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 25th June 2015
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GAC Communiqué From The ICANN Meeting In Buenos Aires, Argentina - The Governmental Advisory group has issued its Communiqué From The ICANN Meeting In Buenos Aires, Argentina outlining its activities for the week and suggestions for the ICANN Board: The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) met in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the week of the 20th of June 2015. Sixty nine (69) GAC Members attended the meeting and nine (9) Observers. Here are the highlights: Cross Community Working Group (CWG) to ... read more ...
 
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Dot XYZ Featured in BizJournals L.A. - “XYZ is the last three letters of the alphabet. It’s really kind of natural and instinctive to me that you end the alphabet with XYZ, you should end a domain name the same way.” Negari’s company is targeting the “next-generation Internet user — that small business that’s coming online for the first time or startup,” he said. “They’re looking for a good, memorable short name.” Other prominent .xyz users include Place.xyz, the rebranded home of the Lady Gaga-backed Backplane, ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Responds To Fees Charged On Autism.Rocks - We wrote about the domain name Autism.Rocks selling for $100,000 the other day and our interview with the Seller of the domain how was unhappy to learn he was charged by Sedo 15% fee for acting as the escrow agent. The Seller and Buyer independently of Sedo on the domain, then went to Sedo to handle the escrow. Today Semra Koerner, the Manager Global PR Communication for Sedo.com sent us an email basically saying that the seller didn’t properly identify that he only needed escrow services. It ... read more ...
 
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Two Founding Members of Minds + Machines Re-join a Board. - Minds + Machines (LON:MMX), announced today that two founding members David Weill and Guy Elliott will re-join the Boardas non-exec directors. Antony Van  Couvering, the chief executive, said: “We are delighted that both Guy and David have accepted the board’s invitation to re-join the board. “They bring a close understanding of the investment community, both in London and internationally, and are personally invested in the company. “We believe they will complement the industry and operational ... read more ...
 
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Russian Govt Blocks The Way Back Machine: Still Sure The US Should Give Away ICANN? - According to GlobalVoicesOnline.org, the Russian government has blocked the Wayback Machine, which allows users to view archived webpages to see how domain sites looked like in the past. According to the website Rublacklist.net (a censorship-monitoring project operated by the Russian Pirate Party), the entire domain and IP address for the Internet Archive was added on June 23, 2015, to Russia’s official registry of banned websites. The decision to ban the Internet Archive appears to be the work ... read more ...
Wed 24th June 2015
Written by The Domains in EN
World Poker Tour Bought For $12.3M in 2009 Sold for $35 Million Cash - According to PokerNews.com, bwin.party sold the The World Poker Tour (WPT) to Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. for $35 million cash. Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. is a Hong Kong-listed corporation with over 500 million users and has a market cap on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange of around $707 million. bwin.party acquired the WPT in 2009 for $12.3 million. “World Poker Tour is unquestionably the global leader in organizing world-class poker events, and we are very proud to acquire one of ... read more ...
 
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This is Why People Hate ICANN: GNSO Resolution for Next turn of New gTLD's - The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) just sent me over this resolution concerning the next round of new gTLD’s which it seemed to just pass. Read through it a few times. I have no idea what it says and I’m a lawyer For me it means nothing, just a lot of noise Last year we predicted the soonest we would see a 2nd round of new gTLD’s open is in four years, 2018. I think we are good with our prediction Here is the resolution Feel free to tell me what the hell it means: 4. Request for ... read more ...
 
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Radix Celebrates Its 1st Anniversary Today: Sold $275K In Premium Registration/Renewal Domains - Radix is celebrating its first Anniversary today. Currently Radix has two live generic extensions – .website and .space two live vertical extensions -.press and .host As an Anniversary special, .website and .space are being offered at $1 or lower across many registrars like Go Daddy, Namecheap, Domain.com, Alpnames etc. until June 25th. Both .website and .space featured in the Top 10 of CSC Global’s New gTLD Indicator, which is designed to help gauge the relative value of the New gTLDs and see ... read more ...
 
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.Bank Reports Over 3K Institutions Applied for .BANK Domain Today - According to Housingwire.com,  the new gTLD, .BANK, more than 3,000 financial institutions applied for .BANK domain names after the general availability period for the domain names began on June 23. Since .Bank has qualification requirements which have to be verified it’s not like a normal domain registration where you go to your registrar of choice, register the domain name and seconds later the domain is useable. In .Bank you have to apply for the domain name and its only granted after the verification ... read more ...
 
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StockTradingToGo.com Acquires StockTrader.com and will pierce to new domain - Blain Reinkensmeyer wrote a blog post on stocktradingtogo.com that they have acquired stocktrader.com and will be moving the site to that domain name. He also gave a number on StockBrokers.com. Apparently that domain was acquired for $185,000 in 2011. When I purchased StockTradingToGo.com the domain in 2007, I had no idea what the future held. I loved the market, I had a new found love for “blogging”, and I decided to see where it would lead me. Eight years later StockTradingToGo has seen over ... read more ...
 
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How To Change Domains But Keep Your Search Ranking - John Rampton published an article today on Forbes that looks at switching domain names and keeping search ranking. He does point out that you are more likely to drop in the rankings immediately after making a move. This should be a short term drop. Rampton provides a step by step guide for those looking to make such a move, he goes over 8 points you should follow when making your move, everything from backing up your website, creating a sitemap and letting Google know about your move. From the article: Be ... read more ...
 
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.XYZ Buys Another New gTLD Domain String .Theatre - .XYZ has added another new gTLD string to its growing portfolio of new domain name extensions. Following the announcement that is bought .Security and .Protection yesterday, today .XYZ announce it has acquired the new gTLD .Theatre as “the final act”. There was only one applicant for .Theatre;  KBE gTLD Holding Inc, whose site is BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com There is also a  new gTLD .for Theater. .Theater had two applicants, one of which was  KBE gTLD Holding Inc, but the extension was awarded ... read more ...
Tue 23rd June 2015
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Autism.Rocks Sells for 10X More Than The .Com Did Last Year & Sedo.sucks - Sedo.com  reported today that the domain name Autism.Rocks sold for $100,000 in its weekly report. The domain name Autism Rocks.com sold last year for $9,500 to the same Buyer. The buyer paid more than 10X more for the new gTLD Autism.Rocks than he paid for the .com domain AutismRocks.com last year. I just chatted with the Seller of the domain name, Chris Wilson who is a neighbor in Hollywood Florida  and who registered the domain for normal registration fees. Mr, Wilson was offered $100,000 as ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Reports $1.6 Million In Transaction Led by Autism.Rocks during $100,000 - Over the past week, 545 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1.6 million. 53% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. All domain sales were led by the domain name Autism.rocks at $100,000 which seems to have been bought by the owner of Autism.rocks. According to AutismRocks.com is a site set up by British born philanthropist “Sanjay Shah who has An avid passion for music, an insurmountable love for his 4-year-old son and an unexpected cup of tea ... read more ...
 
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On The Wrong Side of a TM Domain? Take An Offer Rather Than a UDRP Loss - “Marriott, one of the world’s largest and most famous hotel chains, acquired the hotel business of Gaylord Entertainment Company in 2012, which company had established five hotels under the GAYLORD family of trademarks including GAYLORD HOTELS. Other marks include GAYLORD NATIONAL (Washington, D.C. hotel), GAYLORD OPRYLAND (Nashville, Tennessee), GAYLORD PALMS (near Orlando, Florida), and GAYLORD TEXAN (near Dallas, Texas). The GAYLORD HOTELS mark was registered with the United States Patent ... read more ...
 
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XYZ Adds .Protection As the 8th New gTLD it Has Ownership Interest In - Earlier today we wrote about the .XYZ team buying the new gTLD .Security from Symantec .XYZ has now announced they have also acquired the new gTLD .Protection from Symantec as well. The .XYZ group now owns or has a interest in 8 new gTLD’s. .XYZ; .College, .Rent .Security; .Protection and an half ownership of .auto; .car and .cars with Uniregistry. Here is the announcement by .XYZ on .Protection “What are the different ways an individual or small business can advantageously use .Protection domains? ... read more ...
 
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LogicBoxes Helps .MN Registry Grow by 350% - LogicBoxes, the business consulting and automation technology provider for ccTLD New gTLD Registries, Domain Registrars and Web Hosts, today announced the milestone achievement of completing 10 successful years of partnership with Datacom LLC, the .MN Registry. .MN is the ccTLD for the country of Mongolia LogicBoxes met Datacom’s requirement for a long-term partner that would help them achieve their business goals. It helped setup Datacom on OrderBox, including web email hosting, website builders ... read more ...
 
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Nominet (.UK) Release Domain Name Dispute Report For 2014 - Nominet, the nonprofit that  behind .UK, released its the annual summary of domain name disputes bought before its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) which is similar to the UDRP system. A total of 726 complaints were made, up 8% on 2013. However, 2014 also saw a 51% increase in the number of cases where people were able to come to an agreement themselves and with the help of a Nominet mediator, without needing to appoint an expert to make the decision. 55% of cases resulted in the domain name being ... read more ...
 
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Bill Sweetman "Today, to launch a consumer-facing code on something other than a .COM is risky." - CampaignLive.com is a community website focused on the advertising industry, they put out a piece on the new gtlds and looked at the critics and a few who are using the new gtlds. On the critic side there were comments from brands that too much of the profit seems to be coming from a shakedown of those with intellectual property interests. Dot Sucks is discussed in detail, and a mention on Taylor Swift purchasing .porn and .adult. There was upside of Lions Gate Entertainment using a .movie for the ... read more ...
 
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Congress TM Caucus Tells ICANN To Give Amazon; .Amazon If It Wants Its Independence - The co-chairman’s of the Congressional Trademark Caucus, wrote to ICANN telling them they need to approve Amazon’s application for .Amazon which has been rejected due to “rights” asserted by Brazil nor Peru in relation to the Amazon Forest and tied the outcome of this issue to the IANA transition away from US oversight that ICANN is seeking: “At this critical stage in which the United States Government prepares to transition stewardship of the JANA functions, we believe it is incumbent ... read more ...
 
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Namecheap Launches Respectourprivacy.com To Save Private Whois Registrations - Namecheap.com, in association with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Fight For The Future (FFTF), launched the website Respectourprivacy.com to allow people to file a comment with ICANN letting them know they object to the proposed rule that would greatly restrict the use of privacy or proxy services on whois records of domain names. ICANN public comment period closes on July 7th midnight UTC. As of yesterday there were only 8 comments posted to the ICANN site. Today there are 833. The ... read more ...
 
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.XYZ Buys The New gTLD .Security From Symantec - According to a post on its Corporate blog last night .XYZ announced that it acquired the new gTLD .Security “Coming to you in late-2015, .Security will be the domain for security-related entities, professionals, and all companies that would like a secure and authoritative online presence.” .Security was originally applied for by three companies, Defender Security Company (DefenderDirect.com), Donuts and Symantec Corporation who won the rights to operate the extension after a private auction. Symantec ... read more ...
Mon 22nd June 2015
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Information-Age.com: Will Google Switch To .Google & .YouTube By The End Of The Year - Information-Age.com just published a story written by Russell Haworth, the CEO of Nominet which runs the .UK registry about the Branded Internet. The story talks about the beginning of brands using their new gTLD domain names in lieu of their .com’s starting  with Barclays recent announcement of the launch of branded domain names .barclays and .barclaycard. Here is the sentence that caught my eye: “There are some interesting whispers from the media and entertainment industry too: Google is ... read more ...
 
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Domain Movers: ContentID.com, NNNN.com and More Domains - Domain Movers is a series where Jamie Zoch monitors domain names on the move that are being registered, acquired or simply moving mostly all by large corporations. These domain names can lead to being used for new products, advertising campaigns, services, brands and much more. These are often very early detections and can lead into the first time something is seen publicly relating to it. Here we go with the latest domain movers: Apple Inc. registered 4 new domain names and those include: OSXElcapitan.com ... read more ...
Sun 21st June 2015
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Who Doesn't Suck? Kim Kardashian; Justin Bieber; Twitter, FoxNews, CNN Pass On $2,500 .Sucks Domains - While some of the biggest brands  in Entertainment, Sports, Politics,  Technology and Pop Culture registered some 3,400 new gTLD’s in the new .sucks domain extension, in the Sunrise period for up to $2,499 for each domain, there were some glaring misses of some of the most criticized, controversial and most talked about companies, celebrities and public figures. There are not domain registration so far for any of these as of publication: Kanyewest.sucks Kardashians.sucks KimKardashian.sucks JustinBieber.sucks Twitter.sucks FoxNews.sucks NewYorkTimes.sucks CNN.sucks Donuts.sucks LindsayLohan.sucks BillCosby.sucks BarackObama.sucks and ... read more ...