Swiss supervision claims domains - The government of Switzerland is trying to get its hands on three domain names owned by a Swiss citizen. The government claims to have a right to three specific URLs – www.schweiz.ch, www.suisse.ch and www.svizzera.ch (all translate to the country’s name) and wants to use the domains for it www.ch.ch site. Switzerland is going to WIPO to try to get the domains. This seems to be a clear case of reverse domain name hijacking. The owner of the domains, Stefan C. ... read more ...

Survey: No some-more new domains - The majority of the domain community doesn’t want ICANN to approve new domains. [Editors note: this is the tenth in a series of posts with results from the 2006 Domain Name Wire survey. The complete results of the survey will be posted soon.] Only 45% of respondents in our survey were in favor of additional top level domains (e.g. .biz, .info). Perhaps the community is tired of seeing top level domains “diluted” by new extensions. This theory is reinforced ... read more ...

Survey: Do not palm control of internet to general body - Only 38% of respondents to our survey approve of transferring control of the internet and domain name system to an international body. [Editors note: this is the ninth in a series of posts with results from the 2006 Domain Name Wire survey. The complete results of the survey will be posted soon.] Even though 83% of respondents to the 2006 Domain Name Wire Survey were from outside the US, only 38% thought it a good idea to transfer control of the internet to an international ... read more ...

Survey: Domain Name Owners reject ICANN/VeriSign Settlement - Survey shows only 25% of domain owners support agreement. [Editors note: this is the eighth in a series of posts with results from the 2006 Domain Name Wire survey. The complete results of the survey will be posted soon.] Opposition to the proposed VeriSign agreement with ICANN is growing. A number of registrars released formal opposition remarks yesterday. Results from the 2006 Domain Name Wire survey echo these sentiments. Of the 582 survey respondents in 81 ... read more ...

Book to tell a Sex.com story - Freelance Journalist Kieren McCarthy has signed a publishing deal for an upcoming book “Sex.com”. Everyone in the domain name business knows the basics of the Sex.com domain. A domain name so valuable that it was stolen from the rightful owner who, when finally found guilty of the theft, fled the country to avoid paying a $65M judgement. Perhaps the Sex.com saga has come to an end as the domain was sold for about $12M last month. I’m picturing a book written ... read more ...

China, Trademarks, and Cybersquatting - China isn’t known for respecting intellectual property rights and its latest domain name policy reinforces its stance. According to reports by vmunet and Sina.com, China is changing the way it rules on trademark disputes for its .CN domain names. In order to prevail in domain disputes, trademark holders will need to prove malicious intent and act quickly. The article says: “Previous regulations prevented cyber-squatting when claimants to the domain name could ... read more ...

URGENT: hazard to domain name owners - The domain industry might crumble if the Unites States Congress gets more involved in domain name policy. I’ve seen a lot of scary things that could knock the domain name industry off its upward trajectory. But this takes the cake. According to an article from the Associated Press: “Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is crafting [a] legislative package that would require the Department of Commerce to create the new [.xxx] domain name. Pornographic Web sites would be ... read more ...

Verisign’s Big Dreams - An article in Red Herring talks about Verisign, its Network Solutions disaster, and where it’s headed. The article in the January 30 print edition discusses CEO Stratton Sclavos’ vision to make the company last into the future. But its past isn’t so rosy. Verisign hit a market peak of $255 per share during the dot.com bubble and has struggled since then. Here are two excerpts relevant to the domain name industry: On acquiring domain registrar Network Solutions, ... read more ...

Test Masters squabble - Here’s a real life example of the consequences of not securing your company’s domain name. If you were signing up for a standardized test prep course, would you realize that TestMasters is not the same company as Test Masters? Apparently there’s a big difference between the two–more than just a space. People think they’re signing up for a course from California-based TestMasters and are actually signing up with Houston-based company Test Masters. The ... read more ...

Acceptance as Affiliate might uncover Good Faith - An interesting WIPO decision suggests that acceptance into a company’s affiliate program while using a confusing similar domain might prove that the trademark holder recognizes the affiliate’s rights to the domain. Out-Law picked up on the case of Skyp.com, a domain similar to internet telephony company Skype. A WIPO decision brought by Skype against the owner of Skyp.com found in favor of the respondent. Normally this would be a no-brainer decision in favor ... read more ...

My-Childs-Name.com – a prohibited new trend - Parents are snapping up the domain names of their kids. If only celebrities were so smart. A story in The New York Times discusses how parents are starting to register their childrens’ domain names while they’re still infants. For example, a baby is born as “Samuel Wilkerson”, so parents register the domain samuelwilkerson.com. This is great foresight. It’s especially important if the kid turns into a celebrity. Most of the youngsters on American Idle ... read more ...

Deceased man’s name tied adult in domain name dispute - Country music star Conway Twitty died in 1993, but ownership of the ConwayTwitty.com domain name lives on. Now the question is who has rights to the domain name. Royce Inman registered the domain and operated the domain as a fan site. But Conway Twitty’s estate claims it should be the rightful owner of the domain. The estate is suing Inman and asking for $250,000 in punitive damages. But this isn’t a straightforward case. Apparently in 1997 the estate allowed ... read more ...

Politicians and domain names – reticent and dumber - Are politicians who don’t know the first thing about registering domain names fit to govern? This case in Pittsburgh is one of the funniest political domain name faux paus of all time. Here are the players: -State Rep. Jeff Habay, R-Shaler, incumbent. -Funeral director Frank Perman, bidding to unseat Habay The domain name hilarity started when Perman decided to register Perman-Now.com for use in a mailing in his bid to unseat Habay. Why Perman registered a domain ... read more ...

Pay-per-click fraud: how it affects a domain name industry - I just finished reading DNJournal’s year-in-review article, and the issue raised again and again is click fraud. Will click fraud destroy the domain name industry? For those newbies out there, click fraud refers to people or software purposely clicking on pay-per-click ads in order to charge the advertiser. Pay-per-click advertising gave domain names a second wind and has been a major force behind recent price increases in the domain resale market. This means ... read more ...

George Foreman Gets a KO - George Foreman won rights to GeorgeForeman Enterprises.com, but it wasn’t a TKO. The victory was just a KO because the previous registrant of the domain name didn’t bother to respond to the UDRP. In its usual fashion, National Arbitration Forum issued a press release about their arbitration ruling finding in favor of the celebrity boxer-turned-grill-salesman. I have long been a critic of NAF’s practice of issuing press releases after deciding in favor celebrities ... read more ...

Pearl Jam wins domain name - Rock band Pearl Jam won the rights to PearlJams.com. As is usually the case with arbitration involving high profile companies and celebrities, National Arbitration Forum issued a press release announcing that it found in favor of the complainant. But “won” is a strong word because the previous owner of PearlJams.com didn’t even respond to the complaint. Thus, the domain defaulted to the complainant. I’ve raised this issue before, but I’m uncomfortable ... read more ...

Wired Magazine: .xxx misfortune tech impulse of 2005 - Wired Magazine just released an article “Worst Tech Moments 2005″, and a domain name issue is in the top 10. Wired claims the US Commerce Department blocked passage of the .xxx domain name. (Although it is a bold claim that this was the reason for the delay, it is no doubt that pressure from interest groups helped table the domain). Wired author Kevin Poulson writes: “when ICANN decided to carve out a new [domain] for adult content, a Christian group called ... read more ...

Think ICANN’s Whois mandate are tough? - People who think they have to divulge too much information to ICANN in the Whois directory should consider what China requires of web site owners. China’s government started shutting down web sites days before Christmas if the site owner failed to register with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Big deal, right? Well the government is asking for more than site owner’s names and contact information. You are also required to provide your citizen ... read more ...

.EU domains and a morning period - When new domain extensions are introduced to the market there is typically a “sunrise period”. During this period companies can claim to have rights to certain domains, usually because of trademark ownership. For example, Microsoft can claim rights to Microsoft.extension. The idea is to prevent domain name squatters from snapping up trademarked names. But sunrise domain applications are filled with fraud. People try to trademark generic domains, like mortgage.extension, ... read more ...

Tim Anderson is half right - Tim Anderson’s recent opinion piece for ITWeek, titled “Domain Names are so last year”, gets it half right. Anderson talks about UnifiedRoot, the latest company to offer an alternative web address system. He discusses how it’s not worth registering a domain with UnifiedRoot, New.net, or any other alternative domain company. These alternative systems are a bad idea, and Anderson nails that on the head. But I disagree with his notion that domain names are ... read more ...