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A disturbing UDRP ends in reverse domain name hijacking finding
Panel says it believes the complaint contained false statements and evidence designed to mislead it.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found reverse domain name hijacking in a cybersquatting dispute over the domain CheapStuff.com. It’s a disturbing case in which the Respondent’s counsel asserts—and the Complainant’s counsel ultimately does not refute—that the Complainant submitted falsified documents to the panel.
The Complainant is CheapStuff, Inc., but the communications in the case and the attorney who handled it for the Complainant are associated with AdMedia.
The crux of the Complainant’s case is that the domain was removed from its control even though it paid the renewal fee for the domain. It alleges that, when it reached out to the new domain owner (who bought it in an expired domain auction), the new owner asked for $150,000.
But a close examination of the documents and timeline call these assertions into question.
First, the Complainant produced an invoice and receipt for renewing the domain name dated 4/22/20. This is more than a month after the domain expired and the new owner acquired the domain at NameJet.
Second, the email in which the Complainant alleges that the Respondent asked for $150,000 for the domain has several oddities. The Respondent says he didn’t send the email. The Respondent’s attorney, John Berryhill, noted:
Secondly, on inspection of Complainant’s Annex 6, the Panel will note the notation “forwarded message” in what purports to be a reply, and a curious non-carriage-returned alignment of the “To:” field in Complainant’s exhibit. The auto-text “forwarded message” is not added to quoted text in an ordinary email reply, as any email user knows. The Respondent denies sending the email claimed in Complainant’s Annex 6, and it appears the Complainant forwarded its own sent message to itself and wrote in the “reply”.
The image below depicts the email exhibit attached to the Complainant’s submission as Annex 6. I have blurred out the email handles and highlighted the two items pointed out by Berryhill. I have also highlighted a statement by the sender that states it owned the domain since 1997, which Berryhill says is false.
In finding reverse domain name hijacking, panelist John Swinson wrote:
…The Complaint was in the Panel’s view of the evidence submitted brought with disregard for the truth, and contains false statements and evidence designed to mislead the Panel.
For example, the Complainant says that the Complainant paid all renewal registration fees to the Registrar, including the recent renewal fee, but through some fault of the Registrar the Disputed Domain Name was not renewed. As part of the Complaint, the Complainant provides a purported invoice to show the payment of the renewal fees to the Registrar. The purported invoice is dated after the Respondent acquired the Disputed Domain Name at auction and after the Disputed Domain Name expired.
The Panel’s jurisdiction ends with this Decision, but the Respondent may have reason to report Complainant’s representative who certified the Complaint to the appropriate (e.g., bar association or otherwise) authorities.
The Complainant was represented by AdMedia’s in-house counsel, Robert Bass. I reached out to Bass to see if he wanted to comment on the allegations for this story. Bass responded:
The decision was simply wrong on these issues. Unfortunately, the way the process works, there is no ability to refute these erroneous conclusions. Thank you.
It’s worth noting that the Complainant made supplemental filings in the case, neither of which apparently address the Respondent’s allegations of doctored exhibits. I followed up with Bass by stating:
I’d like to give you the opportunity to refute them publicly because it wasn’t done in any of the additional submissions. So if you’d like to explain the Network Solutions renewal invoice from after the domain expired, or the issues with the email, pleas (sic) let me know.
Bass responded:
Mr. Allemann: I have nothing further to add and stand by what I wrote. Thank you.
Post link: A disturbing UDRP ends in reverse domain name hijacking finding
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Squadhelp adds negotiating features, tops 100k domains
Company adds extended financing options and the ability to have Squadhelp negotiate on your behalf.
I realize that I just wrote about new features and domain counts for Squadhelp’s white label marketplaces a couple of days ago, but the company is iterating quickly in response to feedback.
Squadhelp now has over 100,000 domains on its white label marketplaces.
The company added several new features in the past 24 hours:
- Domain financing extended to up to 24 months at your option. You can now choose a maximum of 6 or 12 months, or the maximum allowed by Squadhelp (currently 24 months). You can also turn off financing.
- You can add a make offer button in addition to a buy now price. You can also set a universal threshold for when the make offer button will appear. For example, you can select that you only want it available on domains you price above $5,000.
- Minimum offer amounts added. You can set a percentage of the buy now price that must be met for an offer to be submitted.
- Set floors for Squadhelp to negotiate. You can authorize Squadhelp to offer a discount of 10%, 20%, or 30% before reaching out to you for authorization. This is similar to the floor amount on Afternic, although on Squadhelp, it has to be applied to the entire account. I really like this feature since Squadhelp has 24/7 chat on the landers.
Squadhelp has also improved its bulk editing capabilities.
Post link: Squadhelp adds negotiating features, tops 100k domains
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End user domain name sales including several non-coms
A video game developer, a security company, and a payroll processor bought domain names.
Sedo’s top public sale of the past week was Memento.com. Not Momento–memento. This is an end user price but it’s not yet clear who bought the domain.
So that makes the biggest end user sale on the list $35,000 for FlappyBird.com, the name of a popular game.
Beyond these names, this week’s list includes a .club, .io, .de, .pro, .global and .se.
Here’s a list of some of the end user domain name sales from the past week. You can review previous end user sales lists here.
FlappyBird.com $35,000 – dotGears, the Vietnamese game developer, bought this domain for its Flappy Bird game.
SA.Global $12,500 – This is an interesting one. The company name is sa.global but its main domain name is saglobal.com. There was no such thing as a .global domain when the company originally branded itself. Now it owns the domain that matches its brand and forwards it to saglobal.com. The company provides Microsoft Dynamics implementation.
Anywhere.io €10,000 – Software development company EPAM Systems, Inc., bought the domain. It might be for a client project.
Singles .club $8,100 – This domain is being used for an online dating site. It appears to be part of a network of online dating sites.
GearBest.de €7,000 – Forwards to GearBest.com, an e-commerce site selling products in multiple categories like consumer electronics, jewelry and accessories, housewares and more.
Batri.com $5,000 – Fortium Technologies Ltd, a cyber security company, bought this domain name. It doesn’t resolve yet.
JetProfessionals.com $5,000 – Jet Aviation bought this domain. It is a Basel, Switzerland business aviation services company. It was founded in 1967 and today is a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Dynamics.
People.pro $4,000 – Dataplan Payroll Limited, a UK company that provides outsourcing of payroll and pension plan processes, bought the domain. It currently use DataPlanPayroll.co.uk as its main website.
Annonsera.se €3,500 – Annonsera is Swedish for advertise. It looks like the domain is being used for a classified ads site.
Inowell.com $3,000 – Avanco GmbH bought the domain. This German company manufactures technical products made of aluminum and fiber composites. I can’t find any references to Inowell on its website.
Post link: End user domain name sales including several non-coms
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Rodenbaugh drops lawsuit against UDRPsearch owner
Attorney dismisses lawsuit against past client.
Attorney Michael Rodenbaugh has voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit against David Lahoti.
Rodenbaugh sued Lahoti after the UDRPsearch.com owner forwarded visitors to his popular UDRP database to a website critical of Rodenbaugh. It wasn’t entirely clear what the beef was about, but Lahoti’s site mentioned billing questions. Rodenbaugh previously represented Lahoti in litigation.
UDRPsearch.com no longer forwards to the criticism site.
Rodenbaugh dismissed his lawsuit without prejudice, meaning he can file again in the future.
Hopefully, the two can settle any differences without the need for a public airing of grievances. Not only will it help both of them get what they want, but it also means an excellent resource for the domain name community will be available for research.
Post link: Rodenbaugh drops lawsuit against UDRPsearch owner
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Adam Eisner moves from Tucows to Intercap Registry
Eisner moves to the registry side of the domain name business.
Adam Eisner
A long time Tucows employee has moved to Intercap Registry as its General Manager.
Adam Eisner will help Intercap sell its .inc and .dealer domains. The company soon plans to offer domains ending in .box, too.
Eisner was editor-in-chief of The Web Host Industry Review before joining Tucows in 2004. He has been at Tucows ever since, most recently working on the company’s Ting fiber to the home internet service.
In a press release, Eisner stated: “I’m thrilled to be joining Intercap Registry. While I believe that our extensions are already performing well on a comparable basis, they all have significant upside potential, and I look forward to growing all aspects of the business.”
Post link: Adam Eisner moves from Tucows to Intercap Registry
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Verisign gets blockchain patent
.Com registry gets patent for domain name blockchain user addresses.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 10,721,060 (pdf) to Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) for Domain name blockchain user addresses.
The abstract reads:
Techniques for DNS registry facilitated assignment of a DNS domain name registered to a registrant as a blockchain user address in a blockchain network are presented. The techniques can include providing, by a DNS registry, a public key and a computer executable registry signature verification program configured to use the public key to validate signatures made using the private key for addition to a block in a blockchain of the blockchain network. The techniques can also include receiving a request for a proof of registrar of record, and providing a proof of registration message, such that the registry signature verification program validates the signature using the public key, and the blockchain network receives and stores in the blockchain an association between the domain name and an existing blockchain user address for the registrant.
Many companies are trying to figure out how to apply blockchain technology to the DNS and vice-versa.
To simplify, domain companies want to apply the idea of easy-to-remember domain names to difficult-to-remember wallet addresses.
As for blockchain proponents, they want blockchain technology to replace the need for the “centralized” DNS that currently operates. Companies trying to replace the current DNS with blockchain face two hurdles: scaling the technology to match the centralized approach, and overcoming universal acceptance challenges.
Post link: Verisign gets blockchain patent
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Previewing NamesCon Online: networking and more
NamesCon Online comes into shape.
NamesCon Online will feature networking, virtual exhibit booths, and three days of content.
I took a test drive of NamesCon Online this morning, and I came away believing that this virtual event will be worth attending.
Notably, the platform NamesCon is using has robust networking features. This is key to a good virtual event.
As I wrote last month, virtual events can be better for networking than live events. This is especially the case for newer people and introverts. For everyone, you can meet more new people in less time. You can find new people you wouldn’t have walked up to out of the blue.
Another benefit of virtual events is the potential for better content. NamesCon Online will have four hours of core content each day. But there will also be regional content that should be popular.
NamesCon is organizing an auction in conjunction with GoDaddy. It has found a way to bring a bit of the fun of a live domain auction to an online one; it will feature live commentary by DomainSherpa during the closing of the auction.
The event takes place September 9-11.
Tickets are $59 or free for people who have never attended NamesCon before. The $59 ticket comes with a physical swag bag if you buy before the end of July. Prices go up in September.
Post link: Previewing NamesCon Online: networking and more
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Squadhelp adds 50k domains, make offer option for White Label Marketplace
Domainers add over 50,000 domains within days.
An example of Squadhelp’s white label marketplace
Domain investors added more than 50,000 domains to white label marketplaces under Squadhelp’s new service within a few days of launching the beta last week.
The new service lets investors create their own domain marketplace. What I think makes it unique for domain investors are a couple of key features for landing pages: 24/7 chat and phone support, and retargeting ads for domains people visit.
The company seems to be quickly iterating in response to customer feedback, too. Squadhelp added a ‘make offer’ option for people who don’t want to price their domains and enabled more bulk editing options.
White label marketplace is in beta, and Squadhelp CEO Darpan Munjal told me that the company is still throttling invites to handle scale and bug fixes.
Post link: Squadhelp adds 50k domains, make offer option for White Label Marketplace
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The best way to pick a company name – DNW Podcast #295
How this entrepreneur found a good company name for a great price.
When it came time for Laura Roeder to select a name for her new company, she didn’t go about it the same way most people do. She thinks they do it backward. The result is that she got a nice, brandable domain—Paperbell.com—for under $2,000. Hear how she went about it and the story behind her other business name, MeetEdgar.
Also: Domain Name Association rolls into i2Coalition, .UK expired domains, thoughts on the domain aftermarket and more.
Sponsor: Donuts
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
Post link: The best way to pick a company name – DNW Podcast #295
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Investing in .cn.com and .com.cn names
Know what you’re getting, and that .cn is the most popular choice.
Recently, a domain investor asked me to comment on the differences between .cn.com and .com.cn names, their marketability, sales potential, and trends.
Note that I use the term “names” here to avoid the confusion between domain and subdomain. For example, cn.com is a domain but Alibaba.cn.com is a subdomain or third level domain.
CentralNic runs .Cn.com and its home page indicates that .cn.com names can be registered via registrars such as Network Solutions, eNom, Key Systems, 123Reg, and ResellerClub.
It’s essential to understand what’s going on here. The owner of the domain name cn.com is selling domain names at the third level. This is an unregulated practice, and these domains should not be confused with China’s country code domains under .cn. CentralNic has closed down similar extensions in the past, resulting in registrants having to switch their web addresses.
A Baidu search on “site:.cn.com” returned 33 million search results, showing Chinese companies such as BZT.cn.com, Huber.cn.com, and Xurui.cn.com. Google returns over 1 million results for this search.
.com.cn, on the other hand, is a subdomain of China’s country code .cn. .Com.cn was introduced in 1990 and .cn in 2003. The following table clearly shows that .cn is the leader of the two
Year .cn names .com.cn names cn/com.cn ratio 2015 11,729,750 2,405,969 4.88 2016 15,044,749 2,803,714 5.37 2017 16,727,922 2,360,535 7.07 2018 18,569,565 2,135,978 8.69 2019 19,668,268 2,188,326 8.99Between the two, it seems wise to bet on .cn over .com.cn. And before you think about registering example.cn.com, understand what you are getting.
Post link: Investing in .cn.com and .com.cn names
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Riskless domain investing for beginners
Here’s how to make money from domain investing without putting any of your money at stake.
There’s a steep learning curve to domain name investing. People that start investing without extensive research end up wasting a lot of money.
You can ask anyone in the industry who is well known, and they’ll tell you that a new domain investor sent them a list of domains to review but almost all of the domains were worthless.
These new investors spent thousands of dollars hand registering domains only to have a portfolio with little value.
What if I told you there was a way to hand register domains for free and make money if they sell?
That’s the cool concept behind a feature at Squadhelp, A company I featured in this week’s podcast.
Squadhelp has a curated premium marketplace where domain investors list domains for sale. These domains are submitted to companies looking to name themselves or a new product.
In addition to allowing investors to submit domains they own for inclusion, investors can also submit unregistered domains to the marketplace.
Squadhelp will review the domain. If the company thinks the domain is good, the person who submitted it can opt to have Squadhelp pay to register it. If the domain sells in the first year, the member gets 25% of the sales price. That commission drops slightly in years two and three.
Investors also have the option of registering the domain themselves when it is approved for the marketplace. This costs money but they get to keep a larger chunk when the domain sells. Even with this option, an investor has third-party validation that the domain might have value.
I suggest that all new domain investors who are hand registering domains try this. Before charging thousands of dollars to your credit card, try submitting unregistered domains you like to Squadhelp. It will cost you nothing upfront and you’ll learn a lot. You’ll learn which domains are more likely to sell and avoid costly mistakes. And if you’re good at it, you’ll also make some money.
Post link: Riskless domain investing for beginners
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Fadi Chehadé is now co-CEO of Ethos Capital
Former ICANN CEO is now a co-CEO of the private equity firm that tried to buy .org.
Fadi Chehadé is now listed as co-CEO on Ethos Capital’s website.
Former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé is currently listed as the co-CEO of Ethos Capital on the firm’s website.
Ethos Capital tried to buy Public Interest Registry, the non-profit that runs .org domains, but ICANN denied the transaction.
Chehadé’s name was nowhere on Ethos’ website when it announced the .org transaction. His involvement quickly became public because of Whois data for one of Ethos Capital’s domain names. The private equity company admitted that Chehadé was an advisor on the deal.
For months, the Ethos Capital website listed only two employees: CEO Erik Brooks and Chief Purpose Officer Nora Abusitta-Ouri. Abusitta-Ouri worked with Chehadé at ICANN.
The website change listing Chehadé as co-CEO appears to have happened very recently. The last Wayback Machine capture from June 15 did not show him. Elliot Silver spotted the difference today.
Many industry observers may wonder if Chehadé was pegged to be a co-CEO all along, only omitted from the website to avoid more controversy.
Ethos’ website now lists eight employees, three of whom are former ICANN employees. Allen Grogan is Executive Partner and is the former Chief Contract Compliance Officer at ICANN. Grogan’s LinkedIn page says he started advising Ethos last September; his involvement was disclosed after ICANN requested information on former ICANN employees involved with the company.
Chehadé’s LinkedIn page still lists him as a partner at Abry, the private equity firm that acquired Donuts. Brooks was formerly with Abry.
Post link: Fadi Chehadé is now co-CEO of Ethos Capital
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Nominet considers auctioning expiring .uk domain names
.Uk registry plans to bring more clarity to expired domain process and possibly auction domains.
Nominet, the registry for .uk domain names, is considering introducing an auction model for expiring domain names.
The registry asked for feedback last year about making the drop more transparent so that people would have a better understanding of how domains expire and how to register them. This would increase the likelihood that end users who weren’t domain-savvy would be able to procure the domains.
As a result of the consultation, Nominet has decided that it will make drop lists public. It now has two further questions it wants to resolve:
- If all domains should be released at the same time on the drop day or if they should be dropped at the exact timestamp they were originally registered.
- If it should auction off or otherwise change the way it releases highly-contested domains.
For the second issue, Nominet is considering auctioning off domains or introducing “Economically controlled access to expiring domains”. The latter would mean selling batches of EPP connections to acquire dropping domains, with expired domains available for a limited time exclusively to people who have bought the access.
The idea is similar to one Verisign is trying to patent, except that expired domains would only be available to the special access batches rather than all registration requests.
About 5% of .UK domains are registered the day they expire. Less than 1% are registered within a second of deletion.
More details and commenting is available here.
Post link: Nominet considers auctioning expiring .uk domain names
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Domain Name Association merges with i2Coalition
Merger should breathe new life into domain name advocacy initiative.
The Domain Name Association (DNA), a trade group made up of domain name registrars and registries, is merging with Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), a similar organization representing a broader group including cloud providers, data centers, and other businesses that underly the internet. With the transition, The DNA will become a working group within i2C.
The DNA was formed in 2013 as new top level domains were about to roll out. Many of its members are new top level domain name registries, and the group was generally seen as an advocacy group for new TLDs. However, it focused more broadly on promoting the importance of domain names.
It seems that the group has languished somewhat in recent years. Joining forces with i2Coalition should amplify its messaging, especially as it works with hosting and other infrastructure companies.
Statton Hammock, founding DNA Board member and current Board Secretary, told Domain Name Wire:
The DNA’s core mission to promote the sale, adoption and use of domain names, joined with i2Coalition’s extensive Internet industry knowledge and connections, will elevate the visibility of the domain name Industry and ensure that domain names remain the most effective navigational tool for the global Internet.
Many DNA members are already members of i2Coalition, including Amazon, Donuts, GoDaddy, and Google.
The merger will be effective July 28.
Post link: Domain Name Association merges with i2Coalition
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Agencias Universales S.A. tries reverse domain name hijacking GEN.com
Shipping company files an abusive UDRP to try to get .com matching its .cl domain.
A Chilean shipping, transport and logistics company has been found to have tried reverse domain name hijacking the domain name GEN.com.
Agencias Universales S.A. filed a cybersquatting dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain. The Complainant uses the domain name GEN.cl for its website; it is now known as “Grupo de Empresas Navieras,” meaning “group of shipping companies” in Spanish.
The domain owner registered the domain name for use in a now-defunct business called Global Education Network.
While the Complainant says it wasn’t aware of this when it filed the case, panelist Adam Taylor noted that the case still “failed by a large margin”.
He wrote:
The Complainant should have appreciated the level of evidence necessary to prove under the UDRP that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name in bad faith. The disputed domain name had a creation date of April 25, 1996, and even if acquired later, it is composed of three letters that could easily correspond to an acronym or to a dictionary word, and is currently passively held. The Complainant should have considered if there really existed any evidence to prove that the disputed domain name was registered with the Complainant’s trade mark in mind in order to take advantage of the Complainant’s trade mark with bad faith rather than for a legitimate purpose…
…As regards the Respondent’s plainly legitimate use of the disputed domain name, the Complainant says that it knew nothing of Jeff Williams or his alleged connection with the Company at the time of filing the Complaint. But even allowing for this, and even if it was reasonable for the Complainant not to have discovered the Company’s connection with the disputed domain name from the Wayback Machine, the Complainant still failed to put forward a stateable case for bad faith, let alone any relevant supporting evidence…
…Instead, the Complainant came up with a number of contrived arguments which fell far short of constituting bad faith, including an assertion that, of itself, use of the name “GEN” by the Complainant’s group with its alleged worldwide presence reinforced the Complainant’s right to own the disputed domain name with its “important” .com suffix…
The Complainant was represented by Sáenz de Santa María Abogados. The domain owner was represented by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
Post link: Agencias Universales S.A. tries reverse domain name hijacking GEN.com
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We’re seeing innovation in domain sales
There are now lots of good options for selling your domain names through landing pages.
I’m getting optimistic about upstarts shaking up the business of selling domains.
GoDaddy currently dominates the domain name aftermarket. That won’t change; it has the power of both buyers and sellers in the market. If you’re selling your domains, you need to use GoDaddy. There’s also Sedo in a distant second. It’s a good company, moves some good domains (especially outside the U.S.), but doesn’t have the distribution that GoDaddy has. Sedo plays a vital role in the industry as the #2 by keeping GoDaddy honest and on its toes.
Both of these companies have built a market. Building a market is hard to do. Don’t gripe when they take 20% off the top of your domain sales. They deserve it for bringing buyers. (It’s fair to gripe about them for other things, though. GoDaddy’s domain listing system is borked, Sedo’s UI still needs updating. We need to keep these companies on their toes.)
It will be very difficult for any other company to come in at this point and create a true market of buyers and sellers. But there are some upstarts that are innovating in ways that will help domain investors.
Right now, there are two main ways your domains sell. One is that someone buys them through a marketplace or their registrar distribution network. The other is that someone visits your domain and buys it through whatever service you connect your landers to.
Uniregistry was doing some cool things with landers. Specifically, you could negotiate your own sales or send a lead to Uniregistry’s brokers. You can still negotiate on your own, but I’m disappointed that you no longer have full visibility into what Uni’s brokers are doing when you send your leads to them. And I wouldn’t bet on free self-brokering being around forever now that GoDaddy owns it.
What makes me optimistic is what smaller companies are doing.
First up is DAN.com. It has innovated in domain financing and payments. I’ve talked to several large domain investors who are doing a bang-up business selling domains on payment plans. Most people who buy domains on plans end up making all of the payments. Those that don’t tie up the domains for a short while, but the domain seller gets to keep the cash and the domain. I also like how DAN.com makes payments so easy for buyers. This is very important.
The other is SquadHelp. More than any other company, I think it is using data to iterate. Its new white label marketplace option has two things that I believe can significantly help domain sellers: remarketing to landing page visitors and 24/7 chat/phone support on landers. A lot is going on under the hood, which CEO Darpan Munjal explains on this week’s podcast.
Other small companies are doing their share, too. Efty has a different business model (pay as a SaaS service, no commissions) and DomainAgents brings both distribution and paid inquiries.
The net-net is that there are now lots of innovative options for selling domains through your landers. These service providers will never replicate the reach of the major marketplaces, but they can help you seamlessly sell your domains.
Post link: We’re seeing innovation in domain sales
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Maker of a futuristic dryer among 14 end user domain buyers
A company that makes a vacuum-powered clothing dryer and 13 other companies bought domains at Sedo this past week.
The company that makes this futuristic clothing dryer bought Morus.com. Photo from Morus Technology.
There were some notable non-com sales this week. Movies.net sold for $45,000 to a company that has purchased other .nets, and I’m not prepared to call it an end user yet. Reality.app sold for $24,000, but it’s not clear who the buyer is yet.
But many other sales can be directly tied to end users that will develop the domains. Here’s a list of some of the end user domain name sales from the past week. (You can review previous end user sales lists here.)
Mond.com €16,300 – Mond Oslo AS, a company in Norway.
Morus.com $12,000 – Morus is a patented clothing dryer that uses vacuum technology. It’s very tiny and says it dries clothes fast. It looks cool! The domain forwards to MorusTech.com.
Creati.ng €8,256 – Buy Me a Coffee, the company that bought Brew.com from Michael Cyger, bought this domain hack. They help creators monetize.
SaveLive.com $5,500 – FactoryMade Ventures LLC bought the domain. It appears to be a company and product incubator.
PSTLV.com €4,500 – PlayStudios International Israel bought this domain. According to its LinkedIn page, the company is in the field of social gaming, established by entrepreneurs with expertise in the fields of gaming, graphic engines and online social interaction.
Pluggy.com €4,449 – Pluggy is a cable with both USB Type C and A inputs.
NationalOpinion.com $3,988 – Halo Venture Partners, a venture investment company focused on digital media, advertising and media-related technology companies, bought the domain. It might be for a portfolio company.
EquityList.com $2,999 – EquityList helps Indian companies manage cap tables and equity grants.
EasyVersichert.de €2,500 – The domain name forwards to GeorgSoller.de, a website for a German insurance provider. Versichert means “insured” in German.
PeepClub .com $2,500 – This domain is used for something completely different than I thought. Peep Club is an eye care company.
Media7.com $2,500 – Media 7 runs many digital networks and communities for business topics.
Monitor.uk $2,000 – Monitor Computer Systems forwards this domain to MonitorSoft.com. It provides alarm monitoring services.
AINova.com $2,000 – This website is still in development but has a message posted: “AiNOVA, we care about Ai Talent…Interested in our project contact us at…”
QLabels.com $2,000 – The buyer is creating a Shopify store.
Post link: Maker of a futuristic dryer among 14 end user domain buyers
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GoDaddy and Verisign get more patents
Companies keep building their patent war chests.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted two patents to GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) and one to Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) today.
The two companies are the most prolific patent filers in the domain name industry. GoDaddy has only used its patents defensively to date. Verisign previously said it was going to monetize its intellectual property, but then went quiet on the issue.
GoDaddy
U.S. Patent #10715488 (pdf) is a continuation patent for Automated website generation via integrated domain registration, hosting provisioning, and website building:
Methods of the present inventions allow for generating and providing an enhanced domain name. An exemplary method may comprise providing an enhanced domain to a second party. The enhanced domain may comprise a domain name, a web space automatically enabled and associated with the domain name, and at least one application automatically enabled and associated with the domain name.
U.S. Patent #10713418 (pdf) is for Auto completing domain names comprising multiple languages:
Systems and methods of the present invention provide for one or more server computers communicatively coupled to a network and configured to: monitor a character stream; identify characters comprising a domain name request; identify a token in a language character map comprising the characters and associated with a language; generate, using a software translation engine, a translation of the first token into a second language; generate candidate domain names comprising: a domain name comprising the token; and a second domain name comprising the second token; modify, in real time, a user interface control to display the list of candidate domain names.
Verisign
U.S. Patent #10715487 (pdf) is a continuation patent for Methods and systems for creating new domains:
Systems and methods for creating a new domain, such as a top-level domain or a second-level domain, make use of a Domain Manager that enables a user to enter data that is necessary or optional to implement the creation of a new domain. Systems such as, for example, a Registry and one or more Registrars, may use the data defined by the Domain Manager to create a new domain.
Post link: GoDaddy and Verisign get more patents
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The most popular second level domains for dot-brands
Home leads the way, but companies are also using them for hiring.
Home is the most popular second level domain under dot-brands. Chart courtesy MarkMonitor.
One of the nagging questions about dot-brand top level domains that match trademarks is what second level domains companies will use.
We all know that the home page for Fox is Fox.com. But if the company were to switch to .Fox, how would you access the site? www.fox? home.fox? go.fox? A second level domain is necessary.
It appears that most companies are choosing home as their primary second level domain for dot-brand top level domains.
MarkMonitor keeps tabs on all of the second level domains registered under dot-brand domains and found that 66 have registered home.brand. That’s the most popular second level domain. (That doesn’t mean that those companies are using it for their primary website.)
Looking at all registered second level domains, the other top popular domains are my, careers, jobs, and cloud. This gives some indication of how brands are using their top level domains, even if they haven’t switched over from .com or another extension.
Neustar, a registry services provider, uses home.neustar for its site.
You can download MarkMonitor’s most recent new TLD report, including more data on second level domains under .brands, here.
Post link: The most popular second level domains for dot-brands
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Darley Newman loses domain name spat with ex-husband
Travel show host says her ex-husband should hand over domain names.
Travels with Darley, photo from Amazon.
Darley Newman, who hosts the PBS and Amazon Prime series Travels with Darley, has lost a cybersquatting dispute she filed against her ex-husband, Chip Ward.
Newman filed the dispute over five domain names: darleynewman.com, darleynewman.org, equitrekking.com, equitrekking.org, and travelswithdarley.com. (Equitrekking was a previous show.)
The Complainant stated that the domains should be transferred to her on the basis of a divorce agreement. Ward disagreed.
World Intellectual Property Panelist Scott Blackmer denied the claim because Newman didn’t show that Ward registered the domains in bad faith. One of the elements of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is that the domains were registered and use in bad faith.
As is common in disputes like this one, the domains were originally registered in good faith, even if the Complainant now argues that they are being held or used in bad faith.
In other words, UDRP is not the appropriate venue to get these domain names. The courts are.
Post link: Darley Newman loses domain name spat with ex-husband
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