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.

Wed 18th June 2014
Written by The Domains in EN
One Cent Stamp Makes Two Letter .coms demeanour cheap - Think old premium .com domains are expensive ? Well how about a one cent stamp ? Fox News is out with a story about a one cent stamp from 1856 that just sold for $9.5 million. From the article: NEW YORK –  A 1-cent postage stamp from a 19th century British colony in South America has become the world’s most valuable stamp — again. The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta sold Tuesday at auction in New York for $9.5 million, Sotheby’s said. It was the fourth time the stamp has broken the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Looks Like Two Domainers Are Making The Most of The Free .Berlin Domains Now Over 50% - The .Berlin Registry which as of the last update has over 115,000 registrations owes a lot of there success to two registrants who between them have more than 50% of all the registered domain names DomCollect AG with Andre Schneider listed as the principal has over 38,000 of the 115,000 registrations DomainProfi GmbH has over 23,000 .Berlin domain name registrations Together the two companies own over 60,000 of the 115,000 registrations for .Berlin Consider that just a two days ago there were only ... read more ...
Tue 17th June 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling’s North Sound Names Hit With Another URS On Two .Link Domains - Frank Schilling’s North Sound Names is the subject of a second URS filing over two domain names it registered of Uniregistry strings,  aix.link and db2.link. North Sound Names already successfully defended its first URS case filed against it, on Finn.Link North Sound reportedly registered some 43,000 domain names in extensions owned by Uniregistry with .Link domains being heavily represented. Although the Complainant on the URS filed today is not listed I would not be surprised to see it being ... read more ...
 
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LogicBoxes Waives Off Upfront Fees for New gTLD Vertical Integration Solutions - According to a press release we just received , LogicBoxes announced that it has waived off all upfront fees for its Vertical Integration Solution for New gTLDs. “New gTLDs have great potential, especially the Geo and Community extensions that provide a unique online namespace for people belonging to that community and region. However, with over 300+ TLDs already launched, these New gTLDs haven’t quite achieved their true potential. ” “One of the main reasons for this is the fact that Traditional ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Domain Name Transactions Total $1MM For The Week - Over the past week, 520 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1MM. 47% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Highlights of public sales are: · Top .coms: bigsale.com at 50,000 USD · Top ccTLD: handybook.co.uk at 12,000 USD · Top “other” TLD: bess.net at 5,000 USD Below is the complete report:             ... read more ...
 
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Phil Corwin Posts Update To His .XYZ/Netsol Post on ICA Site & His “Mistake in Judgement” - Phil Corwin has just published an update to this post he published the other day on the ICA website entitled ICANN is MIA on XYZ. As we told you on Sunday, some including thedomains.com felt that the portion of Mr. Corwin’s post that seemed to be a personal attack on Mr. Negari was inappropriate and out of line. Mr. Corwin has now addressed this, with a statement posted on the ICA Website in which he  apologize to Mr. Negari entitled “Personal Clarification Regarding .XYZ Article” Here is ... read more ...
 
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Godaddy Auction Of Premium .Futbol, .Ninja & .Reviews Domains Closes Tomorrow; App.Reviews Over $1K - The Godaddy auction of premium . Futbol, .Ninja and .Reviews domain names closes tomorrow Wednesday June 18th at 5pm PST and several domain names already have multiple bidders Leading domain names in the auction is App.Reviews which has 7 bidders and as of publication has a high bid of $1,050. A single letter domain that will carry a normal renewal price e.ninja has a high bid of $520 Hosting.Reviews has 5 bidders and a high bid of $540 Cloud.Ninja has a high bid of $511 Live.Ninja has an opening ... read more ...
 
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Shares Of Minds + Machines Sink On News Of Its Expensive .Fashion Auction Win - Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM:MMX) announced overnight that it acquired the new gTLD .Fashion at a price that exceed almost all the money it received from losing the new gTLD applications for .cricket, .pizza, .restaurant, .coupon and .immo. In essesence according to the company it gave up rights to 5 new gTLD strings for .Fashion and £250,000. Shares of Mind + Machines sank today in trading over 7.5% down to 10.75P in trading today Fred Krueger, Chairman of Minds + Machines, commented: “We ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UDRP’s Filed On Verb.com, QIQ.com and AmericanForce.com - Two UDRP’s were just filed against two very good domain names. Moroccanoil Israel Ltd. Verb Hair Products Canada Inc./Verb Products Inc. filed the UDRP against Verb.com Verb.com has been owned since at lease 2002 by a Richard Bloxham. According to Screenshots.com the domain name Verb.com has been parked since at least August 2005. The parked page that I see currently and the one’s viewable on Screenshots appear to only contain links to language  and nothing about hair products. Looks like an ... read more ...
 
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Funny: UDRP Panel Rejects Developer of iFunny.Mobi’s Attempt To Grab iFunny.com - A three member UDRP panel has denied the attempt of Okruzhnost LLC of Penza, Russian Federation, attempt to grab the domain name ifunny.com owned by Six Media Ltd. of Hong Kong, represented by Esquire.com Here are the facts and findings from the three member panel, which consisted of Gabriela Kennedy, Nicholas Weston and The Hon Neil Brown Q.C.: The Complainant is a software company that develops mobile applications and websites. The Complainant launched a website ifunny.mobi and mobile application ... read more ...
 
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CentralNic to Acquire Internet.BS In A Deal Worth Up to $7.5 Million - CentralNic plc,(AIM:CNIC) acquired Internet.BS, a top 30 domain name registrar for a maximum consideration of USD 7.5 million. CentralNic said it will pay $5.2 million when the deal closes, with $2.7 million due in cash and $2.5 million to be paid in the form of 2.1 million new CentralNic shares. An additional $1.8 million payment is deferred. It is to be paid over 12 months and can be adjusted higher or lower depending on the acquisition’s performance. The maximum amount that can be paid is $2.3 ... read more ...
 
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Free Domains Anyone? .Berlin Adds 70K Domains & Tops 116K; .XYZ Adds 27K & Tops 145K - A huge day in the new gTLD program as .Berlin in its first day of offering free domain names,  added some 70,000 domain names, more domains than were registered in the extension in the three months since .Berlin was launched. .Berlin passed .Club to become the 2nd most registered new domain extension (new gTLD). .Berlin which had been hanging around 48,000 registrations for weeks, shot up to 116,638 registered domains .Berlin launched around March 19 and got some 32,000 registrations in its first ... read more ...
Mon 16th June 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Namejet & RightOfTheDot Team Up For .Global Auction Event During ICANN London - Namejet.com just announced it has teamed up with RightoftheDot.com to hold a Online/Live auction during the ICANN London Conference for over 90 premium .Global domain names We will have more on this in the next few days leading up to the auction but basically Namejet.com is going to handle the pre-bidding on the domains before the live auction, which will be held in London during the ICANN conference. Since Namejet.com has not sent this out its customers I wanted to post it here. As a matter of disclosure ... read more ...
 
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14 Year Old eMoney.com Hit With UDRP; URS Filed On Sci.Technology - The owner of the domain name eMoney.com has just gotten hit with a UDRP. The domain name according to DomainTools.com has an original registration date of 2000 and the registrant/administrative contact still as it was in 2000, a “E Will”. The domain name current seems to be directing into an advertising program as opposed to going to a site or a PPC or landing page. The domain was until December of 2013 according to screenshots.com parked for many years. The complainant of  the UDRP is not listed. There ... read more ...
 
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New gTLD .Website “The First True Alternative To .Com”” Announces Launch Timeline -   Radix the registry operator of .Website just announced the timeline for the release of the new gTLD extension which they are calling “The first true alternative to .com” Here is the some of the Press release: “Website will become the first all-purpose domain extension available for registration when it launches into Sunrise on June 24, 2014. Radix, .website’s registry and the largest new gTLD registry based in Asia, released a complete launch timeline for .website today, outlining a Landrush ... read more ...
 
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.Bid/.Trade Auction Ends On Sedo Tomorrow & 8 Domains Have Bids Led By PPC.bid - Sedo’s auction of Premium .Bid and .Trade domain names ends tomorrow Tuesday at Noon EST. As of publication 8 domains out of the 35 in auction have bids. The auction is led by PPC.bid which has a high bid $1,050 while both LiveAuction.bid and onlineauction.com have bids of $800 All of the domain names have a reserve range of $1,000-$5,000 and none of the domains have reached reserve as of publication. Here is the entire list:   ... read more ...
 
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Mrs. Jello Loses UDRP On Milly.com After Rejecting Offer To Sell & Not Filing An Answer - Milly LLC of New York, New York, just won control of the domain name Milly.com in a UDRP which was owned by Mrs. Jello, LLC which of course the company owned by the late Igal Lichtman. Sadly no one responded to the UDRP on behalf of Mrs. Jello, LLC, although someone apparently rejected an offer presented sometime this year by the Complaintant and changed the parked page from adult links to links to the Complainant Milly LLC has been using the domain name MillyNy.com for its website since 2001 Here ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Auto.Ru Bought By Russian Search Engine Yandex For $175 Million - According to TechCrunch.com, Yandex, the search engine often called the Google of Russia, announced they are buying Auto.ru, for $175 million in cash. Auto.Ru is a site not just a domain name. Auto.ru has been around since 1996 and currently has some 400,000 unique listings for cars for sale. “Auto.ru is the most popular automobile-related website in Russia and operates the largest and most detailed classifieds catalogue for new and used cars in Russia,” said Alexey Tretyakov, VP of Commerce ... read more ...
 
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This Is Why There Needs To Be A Penalty For Someone Bringing A Groundless URS - Talk about a waste of time and money. You probably will never find a better case for providing a penalty for someone who brings a groundless Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) proceeding than this one. As you may know unlike the UDRP which at least carries a potential “penalty” in the form of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) a URS carries no similar “penalty” In this case the URS involved a three letter generic new gTLD domain. The domain name Bas.Graphics was registered by QA Graphics of ... read more ...
 
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Francois Launches Lend.me Putting Borrowers & Lenders Together At 12% Interest - Francois Carrillo who is the  Founder and C.E.O of Cybertonic which also publishes domaining.com has rolled out his newest site, Lend.me. The site puts together lenders and borrowers together which are willing to lend and borrow using domain names and websites as collateral with an interest rate of 12% per year, which is less than domain capital’s stated rate of 15%.  Moreover while domain capital traditionally only loans 50%-60% of the domains value Lend.me basically leaves it up to the  borrowers ... read more ...
 
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The Removed ICA Post on XYZ: My Thoughts, What Mr. Corwin Has To Say, & The Missing Emails - Ron Jackson wrote two stories at DnJournal.com, over the weekend covering a post written by Phil Corwin, that post was published on Circle ID and on the ICA website on Friday entitled ICANN is MIA on .XYZ, and its subsequent removal on Saturday from the ICA website. I highly suggest if you haven’t done so you should read Mr. Corwin’s post on CircleID.com (along with the comments) and Ron’s summary of the post he wrote on Friday and the story he wrote yesterday on the removal of the post from ... read more ...
Sun 15th June 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The .Uno Registry Rolls Out Futbol.Uno In Time For The World Cup -   Dot Latin LLC, operators of the .Uno has a pretty creative way of bring attention to the .Uno extension by launching Futbol.Uno just time for the World Cup. I had a chance to chat with Esther Honig, the social media manager for Dot Latin LLC who chatted with me about the project: “”Today, and for the next 30 days on, the world’s eyes will be focused on Brazil. ” “For the first time in four years the best teams from around the world will battle it out in the greatest tournament in sports.” “As ... read more ...
 
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WordPress has had it with fraudulent DMCA Takedown Requests - Ernesto wrote a piece on Torrent Freak about Automattic the company behind WordPress and their case seeking $10,000 related to a misuse of the DMCA takedown process. The case in question involved Oliver Hotham who wrote  an article about “Straight Pride UK” which included a comment he received from the organization’s press officer Nick Steiner. Steiner did not like the article and sent WordPress  a takedown notice claiming it was infringing on his copyrights. From the article: Automattic, ... read more ...
Sat 14th June 2014
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Isle of Mann is Bitcoin Friendly and Ghash.io gets DDOS’d - Isle of Mann is Bitcoin Friendly Andrew Moran wrote an interesting piece about the Isle of Mann and their creation of an incubator for Bitcoin startups. From the article: The Isle of Man government announced that it would be monitoring and assessing innovations in the cryptocurrency industry. Essentially, it is becoming a hub for bitcoins and the virtual currency market as it will not require bitcoin licenses and the Junior Chamber of Commerce will be hosting an event next week so citizens can learn ... read more ...
 
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.UK Registrants Will Have Home Address Published - ItPro.co.uk did a piece on a rule change for .UK registrants where if the domain is used in anyway for business, which could include parked page or blog with adsense, that their info will be published. From the article: Nominet, the company which manages the registry of .uk domains, has issued a rule change meaning that domain name owners’ home addresses will be published in online search results. Those signing up for the registry must now also agree to display their full names on the company’s ... read more ...