Category Archives: EN

Thu 10th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Next Smurfs film is expected "The Lost Village", domain names suggest - Domain names are likely for third film due out in 2017. The next Smurfs movie will likely be called “The Lost Village”. Papa Smurf is ready to make his return… Sony has registered a number of domain names suggesting its third film in the series will be called Smurfs The Lost Village. The company is planning to release a new Smurfs film in 2017. Rumors are that it will deal with the origin of the Smurfs and how they all got together. Among the domain names the company registered yesterday are: smurfsthelostvillage.net smurfsthelostvillagemovie.com smurfsthelostvillagemovie.net smurfsthelostvillagethemovie.com smurfsthelostvillagethemovie.net LostVillageMovie.com ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Automattic.com Owner of WordPress Acquires JetPack.com - Automattic.com which is the Owner of WordPress.com appears to have Acquired the domain name JetPack.com Jetpack is built into the WordPress Platform and also serves as the stat program for WordPress sites like TheDomains.com Automattic.com has been using the domain name Jetpack.me for the service, but yesterday the whois records updated and the domain names is now registered by Mark Monitor with WordPress name servers. It appears that the domain name that was formerly owned by Jetpack Design of ... read more ...
Wed 9th December 2015
Written by DomainHack.er in EN and tagged
gTLDs: Baby, you can drive my .car (for €3000) - December 2015 will see the launch of three generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), all focused on the automobile industry.  However, the launch of .CAR, .CARS and .AUTO are unlikely to drive up domain name registration volumes due to the very high registration fees being charged by Cars Registry Limited, the joint venture that is the Registry operator for all three gTLDs. As reported in the May 2015 issue of Anchovy News, Cars Registry Limited is a joint venture between two Registry operators, namely ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why Marchex and WWM domain name acquisitions make clarity for GoDaddy - Unique characteristics make these portfolios valuable to GoDaddy. Worldwide Media’s portfolio is a good match for GoDaddy’s business model. GoDaddy made the surprising announcement on Monday that it had purchased Michael Berkens’ domain name portfolio. It was surprising because I had no idea Michael Berkens’ Worldwide Media (WWM) portfolio was for sale. But it’s unsurprising that GoDaddy was interested in this particular portfolio. Like the portfolio GoDaddy acquired from Marchex earlier ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign appeals XYZ justice loss - Case will continue in Court of Appeals. Just days after .XYZ asked a court to force Verisign to pay its legal bills in a lawsuit; Verisign upped the ante by appealing the case. In late October, judge Claude M. Hilton granted XYZ’s motion for summary judgment in the false advertising case brought by Verisign. On November 20, Hilton released his opinion, noting that XYZ’s claims were just puffery and opinion. Last week, XYZ said the case was “exceptional”, and Verisign should be required to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Remember Congo? It rebranded as LawBooth.com - Company finds a good .com for under $3,000. Congo changed its brand to Lawbooth. Remember Congo? The company that started its lawyer-match service at Congo.io, and then balked at the “egregiously overinflated” asking price of $750,000 for Congo.com? Although I disagree about its characterization of the Congo.com asking price, I like the contest it proposed: find us a .com domain name we can buy for less than $3,000 to make our new brand. When people say “all the good .com domains are taken,” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The late Igal Lichtman, aka Mrs Jello, loses a terrible UDRP decision - Panel re-writes UDRP and “registered in bad faith” requirement. The heirs of the late Igal Lichtman, commonly known in domain name circles as Mrs Jello, have lost a UDRP decision for the common name Camilla.com. The case was filed by Australian clothing company Camilla Australia Pty Ltd, which uses the domain Camilla.com.au. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel determined that, even though the domain name was registered prior to the Complainant having rights in the (common ... read more ...
Tue 8th December 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Weekly Transactions sum $1.4 million led by Tonic.com during $80,000 -

Over a past week, 654 exchange took place on Sedo’s marketplace and around SedoMLS, totaling $1.4M.

60% of sum sales were a outcome of Buy Now listings.

HIGHLIGHTS OF PUBLIC SALES ARE:

· Top .com: TONIC.COM during 80,000 USD

· Top ccTLD: CAM.TV during 13,000 USD

· Top “other” TLD: LEARNINGMACHINE.ORG during 6,150 USD

 

 

Via: thedomains.com

 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
"China" is #1 trending word in .Com - Thousands of registrations over two days help “China” spike. It turns out the Chinese aren’t just buying numeric and short .com domain names. “China” was the #1 trending word in new .com registrations last month according to .com registry Verisign. It seems that there was a spike in domain name registrations containing China followed by three letters (e.g. Chinadjr.com) on November 13-14. Drone was also a trending term last month. And no research is necessary to understand why “Friday”, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CentralNic Buys Registrar Instra.com & Stock is Down Almost 20% - CentralNic (LON:CNIC) is buying privately-owned domain name registrar, Instra Group, funded in part from a £10mln placing of stock with investors at 40p a share, for almost £16mln (A$33mln). According to the press release “the purchase will extend CentralNic’s capabilities and “significantly increase” its retail offering.” According to the press release Instra in the year to June 30 posted pre-tax profits of just over £1mln (A$2.1mln) on turnover of £7.11mln (A$14.8mln). CentralNic ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Uniregistry Put Premium New gTLD's Domains In Auction @ No Reserve - Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry has put many premium new gTLD’s, at no reserve, in the RightoftheDot.com domain name auction at Namescon. Unlike many new gTLD’s, all of these domain names have normal renewal fees. None of these domain names have been offered to the pubic before and include single letter and numbered domains like 8.Link,  e.gift, and b.sexy, as well as two letter words like We.Help,  plus category killers like Real.Property, Stock.Photo and Web.Hosting Frank Schilling CEO of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another record-buster during NameJet - November was a great month for NameJet. During 2015, NameJet surpassed itself several times. July had a record-setting 6-figure sale, but then September broke that record within weeks. And in many ways, October was the auction platform’s strongest month ever. That is, until November. November set 2 new records. Each month, NameJet reports sales above $2000. (Most fall below that threshold.) In total, these top auctions have beaten the million-dollar mark just 4 times – starting in July, every ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CentralNic acquires Instra for $24 million, sells $3.6M in domains, and skeleton to lift $15M - CentralNic buys another domain name registrar. CentralNic is buying Instra for USD $24M.Publicly traded domain name registrar and registry CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC) has agreed to acquire domain name registrar Instra Group for AU $33 million (USD $24 million), the company announced today. The purchase price includes AU $30 million in cash and AU $3 million in stock, with AU $5 million held in escrow and paid out over the next five years. To fund the acquisition, CentralNic plans to issue 25 million ... read more ...
Mon 7th December 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
My Sale to Godaddy - By now I assume you have read the press release that my company Worldwide Media, Inc., more commonly known in the domain community as MostWantedDomains.com, has sold the vast majority of our domain portfolio to GoDaddy/Afternic. While I can’t get into the details of the transaction, I did want to share some thoughts about the sale and what it means and does not mean about the state of the domain industry in my opinion. Let me start by saying this transaction was prompted for personal life reasons, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2016 Domain Name Wire Media Kit now available - Domain Name Wire is nearly 11 years old, and I couldn’t do it without the support of the many sponsors of this site. I’ve just completed a new media kit explaining sponsorship opportunities, ranging from traditional graphic ads to podcast promotions. If your company targets the niche Domain Name Wire market, please contact me at andrew (at) domainnamewire.com and I’ll send the media kit to you. Here are some of the types of people that visit Domain Name Wire daily: Domain name investors Corporate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in EN and tagged
The current state of ‘.brands’: an infographic - Tim Lince Momentum is building on the use of ‘.brands’. Barclays Bank has transferred its primary website to a branded domain string (‘home.barclays’), while Sony has been promoting the new James Bond film, Spectre, on its ‘.sony’ string (‘assistmoneypenny.sony’). As more enter the fray, we thought it was a good time to summarise the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLDs, Whois and IANA with Michele Neylon – DNW Podcast #61 - The perspectives of a mid-sized domain name registrar. Michele Neylon runs Irish hosting and domain name company Blacknight. On today’s show, he gives thoughts on new TLDs from the perspective of a mid-sized domain name registrar…and you’ll find his perspective to be really interesting. We also discuss WHOIS and the IANA transition. Also: China clamps down on .com domain names, a banner month for .Club, big Rightside investors and an agency that .Rocks. Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy acquires Mike Berkens' WorldWide Media domain name portfolio - Berkens sells majority of domain names to GoDaddy. GoDaddy has acquired the majority of Michael Berkens’ domain name portfolio; the company announced today. Berkens writes the blog TheDomains.com and his portfolio was under the company Worldwide Media. GoDaddy acquired the vast majority of Berkens’ domain names, about 70,000 names in total. “GoDaddy is focused on making sure our customers get the perfect online name for their business or passion, so we’re always looking at ways to improve ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Owner sues National Arbitration Forum and complainant after losing UDRP - Lawsuit names UDRP complainant and National Arbitration Forum. VirtualPoint, Inc., which operates the site UDRPSearch.com, has filed a lawsuit after losing a UDRP for the domain name WindCreek.com. The company filed the suit (pdf) against not only the complainant in the case but also the National Arbitration Forum. Against complainant Poarch Band of Creek Indians, VirtualPoint alleges that the group fraudulently obtained its Wind Creek trademarks and manipulated evidence by searching for a specific ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Twitter only went "all in" with Periscope domain names - Company registers 75 domain names related to Periscope. Twitter’s Periscope AppTwitter’s Periscope live-streaming app is proving to be a hit. Someone at the company decided it was time to go all in on brand protection for the app. On Friday, Twitter registered 75 domain names related to the app, ranging from PeriscopeCats.com to PeriscopeValentines.com. I guess it’s not just the Chinese that continue to register .com domain names en masse. Here’s the entire list: periscopeair.com periscopeball.com ... read more ...
Sun 6th December 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Report: Domain 688.com Sold For $1.5 Million - According to a report appearing  in ename.cn, the domain name 688.com just sold for about $1.5 Million dollars. According to the report the sales price was 9,580,000 RMB which according to today’s exchange rate is $1,496,290.52. The domain name 688.com did change ownership yesterday. The domain was owned by a XiaoFeng Lin of China at the domain name registrar MAFF Inc. until December 5th when the whois information was updated to reflect LinXiaoFeng of DotMedia Limited as the new owner.  The domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XYZ asks Verisign to compensate $1.6 million in fees from lawsuit - The .XYZ domain name registry has asked a court (pdf) to force Verisign to pay $1.6 million in fees and expenses related to the lawsuit Verisign filed against it. Verisign, the $10 billion (market cap) company that runs .com, sued XYZ for false advertising claims. The judge overseeing the case eventually granted XYZ’s motion for summary judgment. But that was after XYZ paid $1.6 million in fees and expenses to defend itself, a massive sum for the startup. XYZ claims the ongoing costs of the suit ... read more ...
Sat 5th December 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Census.com, In Last Namescon Auction Sells To Mark Monitor Client - The domain name Census.com which was in the RightoftheDot.com domain name auction at Namescon in January 2015, just sold to a Mark Monitor client as the whois information changed yesterday. The domain name Census.com was one of my favorite picks from that auction. The domain name had a auction reserve of between $100,001 – $250,000 It will be interesting to see who wound up buying this domain. Census.com as a parked page has an Alexa ranking in the 5 million range. In a just 5 weeks RightoftheDot.com ... read more ...
Fri 4th December 2015
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
SK Lubricants Guilty of Reverse Domain Hijacking on ZiC.com - SK Lubricants Americas of Houston, Texas was just found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the three letter .com domain name ZIC.com The domain owner was represented by ESQwire.com The Domain Name was originally created on September 6, 2003 but the current owner obtained the Domain Name on February 28, 2015 and is offering it for sale, and is in the business of selling domain names. The domain name is parked. The Complainant offered $3,000 to buy the domain and then filed this UDRP ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in EN and tagged
Security Firm Predicts Unprecedented Series of New gTLD Failures by 2017 - The cybersecurity firm, IID, is anticipating an unprecedented series of domain registry failures due to lack of gTLD popularity by 2017 in the form of bankruptcies and abandonment, leading to demise of websites relying on them. "Most new gTLDs have failed to take off and many have already been riddled with so many fraudulent and junk registrations that they are being blocked wholesale," said IID President and CTO Rod Rasmussen. "This will eventually cause ripple effects on the entire domain ... read more ...