News
Living as a Digital Nomad for a month
I hit the road this summer. Here are my takeaways.
A lot of people who read DNW have immense flexibility. They can live and work from wherever they want.
Both my wife and I own our own companies and can work from wherever we want, but it’s not something we’ve taken advantage of much. Having a kid means we need continuity in education, but there’s still summer break that we can take advantage of. Despite this, I think the longest time I’ve been away from home in the past decade is just a couple of weeks.
This summer we decided to try something different. We spent an entire month in Seattle and worked while there.
The benefits are obvious. One day this was my office:
The view from our campsite in Olympic National Forest.
But there are challenges, too. Here are some of the challenges I faced.
1. Separating work time from fun time.
Since we weren’t true digital nomads on the road for good, a large portion of our time was spent doing vacation things. I generally worked for a few hours in the morning and then relaxed in the afternoon. Separating this time was tough, especially since I tend to write a lot of timely/breaking news. GoDaddy releases earnings? Gotta write about that, even if it’s in the afternoon.
Also, since Seattle is in the Pacific time zone, I felt behind every day when I woke up. Some days I would write a post and schedule it for early the next morning.
2. Working from my laptop.
All I technically need to work is my laptop and an internet connection. But I work best when I’m at my desk, docked into my dual monitors, keyboard and mouse:
It’s hard to replicate this on the road.
3. Recording podcasts on the road is difficult.
You’ll note that my workstation also has a good setup for recording podcasts. I have the mic on the left, a camera on top (when needed) and acoustic sound panels.
My wife is also a podcaster so we brought a mic with us. Still, it was hard to get good sound. While we were on Bainbridge Island we had birds in the background. While we were in Capitol Hill we had city noises to contend with.
There are a few things I would do differently next time regarding podcasts.
First, I’d try to record as many “evergreen” podcast interviews as possible in advance. I can then record the intro and news part while on the road.
Second, I’d hit up people who live/work in the area to use their equipment/space.
Third, I’d consider renting professional studio space. In fact, I came across this sign one afternoon:
A sign for a podcast studio in Seattle that rents by the hour.
4. Overcoming feelings of guilt.
If I’m only working a few hours a day, am I neglecting something important? Should I do more? For example, I posted only two of my website builder reviews and didn’t get around to completing the others yet.
This was a constant struggle for me. If I travel like this again next summer, I’ll double down in the weeks leading up to my travel by pre-writing as much evergreen content as possible.
Of course, we weren’t true digital nomads on our trip. We returned to our home. It was more like an extended working vacation. But the definition of digital nomad is expanding; you can think of it as just the flexibility to work from wherever you want.
As I mentioned at the top, there are lots of DNW readers who enjoy this flexibility. It’s one of the perks of doing what we do.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Categories: Domains
Vancouver Hexonet Cruise sets sail on August 23
Great networking opportunity next week in Vancouver.
If you live in the Pacific Northwest or need an excuse for a last minute trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, get ready for Hexonet’s cruise on August 23.
The domain name registrar has teamed up with a lot of sponsors for its annual evening cruise, networking and educational event. Afilias, Amazon Registry, Donuts, .ME, NamesCon, PIR, Weebly, and .Asia are sponsoring the event.
The evening cruise takes off in Coal Harbour at 5:30 next Thursday and concludes at 9 pm.
Tickets are CAN $20, and all proceeds go to British Columbia Children’s Hospital Foundation. Hexonet will match all funds raised.
The high temperature in Vancouver next Thursday is forecasted to be 73 degrees, so this should give you an incentive to make the trip. (Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it due to a scheduling conflict.)
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Categories: Domains
Betsy Riot punks NRA Lobbyist’s wife with domain name
Group creates website juxtaposing NRA’s advocacy and successfully defends domain name in cybersquatting complaint.
Above: A picture from Ivy-Lane-Living.com
Betsy Riot, a group that has railed against the National Rifle Association, has won a dispute brought by Courtney Cox, who is married to the NRA’s chief lobbyist and principal political strategist, Chris Cox.
Courtney Cox runs an interior design company called Ivy Lane Living. Betsy Riot registered the domain name Ivy-Lane-Living.com and created a parody site juxtaposing her business with the National Rifle Association. You can see the parody/criticism site here.
Cox filed a cybersquatting complaint against the domain name, but Betsy Riot has prevailed in a decision handed down by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
In a nutshell, the WIPO panelist determined that this wasn’t a case of cybersquatting and qualifies as free speech and a criticism site.
The group behind the website also owns waynelapierre.com, which is the name of the National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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16 end user domain sales: a big bank, custom bong maker and more
A Fortune 500 bank, politician, and custom bong maker bought domain names last week.
Sedo’s top sale last week was Christian.com for $600,000 but we don’t know if it was an end user or investor yet. I did, however, uncover 16 domains that are end user sales, and there are surely more. One is a company that uses .co that bought the matching .com. Another is a new ecommerce logistics company that went with .co as it matches the company’s full name. And another is a bank that might be rebranding or starting a new brand.
Let’s take a look at some of the end user sales at Sedo over the past week:
(Want to see more lists like this?)
LineDance.com $11,500 – Line Dance is a movie, TV show and ranch.
Munite.com €9,900 – Public Financial Management, which provides financial consulting to governments and endowments, filed an intent-to-use trademark application for Munite in July. It will be for “Providing an on-line, searchable database of information about municipal bond issuers organized by obligor and specific industry sector or group.”
Commerce.co €9,000 – Commerce Co sources and ships products. If you’re interested in this stuff, you might want to review my podcast about Amazon FBA.
IconBank.com €7,000 – Is Bancorp South (NYSE:BXS), a Fortune 500 company, going to rebrand? It bought this domain name.
EZPlay.com $7,000 – I’m not sure why Integrated Solutions International LLC, a business automation company, wants a domain name that sounds like a lottery or gambling site.
Heka.in $5,500 – Livpure Smart Homes Pvt Ltd. It’s not clear what it will do with Heka.in.
RepublicCrypto.com $5,000 – The domain now forwards to Republic.co, a cryptocurrency service.
TerraEvents.com $5,000 – +39 Events is an events company in Italy.
Quant.ai $4,999 – Quant AI is a patent analytics/data company in the Seattle area.
EnGuard.com £4,900 – ENTRVST provides HIPAA-complaint email and cloud services to health groups. Its name and existing domain name fail the radio test miserably, and Entrust.com is used by another company so that probably isn’t an option.
Gift.pro $4,000 – Gift Pro Ltd helps companies sell gift cards. Its domain is GiftPro.co.uk.
VoluMetrix.com €3,900 – Vascular monitoring company VoluMetrix bought this domain and forwards it to its main VoluMextrix.co domain.
CustomBongs.com $2,999 – Yep, it’s a seller of custom bongs.
MainStreetHotel.com $2,800 – The Graham Companies is a developer of Miami Lakes, Florida.
Abeos.de €2,500 – Abeos is a headhunter/recruiting service that uses the domain Abeos.nl.
BonnieWatsonColeman.com $2,500 – Bonnie Watson Coleman is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th district. Her campaign domain is BonnieForCongress.com.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Namecheap hits $109.1 million revenue in 2017
One of the largest domain name registrars crossed the 9 figure mark in 2017.
Domain name registrar Namecheap has been a big domain name registrar for a long time but didn’t always show up on top registrar lists because it was an Enom reseller.
Now that it has pulled most of its domains onto its own registrar accreditation, the company’s size has become apparent. It’s among the top five largest domain name registrars for .com domain names.
In 2015, Namecheap had revenue of $76 million and three-year growth of 117%. It fell off the Inc 5000 in 2017, but is back for the 2018 list. Its 2017 revenue was $109.1 million. That’s up 78% over three years, and up 44% from 2015.
According to the company’s Inc 5000 listing, it employees 950 people.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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.Club posts $7.2 million revenue, lands on Inc 5000
Revenue more than quadrupled from 2014 to 2017.
New top level domain name registry .CLUB Domains has landed at #1164 on the newly released Inc 5000 for 2018. The list is ranked based on three-year revenue growth.
The company had $7.2 million revenue in 2017, up 419% over 3-years. It launched its domain name in early 2014.
This is the first look we’ve had at .Club’s financials in a while. .Club CEO Colin Campbell previously discussed the group’s 2015 financials with DomainName Wire. In that year it had about $7.0 million in bookings, but that excludes any sort of revenue recognition so it’s not necessarily comparable.
Whois API remained on the list for a second year, coming in at #651 with $2.7 million in revenue and 775% three-year growth. It will be interesting to see what happens with this company in the age of GDPR.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Gumwand Inc. files lawsuit to get Gumwand.com domain name
Gum removal company continues to chase elusive domain name.
The company that makes the Gumwand is suing to get Gumwand.com. Photo from Gumwand.net
Gumwand Inc, a company that sells tools to remove gum from flooring and public spaces, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in Federal District Court in Virginia to get the domain name Gumwand.com.
The company uses Gumwand.net and has been trying to get Gumwand.com for years. It originally sued the owner of Gumwand.com in 2015 in New York. The court issued a default judgment in 2017, demanding that the domain name be transferred to Gumwand Inc.
But Gumwand Inc. has had trouble getting the domain transferred. The original defendant has changed its name several times, according to the company.
It filed a case with National Arbitration Forum this summer. The Forum denied the complaint but the decision hasn’t been published yet.
So now Gumwand is doing what it probably should have done in the beginning: file a case in the Eastern District of Virginia, where .com registry Verisign is located. It filed an in rem case there on August 9. If the court enters a default judgment, it can order Verisign to transfer the domain name.
One thing perplexing about this case is that Gumwand.com was registered before Gumwand.net. It may be that the creator of the device announced the product without registering the domain name. It will be interesting to read the UDRP decision to see if it explains the order of events.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Categories: Domains
Christian.com domain name sells for $600,000 (again)
Domain name sells for the exact same price that it sold for in 2009.
Sedo domain name broker Dave Evanson announced today that he brokered the sale of the Christian.com domain name for $600,000:
Just sold Christian(.)com for $600,000 @sedo!! Congrats to buyer and seller!!
— dave evanson (@SedoDaveEvanson) August 14, 2018
The domain name is in escrow at Sedo and the buyer’s identity hasn’t been revealed yet.
Christian.com sold for the exact same amount in 2009 when Boris Kreiman bought the domain name shortly after buying Call.com for $1.1 million. Kreiman told Domain Name Wire that he was going to create a Christian social network using the domain name.
The domain was about to be sold at the Rick Latona TRAFFIC auction in 2009, but the transaction went through Sedo. So this is the second time Sedo has had a hand in selling Christian.com.
After the 2009 deal, the domain was under Whois privacy until late 2015. At that time the domain Whois record changed to Avatar Invest Inc. in Russia.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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DreamHost enables export-to-WordPress for its Remixer website builder
No lock-in with DreamHost’s site builder.
I’ve been reviewing non-WordPress website builders over the past month and have more reviews to come.
These site builders make it easier for non-techies to build websites than using WordPress. But there’s a big drawback: lock-in.
Each builder is proprietary and they are designed to limit the ability to export to a different platform and/or webhost. In return for an easy-to-use site builder, you agree to be locked in indefinitely with the service.
But hosting company DreamHost announced today that it is opening up its Remixer site builder. Customers that use Remixer to build a site can export it to WordPress on a Dreamhost shared hosting account. Even though the initial export is to a Dreamhost account, customers could then use the WordPress export feature if they wish to change hosting companies.
Being able to start designing a site in a simple site creator and then harness the customizability that WordPress offers seems like a big win.
DreamHost says that it is the first company to allow exporting from a standalone website builder to WordPress.
Although I haven’t tested Remixer yet, I will do so in the future.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Categories: Domains
Dynadot eclipses 1 million domain name milestone
Domain name registrar hits key growth milestone.
Domain name registrar Dynadot has hit the one million domains under management milestone.
The company was founded in 2002 and became ICANN-accredited the following year. It didn’t hire its first employee until 2006. Since then, it has grown to four offices (San Mateo, CA, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Toronto).
Dynadot is also a 50% female company in an industry that is male-dominated.
Todd Han founded and bootstrapped the company. It hasn’t taken any outside investment or debt, and Han doesn’t plan to sell the company.
Listen to Han talk about the Dynadot story and what it’s like being a small-to-mid-sized registrar in DNW Podcast #141.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Reverse domain name hijacking (even with no response)
Panelist finds Mister Auto SAS filed complaint in abuse of policy despite domain name owner not responding.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found Mister Auto SAS in France guilty of reverse domain name hijacking for the domain name MisterAuto.com.
The decision by panelist John Swinson comes despite the domain name owner not responding in the case. Yet it was a fairly easy decision; the domain was registered well before the Complainant existed and the Complainant made no argument to address this.
It’s not surprising that Mister Auto wanted MisterAuto.com. It uses the hyphenated domain name Mister-Auto.com to sell auto parts. It sent a cease & desist letter to the domain name owner and never heard back.
Swinson summed up Mister Auto SAS’ action in filing the UDRP:
The Panel considers the Complainant launched the proceedings out of desperation as its prior attempt to contact the Respondent went unanswered (and the webpage did not resolve – revealing no clues as to the Respondent’s possible motives) but without a reasonable chance of success and as such in the circumstances constitutes an abuse of the Administrative Proceeding.
Mister Auto was represented by Cairn Legal in Belgium.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Top Domain Sales of the Year – DNW Podcast #197
Reviewing the top domain names sales so far this year.
For this week’s special edition of the Domain Name Wire Podcast, I review the top 10 public domain name sales of the year as reported by DN Journal. It includes everything from Ice.com at the top to a discussion of cryptocurrency buyers and new top level domain name sales. We’ll be back next week with the regular podcast format — and if you have suggestions for guests, please let me know!
Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play below or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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How to be a guest on podcasts
This step-by-step guide shows the process for marketing yourself through podcasts.
There are lots of interesting companies in the domain name space. There are also lots of Domain Name Wire readers who dabble in domain names yet have more intriguing businesses than just buying and selling domain names.
These companies and people should take advantage of podcasts to get the word out. Being a guest on a podcast is a lot like being a guest on a radio show but with several benefits
– The audiences are micro-targeted
– There’s a relevant podcast for every topic
– They aren’t live and can be edited before airing
– Because there are so many podcasts, it’s much easier to get booked as a guest on one
My PodcastGuests.com service now has over 5,000 users, many of whom have used the service to get booked on multiple podcasts.
If you need a little push to get over the hump and start being a guest on podcasts, I put together a handy guide that walks you through the process step-by-step. You can download it here.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Domain names around Seattle
Here are some notable domain names I saw around Seattle over the past month.
I spent the past month in Seattle on my annual “escape the Texas heat” vacation. And while people up here have complained about the 80+ degree days, it’s much nicer than what Austin is experiencing right now.
During my visit, I came across a handful of domain names that caught my attention. Here are some of them:
Southport.life
My understanding is that Renton has typically been the working class and manufacturing part of Seattle. Renton has become more attractive for living and office space as the rest of the city has become insanely expensive.
That seems to be part of the idea behind Southport, a big development on the southern edge of Lake Washington. I walked through the beautiful new Hyatt Regency and came across a sign promoting Southport:
An ad for Southport in Seattle.
Southport.com is owned by Digimedia. Southport is trying to pitch a lifestyle, so I understand why it went with Southport.life for its marketing.
RFI.com
While walking to lunch one day I spotted RFI.com on the side of a van. I always like seeing companies put three letter domains to use.
RFI Communications & Security Systems is a West Coast commercial security system design company.
RFI is a commercial security company that uses RFI.com.
HillTopper.bike
Biking is a popular way to get around in Seattle but the hills can be an impediment.
This poster caught my attention for its use of a .bike domain name to promote a kit that adds motorized power to your bicycle:
An ad for HillTopper.bike
HillTopper.bike forwards to electric-bike-kit.com. I understand why they are promoting the .bike domain instead!
Jucy
I’ll finish with a perplexing non-domain. Take a look:
This van doesn’t have a domain name on it.
You see this type of promotion (to just Google the company name) a lot in Japan. But not in the States. It doesn’t make much sense to me why you’d send someone to Google rather than directly to your website.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Categories: Domains
Quantifying GoDaddy’s aftermarket
GoDaddy’s aftermarket business continues to grow, and analysts need to understand how it works.
An analyst asked GoDaddy about its domain name aftermarket business on this week’s GoDaddy earnings conference call. GoDaddy credits increased aftermarket revenue for growing its topline domain name revenue and it’s important for analysts and shareholders to get an understanding of how the business works.
Aftermarket revenue is not like domain name registration revenue. Domain registration revenue is recognized over time and is recurring. If a registrar sells a domain for $12 this month, it will recognize $1 of revenue per month for the next year. More often than not, that domain will be renewed so the one registration continues to contribute to revenue for a long time.
But when GoDaddy sells a domain for $10,000, the best it can expect the next year is to get a standard renewal fee. It also recognizes the full amount upfront.
While aftermarket revenue is good revenue, analysts that are modeling GoDaddy’s business need to separate out what is recurring and what is not.
After the call, I contacted GoDaddy’s investor relations group to get clarity on GoDaddy’s answer provided during the conference call. Here’s the takeaway: the aftermarket business contributes mid-single digits to GoDaddy’s total revenue. Last quarter the company had revenue of $652 million, so if you assume about 4%-6%, that gives a number of about $25 million to $40 million in aftermarket revenue for the quarter.
GoDaddy’s domain revenue was $305 million, so roughly 10%-15% of domains revenue comes from the aftermarket.
The GoDaddy aftermarket has three main revenue sources:
1. Domains that GoDaddy has purchased for resale. Think Mike Berkens’ portfolio, Donuts’ portfolio, etc. that it has purchased and are now part of NameFind.
2. Expired domain names. This includes both domains expiring on GoDaddy’s platform as well as partners that send their inventory to GoDaddy.
3. Afternic and AfternicDLs sales.
The company counts revenue differently for each bucket depending on if it takes on the risk. Investor relations noted:
“[Domain aftermarket sales can be] recognized as either gross or net, depending on the set of circumstances with that partner. Each partner’s arrangement governs whether or not we take the risk of loss in the sale or we’re merely facilitating the sale. If we are placing any warranty/guarantee on the sale (assuming risk of loss) we’ll recognize the sale on a gross basis, scenarios where we’re facilitating the sale…we’ll record net.”
GoDaddy books the full amount of revenue if it sells a domain from its own portfolio. If it sells a domain investor’s domain through Afternic for $10,000, it only recognizes the $2,000 commission it earns.
Give GoDaddy credit for its smart approach to growing the aftermarket. As I mentioned earlier, Aftermarket revenue is good revenue, it’s just very different from what the company makes from domain registrations.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Tucows’ revenue drops on Namecheap transfers
Bulk transfer during Q1 hits revenue at Tucows.
Domain name company Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) reported second quarter 2018 earnings after the market closed yesterday.
Revenue fell 4% year-over-year to $81.1 million. This was not a surprise and it mostly relates to the bulk transfer of 2.65 million domain name to Namecheap. The Namecheap contract was low margin; the gross margin for the wholesale domain business fell by only $350,000.
Net income fell 31% year-over-year to $3.6 million, but Tucows’ adjusted EBITDA number posted an 8% gain to $11.2 million.
While Namecheap hurt the overall revenue from the domains business, its retail domain operation and portfolio business showed gains. Ting Mobile also showed growth.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Tucows changes the format of its quarterly earnings conference call, and it’s a great idea
New investor call model should be emulated.
Publicly traded companies release their earnings once a quarter. They follow it up with an analyst and shareholder call that goes something like this:
The CEO talks about what happened during the quarter. Then she hands it off to the CFO, who recaps the essential numbers. Then the call is turned over to Q&A with financial analysts who cover the stock.
The Q&A part is rarely interesting. Because most companies release their earnings within a short window, the analysts are switching between multiple calls. It’s common to hear “I just got off another earnings call, so apologies if someone already asked this, but…”
Their question is usually basic and yes, someone already asked it.
The questions are rarely insightful because analysts have only just received the earnings data, and the answers are carefully worded to avoid screwing up.
In other words, these calls can be a big waste of time.
So I love what domain name company Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) decided to do starting with its Q2 results.
Instead of holding an earnings call, Tucows is publishing pre-recorded remarks from the CEO and CFO. Then it will open a seven-day question window for analysts and shareholders to submit questions. Management will publish answers in writing one week later.
I don’t think this will be any easier for Tucows. Analysts will have better questions and expect better answers than what they get on a conference call. But it will avoid the quarterly waste of time and be better for analysts, shareholders, and the media.
© DomainNameWire.com 2018. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact copyright (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Crypto World Journal tries to reverse domain name hijack CWJ.com
Company goes after valuable domain name that was registered before it existed.
Crypto World Journal Inc, which operates a news site about cryptocurrency and blockchain, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking in its attempt to get the domain name CWJ.com.
The domain name was purchased by a Chinese domain name investor in 2016. Crypto World Journal wasn’t founded until after that. In the complaint, it’s clear that the Complainant thinks the owner had the domain name since its original registration date in 1999.
Nonetheless, it pursued the case by filing a UDRP with World Intellectual Property Organization. It made the misguided assertion that:
The very nature of Respondent’s registration evidences bad faith. Respondent has owned the Domain Name since 1999 and has never once had a functional page running. This leads to the conclusion that the Respondent registered the name to sell it one day to a company like that of the Complainant who has a real and legitimate use for the name, or just to prevent the owner of a trade mark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name.
That’s not how this works. Buying a domain name with the hopes that someday someone will want to buy it is not cybersquatting.
In finding reverse domain name hijacking, panelist Sebastian M.W. Hughes was particularly miffed that the Complaint “made the positive (and false) averment, in Section IV. of the Complaint (“Language of Proceedings”), that “There are no communications between the Complainant and the Respondent.”
The Complainant had emailed the owner previously. After the UDRP was filed, Crypto World Journal’s attorney wrote to the domain owner:
Hello Mr Lin:
I hope this email finds you well. I represent Cryto [sic] World Journal, the complainant in the WIPO dispute over the WWW.CWJ.COM domain name. I know that my client tried to reach out to you previously, but we did not have your name or email address, only the information provided by the registrar. Would you be willing to settle this outside of WIPO? I know my client is amenable to a speedy solution and we would appreciate if you were willing to come to a reasonable understanding. Please advise.
Hughes summarizes:
In light of the above, the Panel agrees with the Respondent that the Complainant has filed the Complaint after an unsuccessful attempt to acquire the disputed domain name from the Respondent, and where the legally represented Complainant filed the Complaint without having any plausible basis for establishing, in particular, bad faith registration and use.
The Chinese domain name investor was represented by Zak Muscovitch. Crypto World Journal was represented by Abecassis Foad, P.A..
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Lucky 13 end user domain name sales
Bosch, a hotel chain and Scholastic bought domain names on Sedo.
This week I discovered 13 end user domain name sales on Sedo’s sales list. There are more, of course, but I’m limited in my research by masked Whois records (#thanksGDPR) and domain names that are still in escrow.
Bosch picked up two domain names for its emergency elevator service business, a cryptocurrency/blockchain company bought a domain (what’s new?) and everyone’s favorite childhood book company bought a brand domain.
Let’s get to this week’s list and if you’re hungry for more, check out previous end user sales reports.
Caliva.com $15,000 – Marijuana company Caliva bought this domain and it now forwards to its GoCaliva.com domain.
eCarShop.com $11,000 – Buyer eBizAutos helps auto dealers create websites and advertise online.
BAKT.com $10,000 – A MarkMonitor client bought this domain name but it’s not clear which one. [Update: see comments]
CancunPalace.com $9,997 – Hotelera Palace Resorts, SAPI de CV has resorts around Mexico including five in Cancun.
Kovera.com €5,000 – A company called Tracking First bought the domain name. I can’t find anything on its site connected to this name.
REDPlatform.com $5,000 – Restart Energy Democracy says it has an Ethereum token to virtually store electrical energy.
CDIMedical.com $5,000 – CharDonnay Dialysis in Illinois.
Eblings.com $4,000 – Eblings is a lawn mower sales and service company in Pennsylvania.
SpeedyDeals.com $3,000 – Speedy Deals sells everything from appliances to rotary saws.
Aufzugnotruf.de and Aufzugsnotruf.de €2,500 each – Bosch bought these domain names for its elevator emergency services group.
ScholasticBooksOrder.com $2,227 – Scholastic Inc., the company that sends those little book order pamphlets home from school with your kids.
TAC.at €2,199 – The Assistant Company sells software for spas, athletic clubs, etc.
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Allstate is no longer in .GoodHands
Company ditches .goodhands domain name.
Insurance company Allstate (NYSE:ALL) has informed (pdf) domain name overseer ICANN that it no longer wishes to run the .goodhands top level domain name. It sent a termination notice to ICANN on July 13 informing it that it wants to dump the domain name. (The letter was just published.)
It doesn’t appear to have ever used the top level domain name. It only registered the obligatory nic.goodhands domain name, which forwards to Allstate.com.
Allstate originally applied for four top level domains: .allstate, .goodhands, .carinsurance and .autoinsurance. It withdrew the latter two applications but .allstate and .goodhands were delegated.
The company apparently plans to hang onto .allstate. It has registered a handful of domains under .allstate (agent.allstate, claims.allstate, and auto.allstate) and forwards these to pages on allstate.com.
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Categories: Domains
