News
ICANN considers way to restrict use of accountability mechanisms
Working group asked ICANN for a way to restrict access under specific circumstances.
ICANN has opened a comment period over a proposed bylaw update that would limit access to accountability mechanisms.
The organization has a couple of accountability mechanisms for groups to challenge its actions: the Reconsideration Request and Independent Review Process.
These accountability mechanisms allow aggrieved parties to challenge decisions, but they can be costly and time-consuming for both the filer and ICANN.
A working group that determined how to distribute new top level domain auction proceeds through grants became concerned that applicants that didn’t receive a grant would use the accountability mechanisms.
ICANN proposed that it could address this by putting contractual terms in the grant application that restrict applicants from using accountability mechanisms.
However, many in the community were concerned that this approach could be used in more contracts. Imagine if this term was added to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement or new TLD applications.
So, the proposed solution would require a broad consortium of the ICANN community to propose a restriction, which ICANN’s board would then approve.
I can foresee circumstances in which some in the community will try to use this approach to block groups that abuse the accountability mechanisms by repeat or baseless filings. A long-running campaign around .web comes to mind. It would require a lot of community members who don’t have an interest in whatever is being appealed to join in, though.
The comment period ends April 15.
Post link: ICANN considers way to restrict use of accountability mechanisms
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Squarespace revenue tops $1 billion in 2023
Company reports robust growth in 2023 and says its Google Domains acquisition is performing well.
Squarespace (NYSE: SQSP) reported Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings today.
For Q4, the company grossed $270.7 million, up 18% from $228.8 million in the same quarter of 2022.
For the year, the company grossed $1.012 billion, up 17% from $867.0 million in 2022.
Price increases accounted for 27% of the annual growth.
Unique subscriptions increased 10% to end the year at 4.6 million, not including domain-only customers acquired through the Google Domains acquisition. Average revenue per unique subscription increased 8% year over year, again not including Google Domains-only customers.
Squarespace said renewals from Google Domains customers surpassed expectations. And while the company didn’t break out the impact Google Domains (which it acquired in September) had on its 2023 numbers, the company told Domain Name Wire that it accounted for about half of the bookings growth in the quarter (bookings grew about $54 million).
The company says it expects the Google Domains acquisition to add $85 million to $88 million to the top line in 2024.
Post link: Squarespace revenue tops $1 billion in 2023
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European ccTLDs see reduced growth
Growth is slower, but it’s still growth. Not all TLDs can claim that.
CENTR, an organization representing country code top level domain operators primarily in Europe, has released its latest Global TLD report.
The report indicates that European ccTLDs are still seeing growth, albeit much slower than during the pandemic.
Year-over-year growth in these TLDs was 1.4% in 2023. When looking at monthly year-over-year rates, the market seemed to have hit a bottom in January 2023 and grew from there, but it fell back in the latter part of the year:
CENTR says strong renewal rates in the existing base have helped maintain this growth:
While deletions have increased over 2023, they are still relatively low compared to longer-term averages. This means that while the base of domains in European ccTLDs are often being maintained, new registrations are struggling. Based on analysis of registrations and in particularly average demand ratios, we expect average growth rates to remain similar for 2024. The challenge for ccTLD registries will be to ensure their already high renewal rates are maintained whilst still attracting a sufficient number of new registrations over the year.
This is encapsulated in another chart that shows new registrations divided by deletions:
According to CENTR, European ccTLDs are more likely to be developed than .com domains and other gTLDs, which results in higher renewal rates.
Verisign, the registry for .com and .net domains, reports a blended renewal rate for .com and .net domains that hovers in the low-to-mid 70% range.
The Demand Ratio for .com is below 1.0, resulting in a decline in the base of registered .com domains.
Post link: European ccTLDs see reduced growth
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14 end user domain name sales led by a .xyz domain
A metals company, a solar roof business and a financial regulator bought domain names.
Sedo’s top publicly reported sale this week was hub.xyz. The buyer doesn’t appear to be connected to crypto.
Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that just completed at Sedo. You can view previous lists like this here.
Hub.xyz €31,900 – I must admit this one took me down a rabbit hole for a while. The domain forwards to TheUselessWeb.com. This site, by Tim Holman, randomly links you to weird sites.
Dab.ai $17,999 – This domain forwards to the site for LabCity, an AI company. Dab might be one of its new product names.
Posted.eu €5,375 – Jan Ginhold in Germany bought this domain. It currently resolves to a page showing an envelope with the words (in German) “BECAUSE HUMAN DIGNITY IS INVIOLABLE.”
Westoak.ca $5,000 – The registrant name is Interex Corporate Registration Services Inc., but the admin name is Bravo Tango Ad Firm. It might be for a client.
Biodom.com €4,950 – Biodom sells heating boilers.
Sandguss.de €3,662 – Sandguss is a metal casting company.
Lumatech.de €3,500 – Lumatech sells electronics such as TVs and printers. It forwards this domain to the matching .at.
Sunroof.de €3,500 – Sunroof makes solar roofs. It forwards this domain to the matching .se domain.
AMF.ca $3,500 – Quebec’s Financial Markets Authority, or Autorité des Marchés Financiers, bought this domain name.
T-shirt.se €3,000 – This domain forwards to tshirt.se, a site that sells printed clothing.
Musetto.com $2,500 – The buyer switched the hosting to Digital Ocean and has uploaded a logo for his site.
Vema.app €2,400 – The domain resolves to a page in German that states, “To activate the broker app, please enter the code that your insurance broker gave you.” So, this is some sort of insurance app.
OneGoal.de €2,000 – The website has a logo and the message “Your journey, our passion.”
Swipewise.com $2,000 – This domain forwards to a website for Date Wise, which states, “Because love doesn’t have to be a guessing game.”
Post link: 14 end user domain name sales led by a .xyz domain
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Judge dismisses TRX.com cybersquatting claim
Lawsuit against domain name is dismissed but domain owner’s suit to stop UDRP transfer is still pending.
I said the judge was going to be unimpressed, and I was right. Today, U.S. District Judge Roslyn O. Silver dismissed a lawsuit filed against TRX.com.
BackgroundLoo Tze Ming bought the domain name trx.com for $138,000 in April 2022 at domain marketplace 4.cn.
In October 2022, Fitness Anywhere LLC, a company going through bankruptcy that claimed rights in TRX, filed a cybersquatting claim under UDRP. The following month, the panelist awarded the Complainant the domain name in a controversial decision.
Ming overlooked the dispute notice and didn’t respond, so he sued Fitness Anywhere in Arizona to stay the transfer.
Then, in February 2023, a company called JFXD TRX ACQ LLC, which described Fitness Anywhere as its predecessor in interest, filed an in rem lawsuit against trx.com in Virginia, where the .com registry is based.
Ming successfully petitioned the court to move the in rem case to Arizona, where he filed his original lawsuit.
Moving the case was key because Arizona is in the Ninth Circuit. There’s precedent in the Ninth Circuit that the original registration date of a domain is the relevant date for a case under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).
Trx.com was registered in 1999. The plaintiff got trademark rights in the second-level domain term TRX sometime after that, and then Ming bought the domain years after the trademark was established. However, according to the Ninth Circuit, because the original registration in 1999 predated the plaintiff’s trademark rights, the plaintiff can’t win.
A first chance to clarifyIn January, the judge overseeing the case asked JFXD TRX to explain a couple of things.
First, she asked how, under Ninth Circuit precedent, a domain registered in 1999 before it got trademark rights violates the ACPA.
Second, she asked for clarification on the relationship between Fitness Anywhere and JFXD TRX.
The relationship between the parties is interesting. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Alain Villeneuve, has represented both Fitness Anywhere and JFXD TRX. But there’s confusion about which entity owned the trademarks and at what time. The judge wrote (emphasis mine):
The filings in this case, as well as the filings in the case pending before Judge Logan [the case Ming filed to stay the UDRP transfer], show some confusion regarding the current owner of the TRX-related property and the proper defendant for Ming’s challenge to the order transferring trx.com. According to statements made by Mr. Villeneuve, Fitness Anywhere owned all TRX-related property, including the TRX trademarks, until it sold that property to JFXD in August 2022. Despite no longer owning any TRX-related property, in October 2022 Mr. Villeneuve initiated a domain name dispute proceeding on behalf of Fitness Anywhere. During those proceedings Mr. Villeneuve stated Fitness Anywhere was “the owner of the famous trademark TRX.” That administrative proceeding resulted in an order that trx.com be transferred to Fitness Anywhere. If Fitness Anywhere no longer owned the TRX-related property prior to the administrative proceeding, it would appear the transfer order was improper. If, however, Fitness Anywhere did own the property and continued to own the property, Ming’s claims against Fitness Anywhere pending before Judge Logan are the proper avenue for resolving ownership of trx.com. In that situation, however, JFXD’s current complaint is improper because JFXD does not own the TRX-related property. In explaining why its complaint does not state a claim for relief, JFXD must explain the conflicting positions adopted by Mr. Villeneuve. In particular, JFXD must explain whether Fitness Anywhere owned any TRX-related property at the time Mr. Villenueve stated Fitness Anywhere “is the owner of the famous trademark TRX.”
JFXD TRX subsequently tried to explain how the 2022 sale of the domain trx.com is a new registration and thus should be considered cybersquatting. But the explanation didn’t make much sense.
And JFXD TRX didn’t try to explain the relationships between the parties.
The judge dismissed the case but gave JFXD TRX one more chance: she said the case could be amended if JFXD TRX could show that the domain expired and was registered anew by Ming. And she said that any such amended complaint must be filed along with a statement explaining the relationship between the parties.
The amended complaintThe plaintiff filed an amended complaint (pdf) on the deadline, February 21.
It appears that the plaintiff only changed a couple of things in the complaint.
Sloppilty, the complaint still stated why jurisdiction existed in Virginia, not Arizona, where the case is now being heard.
More importantly, it seems the plaintiff’s only attempt to show the domain expired and was registered anew by the current owner is to state that’s what happened and underline it. There are two changes between the previous complaint and the amended complaint.
In paragraph 23, the amended complaint states:
…Upon information and belief, TRX has owned the TRX® brand at least since 2005. Upon information and belief, in the period of 2018 to 2022, the URL would have expired and returned to the public domain, and in 2022, it was purchased by Defendant from the public domain subsequent to the senior rights of TRX in violation of the ACPA.
and in paragraph 45, it states:
TRX’s federally registered TRX Marks were famous, well-known, and distinctive before Defendant’s registration and/or acquisition of on or before 2022 from the public domain and are entitled to protection under the Lanham Act.
(The underlined portion of paragraph 45 is the only part that changed.)
The plaintiff’s attorney didn’t file an explanation explaining the relationship between the parties on the docket.
Judge dismisses caseThe judge was not impressed by the amended complaint.
First, she noted that it does nothing to explain the plaintiff’s erroneous claim that the domain expired and was registered by the current registrant:
Plaintiff appears to be alleging the domain name was available for anyone to register when Defendant registered the domain name with a registrar. But Plaintiff has already argued that registering a publicly available domain name with a registrar costs $19.99 per year. (Doc. 83 at 5). Plaintiff has also argued Defendant purchased for $138,000. (Doc. 68 at 5; Doc. 83 at 7). Thus, the amount paid by Defendant for establishes Defendant did not register in 2022 with a registrar. Instead, as Defendant has repeatedly claimed, the purchase price shows Defendant bought the domain name on the secondary market.
Second, she noted that the plaintiff’s counsel, Alain Villeneuve, sent an email to the judge rather than filing a statement about the ownership contradictions with the court.
Villeneuve was in a tough spot, and the judge explained:
If Fitness Anywhere did not own “the famous trademark TRX” as of October 2022, Mr. Villeneuve’s statement in the dispute resolution proceeding was false. Alternatively, if that statement was accurate and Fitness Anywhere continues to own “the famous trademark TRX,” Mr. Villeneuve’s statements in this case that Plaintiff JFXD owns the domain name [sic] have been false.
The judge didn’t like the explanation that he emailed to the court:
As for the contents of Mr. Villeneuve’s letter, it is largely indecipherable. The letter appears to state that as of October 2022, Mr. Villeneuve was not aware that his client, Fitness Anywhere, had declared bankruptcy and sold its assets. Thus, Mr. Villeneuve appears to be stating he initiated the domain name dispute proceeding on behalf of a client that no longer owned the relevant property. There is no explanation how an attorney might be unaware that his client had declared bankruptcy and sold off all the property relevant to the attorney’s work. The letter contains a variety of additional statements, but the Court is unable to understand what Mr. Villeneuve is attempting to convey. All that can be determined is that Mr. Villeneuve still has not explained why he stated Fitness Anywhere owned the TRX trademark months after Fitness Anywhere sold all its assets.
What’s nextJFXD TRX’s lawsuit to try to get the domain trx.com is now dead. But that’s not the end of it.
Recall that this whole thing was kicked off by Fitness Anywhere filing a UDRP against trx.com. It seems, based on the record, that the UDRP Complainant incorrectly represented that it owned the trademark in question. Since it did not, the Complainant effectively gave false information to the panelist, who relied on that information to order the domain transferred.
After the panel ordered the domain transferred, the domain owner sued to halt the transfer. That lawsuit is stayed because Fitness Anywhere is in bankruptcy.
However, the UDRP that the lawsuit is based on was filed with false information, which could create a sticky situation in court.
Post link: Judge dismisses TRX.com cybersquatting claim
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Categories: Domains
Domain forums and conferences – DNW Podcast #474
Helmuts Meskonis discusses Domain Summit and how he hopes to bring DNForum back to its former glory.
This week, I interview Helmuts Meskonis, who organizes the Domain Summit conference in London and owns DNForum and AcornDomains.
Helmuts had a bit of a rough relationship with some in the domain name community early on thanks to his association with a controversial person, but I had a chance to chat with him at the Internet Commerce Association meeting last month and learned about some of what he’s doing in the business.
We discuss this background, why he rebranded London Domain Summit to Domain Summit (and how he bought the corresponding domain from Mike Mann), and how he’s trying to breathe new life into DNForum.
Also: Trader Joe’s, Tucows, No Labels, Ethereum and more
Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
Post link: Domain forums and conferences – DNW Podcast #474
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Categories: Domains
Ethereum Name Service community approves eth.link settlement
ENS plans to pay auction bidder $300,000 to settle dispute.
Short numeric .eth domains are hot right now.The results are in, and the Ethereum Name Services (ENS) DAO has overwhelmingly authorized ENS Labs to settle a dispute over eth .link.
88% of the voting power approved paying $300,000 to Manifold Finance, which won eth .link at auction.
62% also authorized settling at an amount lower than that. (I believe the thinking was that the lower amount would be considered if the community didn’t approve the full $300,000).
84% approved reimbursing ENS Labs for its litigation expenses, which have totaled about $750,000.
Only 11% voted to continue litigation.
Now, ENS will need to paper a settlement with Manifold before dropping the case filed against GoDaddy and Dynadot. Manifold will be in a strong position to get the terms it wants, given that the DAO publicly opposed continuing litigation.
Post link: Ethereum Name Service community approves eth.link settlement
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Trader Joe’s loses cybersquatting complaint against “Trader Joe”
Company waited 25 years to file cybersquatting allegations.
Grocery store chain Trader Joe’s has lost a cybersquatting claim it filed against the domain name TraderJoe.com. The business uses the domain name TraderJoes.com.
Trader Joe’s filed the dispute under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The domain name owner said he registered the domain as a site about financial trading for the “average Joe.” He put some content related to financial trading on the domain.
While you might question that justification, a critical factor in the dispute is that the domain registrant registered the domain way back in 1998. It took Trader Joe’s 25 years to make a cybersquatting claim.
Although the concept of laches does not strictly apply to UDRP, it certainly gives pause when a company waits that long to file a dispute against a domain name so closely related to its own.
WIPO panelist Robert A. Badgley said it’s reasonable to question the domain owner’s motives in registering the domain name, but UDRP is designed to handle clear-cut cases of cybersquatting, and this case was not so clear-cut.
A big factor was the 25-year delay. Badgley wrote (pdf):
Sixth, and above all, Complainant initiated this proceeding 25 years after Respondent registered the Domain Name. Given the similarity of the Domain Name and Complainant’s trademark, and the fact that the Domain Name has a gTLD “.com” – the most coveted of gTLDs – Complainant’s inaction vis-à-vis this Domain Name for 25 years raises questions. Complainant does not state when it first became aware of the Domain Name, and does not explain why it did not send a cease-and-desist letter to Respondent after learning that the Domain Name had been registered and was being used for 25 years. Although the doctrine of laches is generally not accepted as a viable defense under the UDRP, an extraordinary lapse of time (here, 25 years) may reflect the merits of a Complainant’s case.
Badgley determined that Trader Joe’s failed to show that the domain was registered and used in bad faith.
The domain owner asked Badgley to find Trader Joe’s guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. One of the reasons is that Trader Joe’s put into evidence a 1997 screenshot of the website referring to the grocery chain, which would have been created by a prior owner of the domain because the current owner registered the domain in 1998. Badgley declined, noting that Trader Joe’s didn’t say that the current owner was responsible for the earlier site and might have been trying to show that its brand was famous at the time.
O’Melveny & Myers, LLP represented Trader Joe’s, and the domain registrant was not represented by counsel.
Post link: Trader Joe’s loses cybersquatting complaint against “Trader Joe”
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Domain business remains strong at Tucows
Slow and steady…
Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) reported Q4 2023 earnings after the market closed yesterday.
The company posted total Q4 revenue of $87.0 million, up 10% year over year.
Tucows Domains accounted for $61.8 million of that. This compares to $60.3 million in the same quarter of 2022.
The wholesale division posted $52.5 million in revenue. A decrease in value-added services was from a shift of some revenue to the retail side.
Commenting on the results, Dave Woroch, CEO of Tucows Domains, stated:
The results were driven by an increase in the number of transactions in Q4, up 2%; and domains under management that were up slightly year over year. I would like to highlight that within our industry there is a range in the quality of new domains being registered, and our growth continues to be concentrated in higher quality and legitimate domain registrations.
In other words, the company isn’t growing by selling dollar registrations in bulk.
Woroch also said that the decline in domain aftermarket revenue experienced in previous quarters no longer impacts year-over-year numbers.
Post link: Domain business remains strong at Tucows
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No Labels gets preliminary injunction and transfer of domain NoLabels.com
Political group gets control of NoLabels.com.
The “real” No Labels (top) and NoLabels.com (bottom) before the .com website was removed.No Labels, a U.S. political organization that shuns extremism and partisan bickering, will get control of the domain nolabels.com pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
No Labels filed a lawsuit against NoLabels.com, Inc. in December. The defendant is a newly incorporated company that uses the domain name nolabels.COM, which it appears to have purchased from another registrant last year. The political party uses nolabels.ORG and previously owned the .com domain before letting the registration lapse.
The defendant set up a website on .com that was easy to confuse with the plaintiff’s organization.
In December, the judge overseeing the case granted a temporary restraining order that took the site down. Now, the preliminary injunction requires the domain name to be transferred to the plaintiff pending the outcome of the case.
No Labels posted a bond of $250,000 when the temporary restraining order was issued.
Post link: No Labels gets preliminary injunction and transfer of domain NoLabels.com
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Luxe Du Jour buys 3-letter domain for less than full brand name price
This company is happy with its three-letter domain, which cost less than it offered to pay for its longer full brand name in .com.
Luxe Du Jour got a three-letter domain for less than it was willing to pay for its full brand name domain.Here’s an interesting end user domain name purchase story.
Luxury goods seller Luxe Du Jour started in Canada with the domain name LuxeDuJour.ca.
It sounds like the business is going well. But the company ran into a hitch when it expanded to the United States: its .ca domain wouldn’t cut it anymore.
The obvious solution was to buy LuxeDuJour.com.
In a Tik Tok video (embedded below), Tammy Phan, CEO of the luxury goods company, said her company offered $100,000 to buy the .com from the blogger that uses the domain. They were rebuffed, but ended up with a shorter domain for less: LDJ.com.
Phan says they paid $80,000 to get the short domain.
And in a follow up video, Phan said getting a .com was critical for the business.
(hat tip to Richard Lau)
@thetammyphan Sharing my knowledge and mistakes I’ve made in business with you so you dont have to make the same mistake 😔 #womeninbusiness #womenintech #womensupportingwomen #womenownedbusiness ♬ original sound – thetammyphanPost link: Luxe Du Jour buys 3-letter domain for less than full brand name price
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Categories: Domains
See which expired domains sold for $2k+ last month
Avow.com leads the list at $23,608.
Newfold Digital has released a list of sales of over $2,000 in January on its expired domain platforms NameJet and SnapNames.
In total, the sites combined for 62 sales over $2,000 totalling $242k.
The top sale of the month was avow.com for $23,608. I hung around in this auction for a bit over $20,000 before bailing. It’s a spectacular name.
Here are some other notable sales:
PRnews .com $5,806 – PR Newswire should buy this domain from the winner.
CareLab.com $4,200 – This is a wonderful name for a health company.
Viveo .com $3,720 – This nice brand is registered in 41 extensions, and many companies with this name use inferior domains.
WeRecycle .com $3,100 – I love this domain for a recycling campaign. So many possible buyers.
ArtInstitute .com $2,950 – There’s a popular institution in Chicago that goes by this name. The “chain” of colleges that operated under the name The Art Institutes went out of business and let this domain expire.
Here’s a full list of sales of $2,000 or more.
Domain NameSales Amount avow.com$23,608 moneyfactory.com$11,150 mercuri.com$8,306 ampco.com$8,069 cityweb.com$7,034 annecy.com$6,850 prnews.com$5,806 easyweigh.com$5,349 measuredhs.com$5,250 herbalcare.com$5,094 ralston.com$5,019 talkinarabic.com$5,012 memorialmedical.com$5,007 oldenburgvanbruggen.com$4,981 newalliance.com$4,927 indochine.com$4,779 uinta.com$4,350 carelab.com$4,200 austinlinks.com$4,000 healthyme.com$4,000 viveo.com$3,720 trueenergy.com$3,510 bluekiwi.com$3,319 matiz.com$3,288 talwilkenfeld.com$3,200 baac.com$3,100 werecycle.com$3,100 airwin.com$3,038 epbet.com$3,000 artinstitute.com$2,950 currentbyge.com$2,900 daneng.com$2,900 panzer.net$2,850 narrowcast.com$2,788 wilf.com$2,769 partnersuche.com$2,730 agentry.com$2,700 cybernova.com$2,650 taxrate.com$2,626 keeprunning.com$2,619 mercosur.com$2,605 premierproducts.com$2,600 bettinghub.com$2,585 rockmagic.net$2,355 narcissarestaurant.com$2,351 citiesspeak.org$2,350 strollingoftheheifers.com$2,350 gobots.com$2,349 cannacapital.com$2,272 tendencias.com$2,231 earz.com$2,229 classroomhelp.com$2,222 socialnation.com$2,150 cinefondation.com$2,110 topbettingsites.com$2,110 accountinghub.com$2,100 adusa.com$2,099 jenniferhudson.com$2,051 evalve.com$2,050 wecontrol.com$2,049 swiftbet.com$2,010 jazz-on-line.com$2,005Post link: See which expired domains sold for $2k+ last month
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Judge in TRX.com lawsuit probably won’t be happy
Amended complaint doesn’t explain how domain actually expired, and there’s another key thing missing.
Earlier this month, the judge overseeing a cybersquatting dispute for trx.com gave JFXD TRX one final chance to clarify things. I don’t think she’ll be happy with the result that was filed yesterday.
BackgroundLoo Tze Ming bought the domain name trx.com for $138,000 in April 2022 at domain marketplace 4.cn.
In October 2022, Fitness Anywhere LLC, a company going through bankruptcy that claimed rights in TRX, filed a cybersquatting claim under UDRP. The following month, the panelist awarded the Complainant the domain name in a controversial decision.
Ming overlooked the dispute notice and didn’t respond, so he sued Fitness Anywhere in Arizona to stay the transfer.
Then, in February 2023, a company called JFXD TRX ACQ LLC, which described Fitness Anywhere as its predecessor in interest, filed an in rem lawsuit against trx.com in Virginia, where the .com registry is based.
Given the ongoing suit in Arizona, it was odd that JFXD TRX filed an in rem suit against the domain name because it knew who the domain owner was and how to contact him.
Ming successfully petitioned the court to move the in rem case to Arizona, where he filed his original lawsuit.
Moving the case was key because Arizona is in the Ninth Circuit. There’s precedent in the Ninth Circuit that the original registration date of a domain is the relevant date for a case under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).
Trx.com was registered in 1999. The plaintiff got trademark rights in the second-level domain term TRX sometime after that, and then Ming bought the domain years after the trademark was established. However, according to the Ninth Circuit, because the original registration in 1999 predated the plaintiff’s trademark rights, the plaintiff can’t win.
A first chance to clarifyIn January, the judge overseeing the case asked JFXD TRX to explain a couple of things.
First, she asked how, under Ninth Circuit precedent, a domain registered in 1999 before it got trademark rights violates the ACPA.
Second, she asked for clarification on the relationship between Fitness Anywhere and JFXD TRX.
The relationship between the parties is interesting. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Alain Villeneuve, has represented both Fitness Anywhere and JFXD TRX. But there’s confusion about which entity owned the trademarks and at what time. The judge wrote (emphasis mine):
The filings in this case, as well as the filings in the case pending before Judge Logan [the case Ming filed to stay the UDRP transfer], show some confusion regarding the current owner of the TRX-related property and the proper defendant for Ming’s challenge to the order transferring trx.com. According to statements made by Mr. Villeneuve, Fitness Anywhere owned all TRX-related property, including the TRX trademarks, until it sold that property to JFXD in August 2022. Despite no longer owning any TRX-related property, in October 2022 Mr. Villeneuve initiated a domain name dispute proceeding on behalf of Fitness Anywhere. During those proceedings Mr. Villeneuve stated Fitness Anywhere was “the owner of the famous trademark TRX.” That administrative proceeding resulted in an order that trx.com be transferred to Fitness Anywhere. If Fitness Anywhere no longer owned the TRX-related property prior to the administrative proceeding, it would appear the transfer order was improper. If, however, Fitness Anywhere did own the property and continued to own the property, Ming’s claims against Fitness Anywhere pending before Judge Logan are the proper avenue for resolving ownership of trx.com. In that situation, however, JFXD’s current complaint is improper because JFXD does not own the TRX-related property. In explaining why its complaint does not state a claim for relief, JFXD must explain the conflicting positions adopted by Mr. Villeneuve. In particular, JFXD must explain whether Fitness Anywhere owned any TRX-related property at the time Mr. Villenueve stated Fitness Anywhere “is the owner of the famous trademark TRX.”
JFXD TRX subsequently tried to explain how the 2022 sale of the domain trx.com is a new registration and thus should be considered cybersquatting.
Its arguments were rather confusing. The judge said she thought that JFXD TRX was arguing that the domain expired and was subsequently registered by the current domain owner, but that it wasn’t clear how this happened. The registration date in Whois still shows 1999, which means the domain hasn’t expired and been registered again.
And JFXD TRX didn’t try to explain the relationships between the parties.
The judge dismissed the case but gave JFXD TRX one more chance: she said the case could be amended if JFXD TRX could show that the domain expired and was registered anew by Ming. And she said that any such amended complaint must be filed along with a statement explaining the relationship between the parties.
The amended complaintThe plaintiff filed an amended complaint (pdf) on the deadline yesterday. I don’t think the judge will be happy with what she received.
First, the complaint still states why jurisdiction exists in Virginia, not Arizona, where the case is now being heard.
Second, it seems the plaintiff’s only attempt to show the domain expired and was registered anew by the current owner is to state that’s what happened and underline it. There are two changes between the previous complaint and the amended complaint.
In paragraph 23, the amended complaint states:
…Upon information and belief, TRX has owned the TRX® brand at least since 2005. Upon information and belief, in the period of 2018 to 2022, the URL would have expired and returned to the public domain, and in 2022, it was purchased by Defendant from the public domain subsequent to the senior rights of TRX in violation of the ACPA.
and in paragraph 45, it states:
TRX’s federally registered TRX Marks were famous, well-known, and distinctive before Defendant’s registration and/or acquisition of on or before 2022 from the public domain and are entitled to protection under the Lanham Act.
(The underlined portion of paragraph 45 is the only part that changed.)
Again, the Whois shows that the domain has been registered continuously since 1999. Assuming that “from the public domain” means the domain expired and was registered again, that didn’t happen.
As for the statement explaining the relationship between the parties? If the plaintiff filed it, it hasn’t been posted to PACER as of 8:00 am PST this morning.
Post link: Judge in TRX.com lawsuit probably won’t be happy
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Video tutorial: How to using GoDaddy List for Sale instead of Afternic
See how to add your domains to Afternic through the GoDaddy interface.
I list nearly all of my domain names on Afternic, but I don’t log into Afternic to list many of them. Instead, I use GoDaddy’s List for Sale feature that lets you list domains from within your GoDaddy account.
There are a number of benefits to doing this:
- Easier verification – GoDaddy knows you own the domains because they’re in your account
- A better UI for entering prices
- Automatically point your domains to For Sale landers without changing nameservers
Alas, the system isn’t perfect, including different UIs based on where you click to list your domains. But all in all, I find it to be the simplest way to list domains when they are at GoDaddy. (Dynadot offers similar functionality, by the way.)
In this video, I walk through how to list your domains for sale directly through GoDaddy and some things to be aware of.
Post link: Video tutorial: How to using GoDaddy List for Sale instead of Afternic
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.Art moves 1 million domains out of premium tiers
.Art removes premium prices on about 1/3 of its premium inventory.
The .art domain name registry moved about one million domains from premium tiers to regular prices today. Most of the domains were previously priced at $70 wholesale.
Registrars typically charge $12-$20 retail for standard .art domain names, although there are first-year discounts. Namecheap, currently the largest registrar of .art domains, charges $2.88 for the first year.
This still leaves about 2.375 million .art domains at premium prices, which is a lot more than most registries.
The registry started with about 3.5 million domains marked as premium. It was so many that GoDaddy initially only bothered with selling standard level .art domains. (It now offers premiums.)
.Art has about 250,000 names in the zone, which are spread relatively evenly across top registrars, including Namecheap, GoDaddy, Tucows, and Squarespace (most from Google Domains).
Post link: .Art moves 1 million domains out of premium tiers
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11 end user sales up to €33,000
A drone shop, an event production company, and a business broker bought domain names.
Sedo’s top sale this past week was all .in for $50,000. This domain might have sold for more if .in’s registry manager was less erratic. It’s not yet clear who bought it.
Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that just completed at Sedo. You can view previous lists like this here.
DroneShop.com €33,000 – This domain forwards to DroneShop.nl, which sells drones.
KKBA.com $9,500 – KKBA is a business broker.
TekSupport.com $7,823 – TCE Presents, an event design and production company, uses the brand TekSupport for house and techno productions.
Kecks.co.uk £5,500 – Kecks is a clothing brand.
Supercloud.net $3,500 – Supercloud is a cloud services company.
911Systems.com $3,000 – This domain forwards to the website for Helptapp, a company that provides services to emergency response entities.
Hydraulics.in $2,999 – Rattan Hose & Engineering Works, a seller of hydraulic products, bought this domain.
VerkaufsTraining.com €2,500 – This domain is German for “sales training.” It forwards to a sales trainer’s site at uwebothe.de.
Radsport24.de €2,500 – Cycling trade ROG, which uses the brand Radsporthandle, is developing a store on this name.
HPS.tech $2,500 – HPS Tech is an advanced manufacturing business in Australia. It uses the domain HSPtech.com.au.
Fueld.com $2,499 – Fueld is a supplement company. I hope people don’t hear about it by word of mouth at the gym because this name is hard to spell.
Post link: 11 end user sales up to €33,000
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Ethereum Name Service DAO begins voting on possible eth.link settlement
So far, voters are not in favor of continued litigation.
ENS DAO voting as of approximately 12:15 pm ET on February 20.The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) DAO has begun voting on a proposal to settle a dispute over eth.link.
In very early voting, it appears the DAO is in favor of settling the dispute for $300,000 or less but not in favor of reimbursing ENS Labs for its litigation expenses or continuing the lawsuit.
I’m unsure if DAOs need to make votes like this public, but if so, it shows another disadvantage of these decentralized organizations. The public nature of the vote puts ENS at a disadvantage in the litigation.
ENS Labs has said that should the DAO not approve of paying for the litigation expenses, it will move to dismiss the litigation immediately. It will also post an interstitial on the domain name, suggesting people use eth .limo instead.
Eth .link acts as a forwarder so people can visit .eth domains in their normal web browsers. There is some value to this if you believe blockchain-based names are suitable for websites. Since the lawsuit was filed, I’d argue that the idea of using blockchain domains for websites instead of just wallet addresses and identifiers has lost some steam.
It’s worth noting that dismissing the matter might not be as simple as dropping the case. Dynadot has also lost revenue because of ENS’s lawsuit, and both Dynadot and GoDaddy have incurred legal expenses.
DAO Voting will continue until February 25.
Post link: Ethereum Name Service DAO begins voting on possible eth.link settlement
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Understanding and using “Common SEO” on ExpiredDomains.net
Here’s what each field does and how to harness its power.
I received positive feedback on my previous video about using ExpiredDomains.net to find domains to buy (“I had no idea I could add multiple words!”), so I’m back with another tutorial.
In today’s video, I’ll show you how to set the “Common SEO” filters.
“Common SEO” is somewhat of a misnomer. Sure, there are some SEO-related fields in this section, such as inclusion in DMOZ and Yandex, but there’s a lot more.
I explain the difference between the Whois Birth Year and Archive Birth Year, and how setting these correctly will help you avoid missing valuable domain names. I show examples of domains that won’t be captured if you only use the Whois year, including why the registration date for the domain was reset.
Hope this is helpful:
Post link: Understanding and using “Common SEO” on ExpiredDomains.net
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Escrow.com reports domain sales decline in Q4, but .AI strong
Escrow company says domain transactions were soft in Q4 but .ai was a bright spot.
.AI domain names remain a bright spot in the domain business. Graphic from Escrow.com.Escrow company Escrow.com reported (pdf) that domain name sales on its platform eased in Q4 2023, totaling $79 million. That’s down from $85 million in the same quarter of 2022, and the same amount in Q3 2024.
Q4 was the third consecutive quarter of declines for domain transactions handled at Escrow.com, following a strong Q1 2023.
The company said the median price of domains without content transacted in Q4 was $5,000, up from $4,614 in the prior quarter.
Sales of .ai domain names continue to flourish, although they remain a small part of the overall market. Escrow.com handled $2.1 million of .ai domain names in Q4 2023, compared to $1.3 million in the quarter before. It was a record high for .ai domain names at Escrow.com.
Post link: Escrow.com reports domain sales decline in Q4, but .AI strong
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Top domain news: .com prices, Ethereum Name Service, Epik
These are some of the big stories in the domain business so far this month.
I send out a monthly recap newsletter highlighting the most popular stories on Domain Name Wire. (You can subscribe here.)
This month I sent a mid-month report about what is happening in our business. I’ve received good feedback on it, so I’m including it here as a blog post as well.
Here’s what has happened in the domain business so far this February:
- No surprise here, but .com prices are going up again in September. You can renew your domains early to avoid the price hike. The price increases are important for Verisign because its domain base is shrinking. Thankfully, the company doesn’t get an automatic price hike for the next two years.
- Speaking of registry price hikes, Namecheap has sued ICANN because it hasn’t acted on an Independent Review Panel decision over .org and .info price hikes.
- A long-running dispute over the fate of eth .link — an important domain for the Ethereum Name Service Community — might be settled for $300k. But do .eth names make much sense anymore? ENS just launched a gasless mechanism for connecting real domains to ENS, and GoDaddy is on board. (Which is a bit interesting given that the eth .link lawsuit pits ENS vs. GoDaddy.)
- A prolific UDRP panelist known for his reasoned decisions has passed away at the age of 77.
- GoDaddy said its aftermarket had an excellent Q4. Some of that is likely thanks to a one-off portfolio sale and its NameFind auction.
- The USPTO has denied OpenAI’s trademark registration for GPT, which should be music to the ears of many domain investors.
- We now know who acquired Epik, I think.
- I started creating how-to videos last month and would appreciate your feedback. Here’s one about how to search by keyword at ExpiredDomains.net. Speaking of which, here are some keywords that you should search for.
- I have published two interesting podcasts so far this month. In episode #472, listen to how a domain investor sold $300k of domains through outbound marketing. In episode #473, two domain investors share their actual results from last year.
Post link: Top domain news: .com prices, Ethereum Name Service, Epik
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