affiliate, ... read more ...
 
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Marchex’s Archeo Opens Marketplace To Sell Its 200K+ Domains: Still Has 95% Of Yung Ye’s Domains - “Archeo, Inc., a division of Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX), today announced the launch of the Archeo Domains Marketplace (www.archeodomains.com), providing direct access for businesses, brokers and individuals to Archeo’s portfolio of more than 200,000 premium domain names available for sale.” “The searchable portfolio is presented in 21 categories, ranging from Business Finance to Technology and Travel in a responsive, mobile-friendly design. The new website features an easy-to-navigate ... read more ...
 
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Endurance Files For $400M IPO: Buys Directi For $110M: Commits Up To $62 Million In New gTLD Auctions - As reported by Domainincite.com, Endurance International Group Holdings Inc,  filed for an IPO  to $400 million in an initial public offering of its common stock and plans on buying Directi for between $100 and $110 million Dollars. In  buying Directi Endurance would also get Radix Registry which has 29 active new gTLD applications of which 26 are in contention. Endurance is also committing an additional $62 Million dollars or over 2 million per contested string for auctions. As for existing business ... read more ...
Mon 9th September 2013
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NameJet.com Reports $281K in Reportable Sales In Aug 2013 Led By EPH.com At $18K - Namejet.com just issued its reportable sales for August which totaled over $281K. To be clear not all sales are reportable only sales of $2K or more are included and only sales that were paid for by August 31, 2013 are included in the total. Leading the way was EPH.com which sold for $18,000 and CloudApp.com which sold for $12,600 I wonder how much cloud.app is worth?     <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
6 Months After Getting 400,000 Euro Bid on Sedo, 8888.com Sells - Back in March the domain name 8888.com got a bid of 400,000 Euro’s on Sedo.com but that bid was cancelled by Sedo.com Now a reader has spotted that the domain name 8888.com has transferred ownership. Back in March the domain name was owned by Guo Xiaosong of  Nanjing, Jiangsu China and was going to a Sedo for sale page. It looks like the domain ownership changed back in August to Dongliang Chen of hangzhou, Zhejiang China. Of course we have no idea of what the domain name sold for but it does ... read more ...
 
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TechRadar Confuses A Pre-Reservation With An Actual Registration; Telling People new gTLD’s Can Be Registered Today - TechRadar.com covered the new gTLD program telling people that new gTLD are available to be registered now. “New top-level domains now available” “.online, .web, .ltd, .website, and .blog just some of the suffixes available” The publication clearly has confused a pre-registration that many registrars and back order providers are offering with a domain registration. Of course none of the string mentioned by TechRadar; “.online, .web, .ltd, .website, and .blog are available for registration. Matter ... read more ...
Sun 8th September 2013
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UDRP Files On 11 Year Old Driveups.com; You Got To Watch Double Meanings - United Parcel Service has filed a UDRP against the 11 year old domain name Driveups.com which is generic in nature, but actually has a double meaning. While the term Drive up can refer to a any business that serves their “customers  while they remain in their motor vehicles while being accommodated”  like a fast food joint like Sonic or a bank’s drive up windown it can also mean someone who drives for United Parcel Service (UPS) in drive for UPS or UPS drivers which is what UPS is objecting ... read more ...
Fri 6th September 2013
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.Eu Issues 2nd Quarter Report & Ends Quarter with 3.7 Million Registered Domain Names - Eurid,the company behind .EU extension,released its Q2 2013 progress report tonight.(pdf) The report shows that .EU registrations increased in 13 of the 28 EU Member States to reach 3.70 million domain names Bulgaria,Slovenia and Austria saw a growth of more than 5%, however total number of .Eu registrations actually declined in the 2nd quarter despite a renewal rate of 85% . During Q2 2013, the number of .eu registrations decreased by 18,837 domain names, a net loss of 0.5%, to 3.70 million. The ... read more ...
 
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Is ICANN Looking To Move From US Jurisdiction to Switzerland? - According to a taped interview with the CEO of ICANN Fadi Chehade at the Asia-Pacific Regional IGF in Seoul, ICANN is looking to “Become an International Organization and indicted that ICANN would consider setting up a legal structure in Switzerland which to some means that ICANN maybe looking to move jurisdictions from the United States to Switzerland. ICANN currently is based on California and incorporated under the laws the state of California and the United States. ICANN also has non-profit ... read more ...
 
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American Airlines Files UDRP Over F Bomb Domain Name - American Airlines filed a UDRP on the domain name f*ckamericanairlines.com today with the National Arbitration Forum While we are use to seeing companies going after “sucks” domains its pretty rare to see a company going after a domain containing the F bomb. This appears to be only the 8th UDRP ever filed over a domain containing the F Bomb and only the 2nd since 2007. By contrast there have been 107 UDRP filed over domains containing the word “sucks”. The domain F*ckAmericanAirlines.com ... read more ...
Thu 5th September 2013
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Guest Post: No Summer Slowdown in .TV! Legacy Fund closes NF.tv for $20,000! - This is a guest post by Ammar Rangwala who has been invested in .TV since December 2005.  Ammar owns 250+ top .TV generic properties between both of his companies.  He believes the .TV space provides the best rate of return from an investment standpoint. Started on the Internet in the late 90′s using PC Board (PCB), Wildcat and other forms of bulletin board systems. Worked in banking, real estate, distressed debt and finance for 10+ years. ” (note: Ammar is a client of MostWantedDomains.com ... read more ...