News
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..
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
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.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
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.
© 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.
No related posts.
Categories: Domains
Law firm “careless” in filing cybersquatting dispute against domain CCK.com
Law form tried to get three letter .com domain name through UDRP.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panel has determined that the law firm that filed a UDRP for CCK.com was “careless”, but stopped short of finding it a case of reverse domain name hijacking.
Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick LTD, which uses the domain names cck-law.com and cck.law, filed the case and was represented by Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, LLP.
WIPO Panelist Matthew Kennedy found that the complainant did not show the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights. He did not consider the other two elements of UDRP.
It appears the domain was purchased earlier this year by a Chinese domain name investor.
The complaint, as summarized by Kennedy, argues:
The disputed domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith. The Respondent did not acquire the disputed domain name until well after the Complainant’s first use of the CCK mark. Even if the Respondent did not acquire the disputed domain name in bad faith, its subsequent use of the disputed domain name in bad faith can satisfy the third element of the Policy. The Respondent is using the disputed domain name in bad faith, primarily because (a) it acquired the disputed domain name primarily for the purposes of selling it for an amount in excess of the Respondent’s out-of-pocket costs, (b) the Respondent is preventing the Complainant from reflecting its CCK mark in the domain name and the Respondent is engaged in a pattern of similar behaviour involving other trademarks, and (c) the Respondent is not using the disputed domain name in conjunction with a business.
The Complainant submits that the Respondent is in the business of registering and passively holding thousands of domain names, presumably with the intent to monetize those domain names. The Complainant provides copies of emails from a domain broker employee of the Registrar offering to sell the disputed domain name for at least USD 100,000. The Complainant also provides a reverse WhoIs report regarding the name of the Respondent and the abuse contact email of the Registrar identifying over 1,000 domain names, ninety-eight percent of which are undeveloped. Some of these domain names incorporate the trademark of third parties.
The problem with these arguments is that there’s no suggestion that the domain owner was targeting the law firm. Indeed, it seems highly unlikely.
In considering reverse domain name hijacking, Kennedy writes:
The Complainant certified that the information contained in the Complaint was to the best of the Complainant’s knowledge complete and accurate. However, the Panel considers the submission of a series of conclusory allegations together with a copy of the Complainant’s homepage to be no more than a token effort to substantiate trademark rights. Further, the Complaint alleges that the Respondent has engaged in “a pattern of bad faith registrations” when the Complainant is unable to identify even one domain name held by the Respondent that incorporates the trademark of a third party, mentioning only “shijiebei” as a translation of “world cup”. The Complaint also alleges that the registrant of the disputed domain name was an unrelated entity as of April 4, 2018 but simultaneously alleges that the Respondent offered to sell the disputed domain name in email correspondence sent on April 4 and 5, 2018.
But Kennedy stopped short of finding reverse domain name hijacking:
After due consideration of the evidence, the Panel considers that the Complainant has been careless in filing its Complaint but the Panel does not find that the Complaint was brought in bad faith or that it constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
July’s Top Domain Name Stories
Here’s a look at what attracted a large audience on Domain Name Wire last month.
These are the top 5 stories, as ranked by pageviews:
1. Testing out the website builders: Wix, Weebly and Squarespace – In July, I started publishing reviews of website builders including Squarespace and Wix. Weebly is forthcoming, as are some others.
2. Competition in the domain industry – Domain name investors have seen the effects of little competition first hand.
3. Frank Schilling successfully defends OceanBreeze.com domain in UDRP – An air conditioning company filed a UDRP after failing to buy the domain name OceanBreeze.com.
4. Ice.com, a domain with a rich history, sells again. This time for $3.5 million – Ice.com was once a .com darling. It has traded hands since then.
5. New Zealand’s .NZ administrator sues DomainTools – The lawsuit is about DomainTools’ collection of Whois data for .nz domain names.
196: 5 things Mike Cyger learned…
195: Checking in with Escrow.com
194: Why ConvertKit rebranded as Seva (and a postscript)
193: Domain King Rick Schwartz
192: The domain name reseller business
© 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.
No related posts.
Categories: Domains
Former SNN.com owner goes to court to recover domain name
Original registrant files lawsuit after failing to recover domain name through UDRP.
The former owner of SNN.com, who says his domain name was stolen, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in Virginia to try to recover the domain name.
The suit was filed by Delbert Terrill, who registered the domain name in 1995, along with domain name registrar Brandon Gray Internet Services, Inc dba NameJuice.com.
(If that registrar name looks familiar, it’s because it was suspended by ICANN for the “Domain Registry of America” domain slamming issue.)
The lawsuit alleges that someone used a fake passport & business license to steal the domain name and transfer it to a different registrar.
Terrill tried to recover the domain name through UDRP earlier this year. It failed after not providing evidence of common law rights in the term “SNN”.
Also, unusual in cases of alleged domain theft, the current registrant of the domain responded in the dispute. The registrant claimed it acquired the domain legitimately.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
The latest .Com Leaderboard
Here’s how registrars performed in the latest official Verisign report.
ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign about the .com registry. This registrar-by-registrar report covers April 2018.
Chinese registrars continued to add .com domains at a nice clip in April.
In April, these were the top 10 registrars in terms of new .com registrations.
1. GoDaddy.com* 960,904 (975,008 in March)
2. HiChina Zhicheng Technology Ltd. 246,804 (252,159)
3. Tucows** 203,219 (217,900)
4. Endurance+ 153,352 (170,700)
5. NameCheap Inc. 127,855 (131,423)
6. Xin Net Technology Corporation 113,107 (173,893)
7. Web.com++ 103,385 (109,275)
8. Google Inc. 92,671 (96,621)
9. West.cn 74,741 (81,838)
10. NameSilo 62,017 (65,566)
Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of April 2018:
1. GoDaddy* 48,088,605 (47,815,002 in March)
2. Tucows** 12,932,547 (12,960,646)
3. Endurance+ 7,725,154 (7,793,869
4. Web.com++ 6,713,143 (6,721,816)
5. HiChina 5,298,573 (5,156,343)
6. NameCheap 4,222,952 (4,195,705)
7. 1&1 3,760,259 (3,771,035)
8. GMO 2,089,800 (2,097,311)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,010,000 (1,928,276)
10. Google 1,663,836 (1,603,663)
Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.
* Includes GoDaddy and Wild West Domains
** Includes Tucows and Enom
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions and Register.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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
MMX to connect .luxe with Ethereum Name Service
New domain will work with wallet-identifier service.
New top level domain name company Minds + Machines (MMX) announced today that it will connect its forthcoming .luxe top level domain with Ethereum Name Service.
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a sort of “domain names for ethereum asset addresses” system. The idea is somewhat similar to how domain names are easier to remember than IP addresses. Likewise, names are easier to remember for wallet addresses than a long chain of random characters.
ENS has offered people the opportunity to get .eth “domain names” that work for sending funds between wallets. These aren’t official domain names that you can type into a typical browser. (More about these names here.)
The partnership will allow people to get an ICANN-accredited domain name that works with ENS: something.luxe.
The biggest benefit I can see to owning a .luxe domain instead of .eth is the process of registering one. Ethereum Name Service has a needlessly complicated process for acquiring a .eth domain. It’s a multi-step type of auction.
Whether or not ENS ultimately proves successful is still up in the air. People have pumped about $30 million worth of ether into .eth domains, but there’s a catch: .eth domain buyers are allowed to trade in the domain and get their ether back after one year.
As for MMX deciding to use .luxe in this way, I say “why not?” .Luxe wasn’t going to be a home run domain being introduced in 2018. I give it points for creativity and innovation.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Fertilizer company tries reverse domain name hijacking
Company intentionally provided incomplete material evidence, panel determines.
Ferm-O-Feed B.V., a fertilizer company based in the Netherlands, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Fertiplus.com.
The World Intellectual Property Organization panel determined that Ferm-O-Feed “provided intentionally incomplete material evidence.”
The case follows a familiar pattern found in UDRP filings:
A company first tries to buy a domain name by reaching out to the owner (either via email or an online form). Once it receives a quote for the domain name, it then provides the quote to the panel and suggests that the domain owner reached out to it to try to sell the domain rather than just responding to an inbound request.
This matters because the Complainant is using the communications to suggest that the domain owner targeted its trademark and company with the domain registrations.
The panel provides a whole host of reasons that the domain wasn’t registered and used in bad faith, and found that the fertilizer company filed the case in abuse of the policy by not providing a complete picture of the communication. This, despite a warning by the domain owner’s counsel Zak Muscovitch.
Ferm-O-Feed was represented by Novagraaf Nederland B.V. [Update: a DNW reader pointed out that I’ve written about several RDNH cases in which Novagraaf was involved.]
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
GoDaddy reports earnings, Domain revenue tops $300 million
Domain revenue hits a milestone.
Godaddy (NYSE: GDDY) reported Q2 2018 earnings this afternoon.
The company’s revenue was $651.6 million, up from $557.8 in the same quarter last year. Unlevered free cash flow was $154.7 million.
GoDaddy also upped its full-year revenue guidance to $2.645 to $2.655 billion.
Domain name revenue topped $300 million for the first time, coming in at $305 million. That’s up from $263 million in Q2 2017 and $292 million in Q1 of 2018. The Host Europe Group acquisition was completed at the start of Q2 last year, so the growth is mostly organic at this point.
The company partially credits a “broader and more liquid aftermarket” for some of the lift during the quarter.
GoDaddy reported that its customer base ended Q2 at 18 million customers.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Notable NameJet sales from June
These domain names sold on NameJet last month.
NameJet sold 55 domains for at least $2,000 last month, bringing in a grand total of $239,000 for these $2k+ domains during the summer doldrums.
Among the domains are some with a bit of nostalgia. One will be nostalgic to the huge swath of DNW readers who were alive during the great depression. The other is nostalgic for people who grew up in the late 80s and 90s.
Below are some of the sales that caught my attention, and the full list follows.
TajMahal.com $29,999 – This was the top reported sale of the month. I wrote about it earlier; the domain sold on NameJet for $50,000 in 2009.
WCDM.com $10,199 – In a cursory review, I’m not sure why this domain sold for so much. It was once developed (many years ago) and WCDM.org is developed, but nothing pops out as justifying five figures. Any ideas?
Ethex.com $9,110 – Ethex is the name of a cryptocurrency service and a charitable giving site, both of which might want to upgrade to this domain.
NewDeal.com $8,000 – Originally registered in 1933 (that’s a joke)
Unhackable.com $4,801 – A great domain for a security firm or security marketing campaign.
Sponsor.org $4,288 – Goes perfectly with .org.
DoubleDragon.com $2,600 – Hey, if old video games are now worth money, why not domain names related to old video games?
DOMAINPRICE tajmahal.com29999 wcdm.com10199 11e.com10191 ethex.com9110 igps.com8155 newdeal.com8000 leao.com7255 plataforma.com7204 swishzone.com6356 agence.com5955 gamco.com5317 lapagina.com5199 geso.com5100 womp.com4999 unhackable.com4801 3ii.com4500 sponsor.org4288 sciencenewsline.com4200 maige.com4200 xueqian.com3911 finalclearance.com3650 hirano.com3500 gracecity.com3455 maddison.com3250 cruisin.com3230 cityart.com3077 canvasprint.com3058 osly.com2900 elike.com2800 58001.com2710 ssnet.com2600 postalcode.com2600 novint.com2600 ryla.com2600 doubledragon.com2600 hundan.com2548 ta8.com2500 quickboos.com2500 litrix.com2499 resim.net2499 enver.com2422 nitle.org2400 noral.com2399 cheapfashion.com2345 royaljet.com2322 storageworks.com2256 casinocentral.com2166 founderslab.com2150 lasvegasguide.com2099 maranda.com2048 capitalcare.com2040 micar.com2021 bioskop.com2020 67003.com2011 melany.com2000© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Shareholders approve KeyDrive acquisition; deal to close tomorrow
Long-awaited merger will be completed tomorrow.
Domain name company CentralNic (AIM:CNIC) held a shareholder meeting this morning at which shareholders approved the company’s acquisition of KeyDrive S.A. With the shareholder approval, the company will complete its acquisition of Keydrive tomorrow morning.
The cash-and-equity deal will give CentralNic a much bigger position in the domain registration business including the Key-Systems platform and retail registrar Moniker. CentralNic already owns retail domain name registrars Instra and Internet.bs.
KeyDrive grossed $58.26 million in the 2017 fiscal year. CentralNic’s top line was £24.3m in 2017 (about $32M USD at today’s exchange rate).
CentralNic has been growing largely by acquisition in recent years. At the general meeting, shareholders rejected a measure to streamline future acquisitions by giving CentralNic advanced permission to issue shares to non-shareholders without having to gain the specific agreement of existing shareholders.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Why Choose LogicBoxes’ Domain Reseller Program
[Editor’s note: This is a sponsored post by Eeshaan Satwalekar, Manager, Business Development at LogicBoxes]
Change is the only constant in life; and the same applies to brands too.
Change, as we know, is an essential driver of development. However, there are a few things that must remain consistent. One such thing, and a very important one, is the promise you offered your customers before they made their first purchase from you. It is that promise that sustains your customers’ unwavering faith in your brand.
Back in 2013, LogicBoxes made the promise of delivering an impeccable domain automation platform which would enable Domain Resellers as well as Web Hosts to provision lucrative and high-demand domain names along with other value-added products such as Web Hosting, Site Builders, Email solutions and Security Certificates. This was aimed at empowering these internet players with a wholesome product portfolio. The Elite Reseller Program was tailor-made for Web Hosting and Domain Name providers and was geared towards helping them achieve maximum growth in terms of revenue as well as market share.
What sets this program apart from the rest of its kind in the industry is the fact that it lays immense amount of importance on not just the product offering but also on the service aspect of it. The ‘4 Ps’, as we call it, form the building blocks of this program:
1.Pricing
Pricing can either make or break a business. With competitive pricing on Domain Names, Hosting, and other value-added services, resellers are left with healthy profit-margins to play with. For instance, our .COMs are available for a price as low as $8.42!
2. Privilege
Our skilled set of experts always go the extra mile to provide world class business assistance.
- A Dedicated Account Manager: The Account Manager helps resellers to strategize and chalk out growth plans that benefit their business.
- 24×7 Technical Support: Our Support specialists are available 24×7 to assist resellers with technical queries and resolve issues via phone, chat and email.
3. Platform
Our flagship platform – OrderBox, is multi-tiered, multi-currency, multi-lingual and intuitive. With inbuilt promo, coupon and automated tax engines and third-party integrations with billing modules such as WHMCS, AWBS, Blesta, etc., handling transactions becomes effortless.
4. Products
With over 25 variants of Web Hosting, 800+ TLDs , Business and Enterprise Email solutions, intelligent Website Builders, beneficial Plugins, and industry-best digital security solutions, our product portfolio guarantees variety.
LogicBoxes’ flagship reseller interfaces ensure flawless product configuration, provisioning and management. There are two ways to go about this:
SuperSite
Our fully customizable, white-labeled storefront offering ensures that end-customers have the best checkout experience which enables them to start selling instantly.
API Integration
The HTTPS-based OrderBox APIs enable resellers and sub-resellers to connect to their automation platform i.e. OrderBox, directly.
It goes without saying that our program, our platform as well as our product suite has only evolved ever since the program’s inception. Fast forward five years, and today, we take pride in saying that we continue to cater to some of the biggest players from the industry. The Elite Reseller Program is a holistic solution for Web Hosts & Domain Name resellers, and a much needed one for this segment. To know more, you can head to our website and request for more information by getting in touch with us!
© 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.
No related posts.
Categories: Domains
Weeds.com owner fights back, asks for damages for reverse domain name hijacking
Weeds.com owner asks court to penalize weed control company for reverse domain name hijacking.
Last year a regional weed control company in the United States called Weeds, Inc. filed a UDRP cybersquatting claim against Innovation HQ, Inc, the owner of Weeds.com.
Before the UDRP decision was published, Weeds, Inc. followed up by filing a federal lawsuit against Innovation HQ. Shortly thereafter, the World Intellectual Property Organization UDRP panel published its decision that Weeds, Inc. had engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by filing the UDRP.
It took a while for Weeds, Inc. to serve Innovation HQ, but now the case is moving forward. And as I predicted, this could end up being a costly case for the weed control company: Innovation HQ is fighting back.
Innovation HQ is asking the court (pdf) to grant damages for reverse domain name hijacking, plus other fees. It also alleges that Weeds, Inc. committed fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to get its trademark and is asking the court to order the trademark to be canceled. All told, if the court agrees, Weeds, Inc. could be forced to pay over $100,000.
John Berryhill is representing Innovation HQ.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
URS Panelist: “Complainant’s business may be worldwide but it is not out of this world”
Uniform Rapid Suspension is designed for cases with an overwhelming evidence of bad faith.
This post is part of a series on UDRP issues by the Internet Commerce Association.
Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) is a relatively new mechanism for trademark owners to employ in cases of cybersquatting. It enables a trademark owner to suspend a domain name (but not obtain the transfer, as that is left for the UDRP) in cases where there is “clear and convincing” evidence that the registrant registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith. This is a higher evidentiary standard than in the UDRP, which is “on the balance of probabilities”.
The URS only applies to new gTLDs and a handful of other gTLDs[1], and is intended to be a quicker procedure than the UDRP where the evidence of bad faith is overwhelming. Suspending a domain name and thereby disabling an associated website, particularly on only 14 days’ notice to the registrant, is a severe remedy and therefore should be limited only to those cases where there is no genuine issue in dispute and the matter is easily decided in a couple quick paragraphs by the panelists.
Most trademark attorneys who bring a URS proceeding understand the limitations of the URS. It is not intended as a substitute for the UDRP, nor is it intended to make it easy to suspend a domain name absent clear and convincing evidence of bad faith.
In the case of supercluster.space, Oracle International Corporation brought a URS against the registrant. Oracle International had a trademark for SUPERCLUSTER in connection with its computer hardware and software business and there was evidence that the respondent was offering the domain name for sale. Nevertheless, as NAF Panelist Darryl C. Wilson correctly pointed out:
Complainant’s mark is fanciful and distinct in regards to computers but is merely descriptive regarding astronomy and cosmology. Superclusters are found in space and have been part of the common vernacular relative to space discussion since the early 20th century. Use of superclusters in connection with space does not indicate that Registrant is any way acting in bad faith per Complainant’s computer business. Complainant’s assertions that its business is worldwide and therefore Registrant must have registered the .space domain name in recognition of the scope of Complainant’s business is logically inconsistent. Complainant’s business may be worldwide but it is not out of this world. Procurement of a trademark for a common term does not preclude others from using the term in its common manner. [emphasis added]
Like with the UDRP, in the URS the registration of common terms – even for resale – is not considered bad faith absent a specific intent to target a particular brand owner. In this case, the Complaint failed because the Complainant attempted to suspend the registrant’s domain name, without any clear and convincing evidence of an intent to capitalize on the Complainant’s mark which was limited to computers. The registrant had every right to register the disputed domain name, as having a trademark for one category of goods or services, does not enable a trademark owner to monopolize a common term.
As such, this case presents an important lesson for trademark owners and their attorneys who are considering the URS. The URS can be an effective tool in dealing with cybersquatting in new gTLDs, but it is not an avenue for interfering with the registration of common terms absent clear evidence of bad faith. In all cases, Panelists must enforce the applicable threshold of clear and convincing evidence of bad faith registration and use. Mere non-use in connection with a common term doesn’t come close to meeting this threshold. The Internet Commerce Association applauds Panelist Darryl Wilson in upholding this crucial test under the URS.
[1] See the ICA’s comment on this issue, here
Zak Muscovitch is General Counsel to the Internet Commerce Association, a group that advocates on behalf of domain name investors.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Want a .makeup domain? It will soon cost over $10,000 per year
Prices for .makeup domains are skyrocketing again.
Now that’s some expensive .makeup
Last year I wrote a post titled “Want a .makeup domain? It will soon cost over $5,000 per year.”
L’Oreal, which operates the .makeup top level domain, was getting ready to raise prices that were about $300 a year to a retail price of over $5,000.
But why stop there? It looks like it’s hiking its prices about 100% this year, so you should expect to pay $10,000+ retail to register .makeup domain names beginning September 6.
The good news? Existing domain name registrations are grandfathered in. So if you grabbed one of these domains early, you don’t have to pay the new higher prices.
There are about 250 registered .makeup domain names. Don’t expect that to increase anytime soon.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
GoDaddy Auctions is pulling back some expired domains that were at Endurance
Domains from partner registrar were mistakenly sent to GoDaddy for auctioning.
Over the weekend, a Domain Name Wire reader noticed that expired domain names from some domain name registrars had been pulled from GoDaddy Auctions. This included domain names that already had bids. When I looked the domains up, it seemed that some of them had previously been renewed by their owners.
All four of the registrars that this reader noticed–BigRock, Domain, FastDomain and Public Domain Registry–are owned by Endurance International Group.
Now at least one GoDaddy Auctions customer has received an email explaining that some of the domains they won are going to be pulled back due to a mistake. The domains should not have been sent to GoDaddy auctions from the partner registrar.
While it doesn’t name names, all of the domains I’ve seen are at Endurance registrars.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Mr. Bladel goes to Washington
GoDaddy VP of Public Policy testifies to Congress and answers questions from Ted Cruz.
GoDaddy VP of Global Policy James Bladel testifying to the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
GoDaddy Vice President of Global Policy James Bladel was in Washington, D.C. this morning for a Senate hearing “The Internet and Digital Communications: Examining the Impact of Global Internet Governance”.
In his prepared testimony (pdf), Bladel touched on three topics: foreign regulations, GDPR and the Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. government and Verisign when it comes to .com.
On the latter, Bladel urged the government to maintain price caps in the Cooperative Agreement. He also urged them to eventually put the .com contract out to competitive bid.
Bladel was questioned by Ted Cruz about the first amendment and what role companies like GoDaddy should have in being the arbiters of free speech. It seemed like he might be alluding to GoDaddy kicking out domains like DailyStormer.com. Bladel responded that GoDaddy does not want the role of determining what is free speech, but does enforce its Terms of Service against illegal activity and speech that rises to a level of promoting violence.
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
ConvertKit decides against renaming as Seva
After customer feedback, ConverKit decides to stick with its original name.
Two weeks ago I interviewed Nathan Barry, founder of email marketing platform ConvertKit, on the DNW Podcast. Nathan explained the long process the company went through in coming up with tje new company name Seva and acquiring the domain name Seva.com. It was a lot of work and a big expense.
I heard from many people that this was the best podcast interview yet, and I agree that there were lots of great lessons and tips in that episode.
And now for another lesson…
After announcing the name change, ConvertKit got lots of feedback. Much of it was around the origins of the name. While ConvertKit viewed it as meaning “selfless service”, the company subsequently heard from many people about the deep connection to religion and culture that the word has.
It ultimately decided that it should stick with the ConvertKit name.
Does anyone wantt to buy Seva.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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
Why getting patents is smart for domain name companies
Patent programs help employees focus on innovation and create a good defense against patent infringement cases.
Last week I was reviewing some of GoDaddy’s recent patent applications. When I write stories about patents, people often say that the patent is a joke or the invention is obvious. That may well be true in some circumstance. But GoDaddy’s (NYSE: GDDY) patent strategy is smart.
As a bit of background, I once worked in the intellectual property group of a Fortune 500 company. My job was to license non-patented software technology for commercialization, but I also saw the inner-workings of patent programs.
Many companies have patent programs that reward employees for patents upon filing, grant, or both. While building a company’s patent portfolio is part of the goal, I find that these programs also get employees to think more about innovation in general.
In my first job out of college, I submitted a patent through our company’s patent program for “Automated system and method for creating aligned goals”. U.S. Patent 7,110,988 was granted five years later. I don’t recall how much the company paid us for applying for the patent, but it was enough to get us motivated to spend extra time thinking about what we had developed and work with the lawyers to draft the patent application.
(Domainers will appreciate that the domain attached to our invention was Leadership.com.)
I’m also named as an inventor on a patent for an anti-phishing detection system as well as one for technology licensing analysis for a startup I co-founded.
Of course, a key goal of corporate patent programs is for the value of patents themselves. This comes both offensively and defensively.
I’m not aware of GoDaddy ever asserting one of its patents except in defense. It would cause quite an uproar if the company tried to extract royalties for things that are now considered commonplace at domain name registrars. But at the same time, an active registrar would be foolish to file a patent-infringement suit against GoDaddy when they are likely infringing one of GoDaddy’s patents.
Back in early 2013, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) said it was going to work on monetizing its intellectual property. That talk has all but disappeared from the company’s investor conference calls and a site it created to feature its patents has been taken offline. Perhaps the company figured out that holding onto its .com monopoly means it’s not worth ruffling feathers. I wonder if it will re-engage its monetization plans if it gets out of its Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. government?
© 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.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
