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Intellectual Property company guilty of reverse domain name hijacking
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
Intellectual property management company CPA Global has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by a World Intellectual Property Orgnaization panel.
The company filed a cybersquatting complaint against the domain name CPAGlobal-Litigation.com. The domain name is used by a law firm soliciting CPA Global customers for a class action lawsuit that alleges the IP management firm overbilled clients.
Even a rudimentary review of past UDRP cases would reveal that a panel would rule the domain name was registered and used in good faith and that the law firm had a legitimate interest in the domain. It helped that it had ‘litigation’ in the domain, which makes it clear that the site connected to the domain isn’t run by CPA Global.
In finding reverse domain name hijacking, the three-member panel wrote:
In this case, the Complainant ought to have known its Complaint was doomed to fail. The Respondent was clearly using the Disputed Domain Name in good faith to promote and provide information about a legitimate service which it offers…
…The Panel considers the Complainant launched the proceedings primarily to harass the Respondent and disrupt its lawsuit.
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Short seller targets Tucows with scathing report
Company that is shorting Tucows releases report blasting company.
The same anonymous stock research group that targeted Web.com about four years ago is now going after Tucows.
Copperfield Research released a report about the domain name, mobile and broadband company titled “Cashing in on Neo-Nazis, Child Porn, & A Hidden Lawsuit as Insiders Dump”. The report’s authors have a short position in the company.
The report highlights three major grievances with Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX), a company whose stock doubled in price last year: all three of its business segments have issues, it is helping people operate unsavory websites, and it hasn’t disclosed its imminent loss of domains to Namecheap.
The hyperbole-filled report has some valid points, but I’m the type of person who sees a few misleading statements and then assumes that many of the other statements are wrong.
For example, the report blasts Tucows for its high churn rate when it took over the subscriber base of failed MVNO RingPlus. However, Tucows explicitly stated in earnings calls that it expected very low conversion from this group because RingPlus offered free service.
Also, the report devotes significant ink to a handful of bad websites that have registered their domains within the Tucows ecosystem. The report cites multiple websites with domain names that are registered at Tucows but does not draw a distinction between hosting and domain registration. It amusingly blasts the qualifications of one of Tucows’ compliance offers because she also like to DJ in her spare time.
On the NameCheap issue, it will be interesting to see how much of an impact the loss of Namecheap’s domains will have on Tucows. The revenue hit is real but the profit hit is unclear.
Shares in Tucows are down about 8% today. After opening the year around $70 they are now trading for $55.
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Domain business rewind – DNW Podcast #168
Looking back at 2017 in the domain name business.
Happy New Year! This week I run down the top stories on DNW from last year. Top stories include GDPR, new top level domain pricing, emoji domains, dot-brands and more. Also: WordPress hosting company gets lots of dough, no more RegistrarStats and Syria.net dispute.
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.)
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Afilias gets contract for Puerto Rico’s .PR domain
This is how we do it down in Puerto Rico.
Domain name registry services provider Afilias has won a contract to operate the backend registry for Puerto Rico’s .PR top level domain name. The transition to Afilias was completed yesterday. Previously, technical operations were handled in-house.
.PR is unrestricted and has been pitched as a good extension for Public Relations firms. One of the more popular domains is n.pr, which is used as a shortener by National Public Radio.
Neither Afilias nor .PR manager Gauss Research Laboratories were immediately available to provide domain counts to DNW. [Update: Gauss Research disclosed that there are 7,784 .pr domains registered.] DomainTools tracks just over 5,000 domain names on .PR but this is likely misleading because many of the domains on .PR are third level registrations under second level domains like .com.pr.
Currently, registrars offer second level .PR registrations for over $1,000 per year while third level registrations are available for about $150.
While this probably isn’t a huge revenue contract for Afilias, the timing will allow the company to showcase the expanding roster of TLDs is supports during the ICANN meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico in March.
Afilias recently won a major contract to manage 3 million domain names registered on Australia’s .AU domain.
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#2 in 2017: GoDaddy and Uniregistry fight over new TLD prices
This is the ninth in a series covering the top stories on DNW in 2017, as ranked by pageviews.
The #4 story in 2017 was about Frank Schilling’s capitulation on his forecast for new top level domains and his decision to drastically increase prices on many of his TLDs.
I’ve decided to separate the ensuing tiff between Schilling’s Uniregistry and GoDaddy into a separate item because of its importance, and because it represents an example of the often challenging interplay between registries and their registrar channel.
Following Uniregistry’s announcement of a price hike, GoDaddy temporarily pulled all of Uniregistry’s domains from its shelves. GoDaddy GM of Domains Mike McLaughlin said, “…The dramatic price hike Uniregistry announced left us no choice…”
Facing additional registrar backlash, Uniregistry backtracked a bit and decided to grandfather existing domain registrations at pre-hike prices. Uniregistry left it up to the registrars to handle the technical integration of the grandfathering.
GoDaddy later added Uniregistry domains back to its shelves but with very high markups. Then, in August, the company decided to pull the plug on Uniregistry indefinitely. In addition to halting new registrations and transfers, GoDaddy partnered with Hexonet to handle the backend for existing Uniregistry domain names.
GoDaddy was late to sign on to carry Uniregistry’s domains in the first place, so it wasn’t one of the top registrars for Uniregistry domains. Still, losing the world’s largest domain registrar is bad news for any registry operator.
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WP Engine banks $250 million from PE that bought GoDaddy
WordPress hosting company takes a big investment from a company that knows the hosting space.
There was quite a bit of buzz here in Austin yesterday after WordPress hosting service WP Engine announced a $250 million investment from Silver Lake Partners.
That’s a big number by Austin standards, and might be the biggest single raise by a local tech company since HomeAway banked that much in 2008.
Local press pointed out that Silver Lake is the company that helped Austin-based Dell go private. But there’s also a connection to the hosting/domains business. Silver Lake was one of three private equity groups that bought/invested in GoDaddy in 2011.
Silver Lake definitely understands the hosting space and its business mechanics. The PE firm’s involvement means that WP Engine could be on the same course as GoDaddy when it comes to going public.
I remember when WP Engine was just a few person startup in Austin, so it’s nice to see it grow. It now employs 500 people with most of them in Austin. The company has 75,000 customers and $100 million in annual revenue.
Lisa Box, formerly with Oversee.net and Endurance International Group, is currently Vice President Strategic Alliances and Business Development at WP Engine.
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#3 in 2017: GDPR and the death of Whois
This is the eighth in a series covering the top stories on DNW in 2017, as ranked by pageviews.
Whois will likely undergo a major overhaul in 2018 thanks to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into full effect on May 25. A story I wrote about the topic was among the most-viewed stories on DNW in 2017.
GDPR is a law to protect the personal information and privacy of European Union residents. It will impact companies around the world that handle data of EU residents. This includes domain name registrars and registries that process domain name registrations.
GDPR was a top story on Domain Name Wire in 2017Click To TweetThe most visible impact for domain names will be Whois because Whois is essentially a public database of personal information. Many questions remain surrounding what registrars and registries will need to do to comply with the law. ICANN, for its part, doesn’t seem to know and has said it will be lenient on contract compliance regarding Whois as it seeks to figure it out.
GDPR will continue to be a big story in 2018. Stay tuned.
© DomainNameWire.com 2017. 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.
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DealerX auto marketing company is a reverse domain name hijacker
Company goes after rival’s “conquest” domain names.
DealerX Partners, LLC, a company that helps automobile dealers market to consumers, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain names ConquestAutomotive.com, Conquest.email and Conquest.marketing.
In the car industry “conquest” is a term used to refer to winning over a customer that drives a competitor’s car. You will often see promotions on car websites that include “conquest cash” or something similar in which the manufacturer offers discounts when a buyer owns or leases a competitive vehicle.
The domain owner uses the .com domain to market its auto advertising services.
DealerX apparently offers services under the Conquest name. But it failed to mention to the panel that the term is common in the industry. It also didn’t mention ongoing legal proceedings with another party to cancel DealerX’s Conquest Service mark. In finding reverse domain name hijacking, the panel noted “we have a prime example of material evidence omitted from the Complaint”. The panel also noted:
The Complaint also alleges, without evidence, that its mark has acquired renown. Complainant’s essential argument is that Respondent cannot possibly have a legitimate interest in the Domain Names because: Complainant holds a registered mark, and any use of “conquest” in the automotive software field is trademark infringement and per se illegitimate. This position has been roundly rejected by the Panel in this case, based in part on the fact (also undisclosed in the Complaint) that the word “conquest” has a special meaning within the argot of automotive marketing.
DealerX was represented by Phillips Ryther & Winchester. The domain owner was internally represented.
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#4 in 2017: A new TLD death spiral?
This is the seventh in a series covering the top stories on DNW in 2017, as ranked by views.
It’s been apparent for years that new top level domains aren’t meeting the expectations applicants had for the domains. A big new TLD cheerleader succumbed to this reality earlier this year.
Frank Schilling announced a major price hike for most of Uniregistry’s top level domain names early in 2017. (This set a lot of balls in motion that are the subject of the #2 story of the year.)
Schilling admitted that his expectations for sales were not being met. He came on the DNW Podcast to talk about the price hike and why it was necessary. Schilling said that he was in the red on many of these domains and wanted to get them to profitability. Also, if he could do it all over again, he would have applied for a different set of domains.
One of the reasons I believe Rightside sold itself this year was because it was becoming evident that it wasn’t going to meet the expectations it set in the market for new TLD revenue. Its revenue from new domains actually started falling quarter-over-quarter when it promised lofty growth within the next few years.
Are new top level domain names dead? Hardly. Some of the biggest players are doing quite well and spinning off lots of cash. But it became clear (or clearer) in 2017 that some models aren’t going to work.
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RegistrarStats.com to shut down next month
Old school domain data site is shutting down next month.
Donuts has announced that it is shutting down RegistrarStats.com on February 19, 2018. The company acquired the site as part of its acquisition of Rightside last year.
The company says it is shutting down the service “due to dwindling interest and usage in the website service over the past several years.” Paying customers will receive a pro-rata refund of any subscription payments that extended beyond February 19.
RegistrarStats was once a popular site for gathering data on domain names such as registrar market share stats. However, the site has languished in recent years under a paid model. The copyright notice hasn’t been updated since 2013.
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#5 in 2017: The Chinese trademark scam
This is the sixth in a series covering the top stories on DNW in 2017, as ranked by pageviews.
One of the great things about writing DNW is that I get to help people. One way I help people is by writing about scams.
The Chinese trademark scam has been going on for years, but a post I wrote this year detailing the scam in its entirety has attracted a steady stream of visitors. I trust that this means people are doing research before falling for the scam, which means I’m helping people avoid falling for it.
This particular scam starts with an email from a Chinese company warning you that someone is trying to register domain names that include your brand. The company wants to make sure you’re OK with someone else registering the domains.
Of course, no one is trying to register these domains. The company is trying to scare you into registering the domain names and paying it a nice premium to do so.
Another scam still making the rounds is the domain appraisal scam. I heard from a couple people this year who lost thousands on this scam.
Don't fall for the Chinese Trademark Scam!Click To Tweet
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Google publishes their TLD registry software: Nomulus
Google announced this morning that they are releasing their TLD registry platform, Nomulus, which is written in Java, under an Apache 2.0 license. The company uses the software to run their own registry for their TLDs. Portfolio TLD applicant Donuts has partnered with Google and contributed to the source code – they will also be running a public test instance of the system, which is geared towards being run on the Google Cloud Platform. So far, Rightside (NASDAQ: NAME) has been operating Donuts’ registry backend.
Also covered by:
- DomainNameWire: Google open sources domain registry, Donuts collaborates as pressure on registry providers mounts. The article focusses on the rising pressure on Domain Registry Operators, and a potential switch of platforms by Donuts away from Rightside.
Here’s the full press release:
Introducing Nomulus: an Open Source Top-Level Domain Name RegistryDate: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 8:00am PT
Author: Ben McIlwain, Software Engineer
Today, Google is proud to announce the release of Nomulus, a new open source cloud-based registry platform that powers Google’s top level domains (TLDs). We’re excited to make this piece of Internet infrastructure available to everyone.
TLDs are the top level of the Internet Domain Name System (DNS), and they collectively host every domain name on the Internet. To manage a TLD, you need a domain name registry — a behind-the-scenes system that stores registration details and DNS information for all domain names under that TLD. It handles WHOIS queries and requests to buy, check, transfer, and renew domain names. When you purchase a domain name on a TLD using a domain name registrar, such as Google Domains, the registrar is actually conducting business with that TLD’s registry on your behalf. That’s why you can transfer a domain from one registrar to another and have it remain active and 100% yours the entire time.
The project that became Nomulus began in 2011 when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced the biggest ever expansion of Internet namespace, aimed at improving choice and spurring innovation for Internet users. Google applied to operate a number of new generic TLDs, and built Nomulus to help run them.
We designed Nomulus to be a brand-new registry platform that takes advantage of the scalability and easy operation of Google Cloud Platform. Nomulus runs on Google App Engine and is backed by Google Cloud Datastore, a highly scalable NoSQL database. Nomulus can manage any number of TLDs in a single shared instance and supports the full range of TLD functionality required by ICANN, including the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP), WHOIS, reporting, and trademark protection. It is written in Java and is released under the Apache 2.0 license.
We hope that by providing access to our implementation of core registry functions and up-and-coming services like Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP), we can demonstrate advanced features of Google Cloud Platform and encourage interoperability and open standards in the domain name industry for registry operators like Donuts. With approximately 200 TLDs, Donuts has made early contributions to the Nomulus code base and has spun up an instance which they’ll be sharing soon.
For more information, view Nomulus on GitHub.
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