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 20th May 2014
Written by The Domains in EN
Lucky13.com Sues Taylor Swift For Trademark Infringement - BLUE SPHERE, INC., a California Corporation doing business as LUCKY 13 and who is the owner of the trademark LUCKY 13®, filed suit in Federal Court in California today against Taylor Swift and and bunch of companies owned or controlled by here. According to the lawsuit the company which operates under the domain name Lucky13.com, has used their trademark of Lucky 13, in connection with the marketing and sale of,, (1) clothing for men and women, namely, t-shirts, jackets, headwear and footwear; ... read more ...
 
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If Your Looking For A Generic .Democrat, They Are In Short Supply & Carry Premium Prices - I was going though some generic .Democrat new gTLD domain names yesterday to see what premium generic domains are available for Preregistrations as the extension goes live tomorrow. Its expected that many candidates will grab their .Democrat domain name when running for office. However when it comes to generic domain names .Democrat domains are either not available as being on the collision list or being reserved by the registry or pretty damn expensive for domain investors as they carry premium ... read more ...
Mon 19th May 2014
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What Do Zuckerberg, Autism, Breast Cancer & Ronald Regan Have in Common ? .Foundation Domain - The new gTLD .Foundation seems to be a big hit with some big charitable organizations. From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s foundation to Autism to Breast Cancer to Ronald Regan, to Glaucoma and even Rockefeller, a lot of charities hopped on board and registered a .Foundation domain name in Sunrise. Some charities I wasn’t even aware of until I read through the Zone file like Chickfila which registered 6 domain names related to its Foundation including chickfilacows.foundation and eatmorechicken.foundation. I ... read more ...
 
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Estibot Launches Free App In Apple Store/iTunes - Esitbot has launched a free App (now in the Apple/iTunes store) Here is the email we just received: “Just a quick heads up that we’ve launched an iPhone app to make your EstiBot usage more efficient on portable devices. Here is just a highlight of the features the app offers: Instants appraisals with full analytics Lead research tool, research end-user leads and brainstorm domain ideas anywhere Whois research tool with access to historical whois records Watchlists to keep track of domains you ... read more ...
 
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Oh Great, The US Proposes To Reduce The Cost & Renewing Most Trademarks - The U.S. Commerce Department’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to reduce fees for many new trademark applications and most renewals of registration. Under the NPRM, the fee for a new application filed using the regular Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) application form will be reduced $50, from the current fee of $325 to $275 per class, if the applicant authorizes e-mail communication with the USPTO and ... read more ...
 
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ICANN To Open Up Comment Period On Donuts Request To Allow 2 Letter New gTLD’s - ICANN just posted a letter it send to Jon Nevett of Donuts regarding its request to release all 2 letter new gTLD domain in all the strings that Donuts has signed contracts with. It appears ICANN is not against the concept saying; “ICANN has conducted a preliminary review of your request introduce two-character domains to the marketplace and “Based on the information provided, ICANN’s preliminary review did not identify any significant competition or security and stability issues.” “Implementation ... read more ...
 
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More Stats For Domain Lovers: Namestat.org, Includes Fastest Growing New gTLD (.Club) -     We just came across another site offering new gTLD stats at Namestat.org The site offers a section entitled “Fastest Growing gTLD’s and not surprisingly .Club is leading the way. Here are the top 10 Fastest Growing new gTLD’s according to the site: .club .guru .email .today .solutions .agency .company .cool .zone .photography Interestingly the second or third gTLD with the most registrations, .Berlin is not on the list nor is .Expert that just launched last week and has over 10,000 registrations ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
After Spending $5 Million For the Brand, JD.com $1.9 Billion IPO Hits Wall Street This Week -   JD.com is going public this week as it IPO hits Wall Street. It was just a year ago in March 2013 that we told you, China’s” leading direct B2C e-commerce company”, Jingdong , who was operating as 360buy.com, purchased re-branded as JD.com. In February we found out the company may have paid as much as $5 Million for JD.com. The company is trying to sell $1.9 Billion dollars worth of stock in the IPO, making the $5 Million spent on its brand a pretty good investment. According to the Wall ... read more ...
 
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Which Will Have More Registrations After One Year; .GOP; .Republican; .Democrat or .Vote - The new gTLD political race is about to start to being The first political extension to roll out will be .Democrat which is launching into general availability on Wednesday May 21st. The extension is owned by Rightside part of  Demand Media, Inc (DMD), a publicly held company  not affiliated with any political party. The retail price, depending on registrar is expected to be under $40. According to Demand Media,”.DEMOCRAT appeals to elected officials, candidates, political enthusiasts, or anyone ... read more ...
 
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Applicant For New gTLD .TVS Files UDRP On TVS.com; With Revenues Of $5.7 Billion Why Didn’t They Just Buy The Domain? - For the first time an applicant for a new gTLD has filed a UDRP against the matching .com T V SUNDRAM IYENGAR SONS LIMITED out of India applied to operate the new gTLD .TVS The company owns the domain name TVS.in but operates it main site out of  tvsiyengar.com As we told you yesterday, the domain name TVS.com is 17 years old with the current owner PA Gordon which owns the domain name getaway.com has owned the domain for at least 12 years according to domaintools.com The domain name has an original ... read more ...
 
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2nd Most Expensive New gTLD .Luxury Goes Live Today After Racking Up Over 600 Sunrise Registrations - The new gTLD .Luxury goes live today into general availability. It is the 2nd most expensive new gTLD with a retail  price of around $800 depending on the registrar which is second only to .Rich which has a registration price of $2,500 or more and has only 38 registrations to date. A list of all registrars carrying .Luxury is here. The registry already secured over 600 Sunrise trademarks which I believe is the highest number of Sunrise registrations of any new gTLD to date. Beyond the high price, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
TheDomains.com Hits 80,000 Comments - The Domains hit a milestone last night of 80,000 approved comments. Lucky number 80,000 was Joseph Peterson with this comment. The first comment made on this blog was 12/5/07 by David Castello of CCIN. 80,000 works out to 11.72 comments per post and that average is much larger over the last two years. All of us here at The Domains would like to thank everyone who takes the time out of their day to leave a comment.   ... read more ...
Sun 18th May 2014
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You Tube to Buy Videogame Streaming Company Twitch for $1Billion - You Tube Looking to Acquire Twitch In an article out just 21 minutes ago on Variety it looks like You Tube has reached an agreement to purchase Twitch. From the article: Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact. The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, ... read more ...
 
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UDRP Filed On 17 Year Old TVS.com While UDRP on We.com Is Terminated - A UDRP was filed on the three letter domain name, TVS.com The Complainant is a big company,  TV Sundram Iyengar and Sons Limited which is located in Madurai, India. The registrant of  TVS.in  is  TVS Electronics Limited. The company TV Sundram Iyengar and Sons Limited according to Business Week was formed in 1911 looked at a possible IPO back in 2012 and says the company “operates as an automobile distribution company in India. “The company’s business activities include dealership for automobile ... read more ...
 
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Flashback: If A .US Domain At Best Is Only Worth 1% of a .Com and 25% Of A .CA Why Bother? - Four years ago Michael asked, If A .US Domain At Best Is Only Worth 1% of a .Com and 25% Of A .CA Why Bother? I’m sure this will piss off a whole group of folks who invest in .US domains, but looking through the Snapnames.com .US domain auction closing tomorrow , July 8th at 3:15pm, I couldn’t help but notice that Slots.Us is at auction with a reserve of $58,830 or roughly 1% of what the .com just sold for, or just over 25% of what Slots.ca just sold for. Candy.US is another domain for sale in ... read more ...
Sat 17th May 2014
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Major League Baseball & The NHL Are Very .Social As They Go In Heavy On Sunrise .Social Domains - Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League and its member teams have gone in pretty heavy into the new gTLD .Social registering domain names during Sunrise for almost every team and several variations of teams and for the League it itself. .Social has the deepest registrations in Sunrise of professional sports teams that I have seen in the new gTLD space to date. MLB.social and NHL.Social are just two of the many Sunrise registrations, the leagues also registered domains including the NationalHockeyLeague.social, ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Votes To Kills .Amazon -                 ICANN published last night the minutes of the New gTLD Program Committee (NTAG) which following numerous GAC advice and voted down Amazon’s Application for .Amazon. Here is the resolution: “”Whereas, the GAC met during the ICANN 47 meeting in Durban and issued a Communiqué on 18 July 2013 (“Durban Communiqué”). Whereas, the GAC advised the ICANN Board in its Durban Communiqué that the GAC reached “consensus on GAC Objection Advice according to Module 3.1 part ... read more ...
Fri 16th May 2014
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Circle Looks To Bring Bitcoin Mainstream - Circle is getting ready to bring Bitcoin to the mainstream according to an article out today on Tech Crunch. The company was founded by the same entrepreneur that founded Bright Cove, the online video service. From the article: Circle, the bitcoin-based financial services company, is emerging from stealth with a suite of products and services aimed to take bitcoin’s blockchain to mainstream consumers. Since its launch in 2013, Boston-based Circle has been very quiet about its planned offerings ... read more ...
 
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DomainNameLogic.com: “New gTLD’s Are Pathetic Comapred To Even .Net.Au” -   *UPDATE Michael Gilmour was not the author of the post, and it was DomainNameLogic not ParkLogic. Our apologies to Michael and the actual author. DomainNameLogic.com just put out a post on their blog, saying that New gTLD’s are Pathetic even compared to a ccTLD, in this case Net.Au. I understand the point the author is making which is that new gTLD’s are a bad investment from a domain investor point of view and that they would be better off registering .Net.Au domains “”This post is purely ... read more ...
 
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Google Adsense Conspiracy a Fake ? - At the end of April we did a post about an ex Google employee and their claims that Google was cheating publishers. Jim Edwards of Business Insider is out with an article on the Google denial and why the conspiracy theory has one giant flaw. From the article: Google recently denied, vehemently, a gossipy conspiracy theory that suggested the search engine was stealing money from web publishers to fatten its own profit margins. The theory is fake — we’ll explain why below — but three sources ... read more ...
Thu 15th May 2014
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Our Interview With The CEO Of Maccabim.com On The Serial Cybersquatter Detector - Last week we wrote about a new product called the Serial Cybersquatter Detector (SCD) Network powered by DomainTools® and being run and marketed by Maccabim.com. As we expressed in the original post we had some issues a company using an automated system to to identify “Serial Cybersquatters” so we reached out to Jonathan Matkowsky, the Founder CEO of Maccabim.com Ltd. who was nice enough to answer our questions and give some details about the new service. Your service says you identify serial ... read more ...
 
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FCC proposes new ‘net neutrality’ rules - FCC in 3 to 2 vote agrees to advance proposal for new Net Neutrality. So now the FCC is proposing  new Internet rules that would make it illegal for  broadband providers to  block or slow down websites but allow them to strike deals with content companies for preferential treatment. (Reuters) – U.S. telecommunications regulators on Thursday formally proposed new “net neutrality” rules that may let Internet service providers charge content companies for faster and more reliable delivery of ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Auction Of Two Number/ Two Letter .Asia Domains Is Underway & 13 Have Bids - Sedo is having holding an auction of two letter and two numbered .Asia domain names. In all 47 domain names are in the auction and as of publication 13 have bids. The auction closes on May 2oth at Noon EST. Here are all the domains in the auction: Domain               Time Left    Bid             Reserve Range         # of bids ... read more ...
 
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Univision Launches Mobile Service & Got The Perfect Domain For It Through A UDRP - Engadget.com reported today that “Univision just partnered with T-Mobile to create a new Spanish-language cellphone service called Univision Mobile. “Underpinned by T-Mo’s network, the new partnership will target the 56 million strong Hispanic American market with “custom-built” plans. Like its parent carrier, those will be contract-free starting at $30 for unlimited texts and calls and $45 for a 2.5GB web plan. Both will get unlimited international texting and 100 minutes of free calls ... read more ...
 
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Guest Post By Michael Castello On Google: “Block The Bullies” - This is a guest post by Michael Castello who is the CEO and President of Castello Cities Internet Network, Inc. who is solely responsibly for its contents CCIN owns, manages and develops some of the most recognized Geo and Generic domain name brands in the world including PalmSprings.com, Nashville.com, Manicure.com and Traveler.com. He is also the owner of Daycare.com which he and his wife Sheri founded in 1997. In 2014 Michael sold Whisky.com for $3.1 million which is the 24th largest domain name ... read more ...