Tag Archives: patents

Thu 29th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign gets obvious for Domain Name Exchange - Company proposes service in 2010 but abandoned idea. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has granted patent number 9,172,673 (pdf) to Verisign for “Systems and methods for domain name exchange”. The system would allow someone to trade in their existing domain name for another, perhaps on an unlimited basis. Verisign asked ICANN to allow it to offer such a service in April 2010, noting that it would be helpful to webhosts who offer trials and monthly subscriptions to customers. If the customer ... read more ...
Tue 8th September 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Symantec released obvious for rating domain registrars - Does your registrars’ reputation matter? The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 9,130,962 (pdf) to Symantec for “Calculating Domain Registrar Reputation by Analysis of Hosted Domains”. Symantec, which sells the web security product line Norton, suggests that calculating a registrar reputation score helps determine how much scrutiny to give to websites connected to domain names at that registrar. If a registrar has a high proportion of names distributing malware, responsible ... read more ...
Tue 28th July 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign gets obvious for presaging domain name renovation rates - A crystal ball for estimating domain name renewal rates. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has granted patent number 9,094,467 to Verisign for “Method and system for predicting domain name registration renewal probability”. Simply: take a number of factors about the domain name and its history to calculate the chances of it being renewed. Verisign has to run these calculations frequently, and not just for its own forecasting. Because of the renewal grace period, it can’t give final renewal ... read more ...
Thu 23rd July 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Patent goblin relates for domain name government patent - Intellectual Ventures wants patent related to managing domain names and web hosting. Some big companies in the domain name space have lots of patents. Despite threats, no major players have tried to extract money out of their competitors. But registrars should be concerned about a recent patent application because of the company behind it: Intellectual Ventures. Through its company III Holdings 1, LLC, the company has applied for a patent for “System and Method for Domain Management and Migration”. The ... read more ...
Thu 4th June 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An engaging Google domain name parking obvious application - Idea sounds a lot like zero click monetization. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office just published a Google patent application related to domain name parking. Named Systems and Methods of Providing Parked Domain Content, application 13/631472 (embedded below) should give pause to providers of zero click domain monetization solutions. Essentially, the patent application describes a system in which a total advertising value is assigned to a parked page. An advertiser can then bid to be the exclusive ... read more ...
Tue 5th May 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign wants obvious for "Searchable Web Whois" - Company files patent application for improved whois searching across multiple registries. Verisign has filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a “searchable web whois”. The application was filed in 2012 and just published today. The patent application suggests that current whois search, especially across multiple registries, is hard. It claims that current services only search a single registry per search request, it’s difficult to index whois records in real time, it’s ... read more ...
Thu 5th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy wants to obvious domain suggestions formed on geography, business type - Patents reflect techniques for better targeting domain name search results. GoDaddy has filed three patents for targeted domain name search results based on the user’s location or business type. Two of the patent applications were filed in August 2013, and the third (continuation) patent (embedded below) was filed in September 2014. All three applications were published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today. The patents explain methods of determining the location, language and business ... read more ...
Tue 9th December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy gets another Domain Appraisal patent - Patent covers using comps for domain name evaluation. GoDaddy has been issued another U.S. patent related to domain name appraisals. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today issued patent number 8,909,558 for “Appraising a domain name using keyword monetary value data”. The patent basically covers using comps for a domain name appraisal, i.e. looking up sales of other domain names including similar keywords and using this to determine value. GoDaddy has a number ... read more ...
Thu 3rd July 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy wants to obvious approach of onboarding new TLDs - GoDaddy files four patents related to adding new TLD options to a registrar. GoDaddy has filed four patent applications describing methods for adding new top level domain names to a registrar’s offerings. Each top level domain name a registrar offers comes with its own restrictions, GoDaddy explains: A large part of the difficulty in adding new TLDs is that each TLD may (and usually does) have unique business requirements. As non-limiting examples, the business ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minds + Machines files obvious for “Domain Name Registration and Resale” - Patent describes system similar to AfternicDLS and SedoMLS but at the registry level. Minds + Machines Chairman Fred Krueger has filed a patent application (pdf) for the resale of domain names, titled “Domain Name Registration and Resale”. Here’s part of the description: Internet registries operate in the primary market for domain names and not in the secondary market. A registry has no record of whether a domain name is available for resale and, if so, at what ... read more ...
Tue 22nd April 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions patents domain purchasing system - Patent for domain purchasing system granted ten years after application was filed. Network Solutions, now part of Web.com, has received a patent for its Certified Offer service…ten years after applying for it. Network Solutions applied for the patent titled “Certified Offer Service for Domain Names” back in 2004. It was rejected multiple times, but the company successfully amended and appealed. The service lets customers make an offer on a domain name that is ... read more ...
Wed 19th February 2014
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Verisign gets obvious for Recovery of a Failed Registry - Verisign adds to patent war chest. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Verisign patent number 8,656,209 for “Recovery of a Failed Registry”. I wrote about the patent application in 2012. Verisign describes the system as one that “enables a registry recovery service to retrieve zone files from a target registry, archive the zone files, publish the zone files to a managed DNS server, reconcile ownership of the zone files, and publish the zone files ... read more ...
Thu 9th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Direct nav association files obvious focus for behest on domain parking traffic - Santa Monica company wants to patent optimized bidding on zero click domain parking traffic. Adrenalads, a direct navigation company based in Santa Monica, has filed a patent application for analyzing and bidding on zero click traffic. U.S. Patent application number 13/541767 (pdf) for “System and method for acquiring domain visitors on a parking service and redirecting to optimal advertisers” was filed in July 2012 and published today. The patent focuses on ... read more ...
Mon 6th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign files obvious focus for automatically formulating Whois use for TLDs - Verisign wants to patent a way to scale creation of whois service for top level domain names. Verisign has filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to automatically creating Whois for new top level domain names. The application, 13/746579 (pdf), was filed in January 2013 and published last week. It describes a typical whois system, and then explains that creating whois for a provisioned top level domain name does not scale: With ... read more ...
Fri 25th October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign creates obvious website, still doesn’t divulge the IP plans - Domain name registry shows off its patent portfolio, but still won’t say how it plans to make money from it. Verisign has created a website dedicated to its patents and released a whitepaper about its intellectual property – but still won’t say how it plans to monetize its IP portfolio. Yesterday the company formally unveiled VerisignPatents.com, a sort of patent marking site that lists all of its patents. For example, under the header “Domain Registry Services”, ... read more ...
Wed 7th August 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign gets obvious for self-existent domain trade analysis - Patent covers tool to identify potentially valuable unregistered domain names. The U.S Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent to Verisign that covers analysis of traffic to non-existent domain names. U.S. Patent number 8,504,673 (pdf) is titled “Traffic like NXDomains”. I wrote about this patent last year when it was published. Here’s the patent abstract: Methods and systems for analyzing network traffic related to domain names, including Non-Existent ... read more ...
Tue 30th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo gets obvious for prioritizing cybersquatting cases - Patent covers discovering and prioritizing cybersquatting issues. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 8,499,032 (pdf) to Yahoo for a “System and method for compiling a set of domain names to recover”. The invention, which I wrote about when the application was published in 2010, allows a trademark owner to generate a list of potentially infringing domain names. This list is run against network data to prioritize which domain names get ... read more ...
Wed 17th July 2013
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GoDaddy gets obvious for Geo Domain tool - First patent related to system for generating geo domain names is granted. Back in 2009 GoDaddy released a geo domain tool that allowed you to find domain names specific to a location, e.g. AustinAllergists.com. Last year I reported that GoDaddy filed three patent applications related to the tool. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has now granted a patent to GoDaddy covering the technology. U.S. patent 8,489,746 is titled “Systems for suggesting domain names ... read more ...
Tue 21st May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy gets dual patents for domain appraisal - Paul Nicks’ inventions related to name spinning and appraisals get patent protection. The United States Patent and Trademark Office today issued two patents to GoDaddy related to name spinning and appraisal. U.S. Patent number 8,447,701 is titled “Appraising domain names using comparative data” and 8,447,702 (pdf) is “Domain appraisal algorithm”. The patents have lots of overlapping material. They cover name spinning to create permutations of domain names ... read more ...
Tue 30th April 2013
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Verisign gets obvious for triggering web crawling formed on registry data - .Com registry awarded patent for using registry data to trigger web crawling. With Verisign analyzing how to profit from its patent portfolio, competitors should pay close attention to the company’s new patents. Today Verisign was awarded U.S. Patent 8,433,700 (pdf) for “Method and system for triggering web crawling based on registry data”. The patent describes ways in which a registry can provide data to other companies, such as search engines, that may help ... read more ...
Thu 25th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions files domain remoteness obvious application - Domain name registrar Network Solutions wants to patent various aspects of a domain privacy service, and has filed a patent application for “Private Domain Name Registration” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The application is technically a continuation of an application the company filed in 2004 but later abandoned. The new application was filed May 25, 2012 and just published (pdf) today. But wait, doesn’t Go Daddy already have a patent on this? Sort ... read more ...
Tue 9th April 2013
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eBay patents a exit cocktail adult window - Company gets patent for way to deliver a pop up window when you leave a web site. It was once a favorite advertising tool and then a popular last-ditch effort from internet marketers. Yes, I’m talking about the exit pop up. When you leave a site for good, the site sends one last goodbye…one last drop of monetization…one last effort to make you do something…a pop up window. eBay was just awarded United States Patent 8,418,078 (pdf) for “Method and system ... read more ...
Tue 2nd April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions gets a delay obvious on URL forwarding - Patent issued today covers forwarding one domain name to another. Domain forwarding, a.k.a. URL forwarding. Every domain registrar offers it, and most give it away for free to their customers. Type in DNW.com and get forwarded to DomainNameWire.com. Pretty simple, right? Did you know that Network Solutions has a patent for “Apparatus and method for web forwarding”? Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent (pdf) to Network Solutions for a way ... read more ...
Fri 2nd November 2012
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GoDaddy and AOL sued over email patents - Ziplink claims companies’ email services infringe its patents. A Connecticut company sued domain name registrar and hosting company Go Daddy yesterday in federal district court. Ziplink, Inc. alleges that Go Daddy’s email services infringe two of its patents. Go Daddy is in good company on this one. Ziplink also sued AOL yesterday. Its first patent infringement target was Microsoft, in which Ziplink argued that Hotmail violated its patents. The two patents in ... read more ...
Fri 5th October 2012
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Verisign files obvious focus for approach of transfering hosting on DNSSEC Domains - Application describes way to change hosting on DNSSEC enabled domains without any downtime. Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) bring all sorts of security benefits, but it can make changing hosting providers more challenging. Verisign has filed a patent for systems and methods for making the process of changing web hosts on a DNSSEC-enabled domain easier (pdf). Here’s the challenge, as the company describes in its application named “Transfer of ... read more ...