News
Sedo’s big sales week and end user domain sales
GM’s OnStar, a commercial refrigeration company and a digital printer bought domain names.
Sedo is having a great start to the year.
On this week’s sales list, the company reported the sales of peace.com for $400,000, eze.com for $200,000, 13bet .com for $74,995, and mba.ai for $50,000.
Unfortunately, I don’t yet know who bought any of these domains yet.
Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that just completed at Sedo for which I could determine a buyer. You can view previous lists like this here.
GMInsurance.com $11,000 – OnStar Insurance is GM’s auto insurance arm.
FCard.com €5,000 – This domain forwards to the website for FriendSeek, a site by SYNEXIT GmbH for finding friends with common interests.
Telefonzelle .com €3,500 – This site seems to be under construction but will ultimately pitch phone cards.
HBP.ch €2,990 – Solid state battery company High Performance Battery forwards this domain name to its much longer domain name, highperformancebattery.ch.
ArgusRefrigeration.com $2,880 – Argus makes commercial refrigerators.
Uniiswap .org $2,449 – I’m a bit concerned about this one. It forwards to a page with a domain that looks like Uniswap.com, but it’s actually an IDN.
McPower.de €2,400 – Energy and lighting company ETT forwards this domain to a page on its site promoting its McPower brand.
Exclusiv-Catering.de €2,200 – A caterer in Germany is using this domain name.
Sprint.fr €2,000 – This domain forwards to sprint.paris, the website for Groupe Sprint, a digital printing business.
Post link: Sedo’s big sales week and end user domain sales
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Unified Carrier Registration Plan tries reverse domain name hijacking
Group that manages UCR registrations loses case against registration filing service.
A UDRP panel has found Unified Carrier Registration Plan to have tried reverse domain name hijacking the domain name UCRRegistration.com in an interesting dispute.
UCR stands for Unified Carrier Registration, which is a sort of tax and registration system applied to trucking companies that operate across state lines. The system is congressionally approved, and the Complainant operates a website on a .gov domain, ucr.gov.
Various third parties, including UCRRegistration.com registrant Excelsior Enterprises International, Inc., provide services to help interstate carriers file their UCR registrations. It’s kind of like the services that help small businesses incorporate or how an income tax filing service helps people file their taxes.
Unified Carrier Registration Plan has a trademark for a logo, but UCR and Unified Carrier Registration by themselves seem to be commonly used terms in the industry. In fact, the Complainant disclaimed exclusive rights to use “Unified Carrier Registration Plan” in its logo trademark.
In a Unified Carrier Registration Plan board meeting on March 3, 2022, the group’s outside counsel commented on another group that provides third-party registration services:
I got a report this afternoon on our activities with six third-party permitting services that we have interacted with. The first is the Simplex group. We sent them a demand letter insisting that they stop using our registered logo. They engaged a lawyer to respond who sent us a letter agreeing with us that they should stop using the logo but they also believe that using the phrase ‘UCR permit’ and ‘UCR registration’ and similar phrases are permitted uses. We agree with that.
This suggests that the group agrees that it cannot stop third-party services from using the terms UCR permit and UCR registration — just that they shouldn’t use its logo.
The three-person UDRP panel found this case was brought in bad faith:
As to Complainant’s asserted common law trademark rights, the evidence before the Panel clearly shows that, prior to the filing of its initial Complaint in this proceeding, Complainant, Unified Carrier Registration Plan, established under a statute which uses “UCR” as an abbreviation for Unified Carrier Registration in the definition of Complainant, was well aware that it has no common law trademark rights in that abbreviation, nor in its combination with the descriptive word “registration”, as its outside Counsel so advised Complainant in 2022. The Panel notes that Complainant’s own website at “https://plan.ucr.gov/about-ucr/” uses “UCR” as an abbreviation:
“Motor carriers involved in interstate commerce, and other businesses subject to Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) are required to submit annual fees based on fleet size to supplement funding for state highway motor carrier registration and safety programs.”
As to legitimacy, the Amended Complaint asserted, as set out above:
“Before any notice to Respondent of the dispute, Respondent has not used, or made demonstrable preparations to use, the domain name or a name corresponding to the domain name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services or a legitimate noncommercial or fair use. Instead, Respondent is using the confusingly similar domain name to reroute Internet users to its own website, which purports to sell Complainant’s services for an additional fee.
Although the identity of Respondent was not disclosed by the Registrar until after the filing of the Complaint, it is clear that Complainant had long been aware of the legitimate services provided by Respondent and others in the industry, since those services involve payments to Complainant on behalf of their customers, a service expressly recognized by Complainant as permissible in the UCR HANDBOOK, approved by the Board of Directors of Complainant, effective August 11, 2022, available on Complainant’s website:
“Registration Through Third Parties: An entity subject to UCR may engage a third party to perform UCR registration and pay UCR fees. Such arrangements may be subject to the rules of individual participating states. The UCR program does not regulate the fees a private party may charge a registrant for such a service.”
Nevertheless, Complainant proceeded to file its Amended Complaint with full knowledge of Respondent’s rights and legitimate interests in the domain name.
Having regard to all the circumstances of this case, the Panel finds that both the Complaint and the Amended Complaint were brought in bad faith and that each constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP represented the Complainant, and Blank Rome LLP represented the Respondent.
Post link: Unified Carrier Registration Plan tries reverse domain name hijacking
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Escrow.com reveals median price by TLD for sales in 2023
.AI led the pack at $10,000.
Last month, Escrow.com revealed the average price paid for domain name by top level domain transacted through its service.
While it was interesting to see that the average .com price was $41,693, I don’t think this number is particularly useful. After all, it’s distorted by purchases such as chat.com for over $10 million.
I asked Escrow.com if it would provide the median price by top level domain name. Here’s what Escrow.com provided in response:
.com – $4,000
.ai – $10,000
.io – $4,500
.org – $5,237
.net – $2,500
.co – $3,899
.co.uk – $4,673
.ca – $5,000
.it – $,4283
.com.au – $3,239
These numbers are higher than what you can expect the industry-wide median to be because people tend to not use an escrow service for less expensive domain names.
The company also disclosed the exact dollar value of domains transacted on Escrow.com last year: $383,283,044.49.
Post link: Escrow.com reveals median price by TLD for sales in 2023
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Binance wins binance.ae domain name, which loser bought for $300k
Guy who bought domain name for $300k in 2021 loses cybersquatting dispute.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has won a cybersquatting claim for the domain name binance.ae, and the domain owner is about to be out $300,000.
Kirill Zalipaev acquired the domain name through Sedo in November 2021 for a whopping $300,000. I was puzzled at the time because I could not find a connection between Zalipaev and Binance.
It turns out there was none, and Zalipaev bought the domain, hoping to sell it to Binance for even more money.
According to the dispute, Zalipaev contacted Binance through an intermediary in July 2022, offering to sell the domain name for $1,447,000. He then reached out nearly a year later, asking $1,466,677.
When Binance contacted him directly via email, Zalipaev suggested a different price that was still over $1 million.
Binance subsequently filed a cybersquatting dispute (pdf) under the .ae Domain Name Policy.
It appears that Zalipaev is not well-versed in trademarks and the .ae policy. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Scott Blackmer summarized:
The Respondent does not contest the Complainant’s trademark claims but argues that the .ae Domain Name Policy “does not condition the title of ownership of a domain based on the principle of ownership of trademarks”. Hence, the Respondent (who is not represented by legal counsel) states his belief that he has not violated the Complainant’s intellectual property rights.
On the issue of registration or use in bad faith, Blackmer noted:
The Respondent’s emails show that he recognized the value of the disputed domain name to the Complainant. From his Response, it seems that the Respondent was under the mistaken impression that he was operating in a trademark-free zone, but he was not. He would have been better advised to be, well, better advised.
Indeed, Zalipaev did not hire a lawyer to defend the cybersquatting case. And he just lost a domain he paid $300,000 for.
Post link: Binance wins binance.ae domain name, which loser bought for $300k
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Adult cam site dispute results in reverse domain name hijacking finding
Site owner successfully argued that “love cam” is a common descriptive term.
TMD Swiss AG, which operates an adult video cam site at xlovecam .com, has been found guilty of trying to reverse domain name hijack lovecam .com (pdf).
ICF Technology Inc. operates the lovecam .com site. It acquired the domain name in 2013, which was after the Complainant obtained a European trademark registration for xlovecam.
However, the domain owner noted that “love cam” is a descriptive term used in the online adult entertainment industry.
The three-person World Intellectual Property Organization found that ICF Technology has rights or legitimate interests in the domain name because it was genuinely using the domain based on its descriptive meaning and not targeting the Complainant.
It went a step further by finding reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH).
In finding RDNH, the panel took issue with the complaint’s “barest of allegations consisting essentially of three substantive paragraphs, the WhoIs record of the disputed domain name, evidence of the Complainant’s EUTM, the Policy, and a print-out of Fabulous.com’s terms of service.” It also took issue with the Complainant’s failure to address the descriptive nature of the term “love cam.”
The panel noted that the Respondent pointed out the deficiencies in the Complainant’s argument via communication before the case was filed.
The WIPO panel noted:
In the present case, the Respondent’s longstanding registration has been put at risk and the Respondent has been put to considerable trouble and, presumably, expense to defend that registration by the filing of a most basic Complaint.
Merk-Echt B.V. represented the Complainant, and Paul Keating, Esq., represented the domain name owner.
Post link: Adult cam site dispute results in reverse domain name hijacking finding
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Weddings, onions, and dude ranches – DNW Podcast #469
Peter Askew talks about a tough onion season and his foray into the wedding business.
It’s been nearly two years since I last caught up with Peter Askew on the podcast. The entrepreneur who sells onions on the internet provides an update on this year’s onion crop and the challenges of selling produce. He also explains why he is dabbling in the wedding business with HighlandsWedding.com, SavannahWedding.com, and DallasWedding.com.
Mentioned in this episode: Vidalia Onions on YouTube
Also: Efty’s big moves, Afternic keywords and more
Sponsor: Sav.com backorders
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: Weddings, onions, and dude ranches – DNW Podcast #469
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Categories: Domains
AI is back! (It was never really gone)
Domain sales with “AI” in them rebounded in Afternic’s keyword rankings.
Afternic released its latest keywords report today, listing the top 20 keywords found in domain names sold on Afternic in November 2023.
One month after dropping to #9 on Afternic’s list of top keywords in domain sales, “ai” jumped back up to #3:
- my (1)
- group (2)
- ai (9)
- bet
- home (4)
- solutions (11)
- it (4)
- casino
- gpt
- club
- life (7)
- capital (11)
- health (5)
- new (8)
- your
- pro (20)
- law (6)
- all
- us (10)
- tech (18)
Some of the terms in this chart show up month after month, and could be helpful when searching for domains to buy. My, group, home, and solutions are frequently on the list.
Afternic also creates a list of filler words that it doesn’t include in its chart. “The” would land at #1 overall on the chart (by far) if it was included.
Post link: AI is back! (It was never really gone)
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End user domain name sales up to €40,100
A digital business card platform, a chess site, and a battery company bought domain names.
It’s time for more end user sales!
Earlier this week, I wrote about sales that happened in the week heading into Christmas. Now, let’s look at end user sales from the two weeks after that.
In addition to the end user sales below, I want to call out the sale of TherapistFinder.net. I wonder if it’s the same person who bought the matching .com on SnapNames. This domain is a rather famous slurl.
Here’s a list of end user domain name sales that completed since December 25. You can view previous lists like this here.
Luis.com €40,100 – This is the personal site for Luis Cuende. He appears to have a background in web3 technologies.
RW.se €7,500 – GördetmedRW is a brand of car cleaning products. It forwards this domain to Gördetmed.de.
BHP.eu €5,999 – BHP sells protective clothing. It forwards this domain name to the matching .pl. domain name.
ionk.com $5,700 – A coming soon page says this will be a digital business card platform.
AtlasMedia.com $5,000- The buyer has put up a fancy coming soon page that says “Discover What Is Possible. Coming February 2024.”
SansEngagement.com €4,900 – This is a French dating site. Sans means without.
ChessCloud.com $3,980 – ChessCloud is an online chess platform.
TheBRC.com €3,800 – This domain forwards to TheBRCMusic.com, which is the site for the Bud Cox Music Realm.
upVolt.com €3,000 – upVolt is a battery company. It forwards this domain to upVolt.ch. I think this was a low price for the domain.
BrightMinds.de €2,995 – Bright Minds pitches the “Success Habits Program” for self-improvement.
ShishaShop.de €2,950 – Shisha is another name for hookah. This will be a site selling hookah products.
Manuali.com $2,240 – Manuali is an online store for buying product manuals.
Webpages.org $2,100 – It looks like this will be a site with information about drag-and-drop website builders, site development, etc.
Post link: End user domain name sales up to €40,100
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What to do if your Afternic lead list looks like this:
How to get rid of confused “buyers” in one simple step.
Every once in a while, one of my domain names on Afternic will get a lot of inquiries.
Consider the domain in the image above, HackSpin.com. It received a few inquiries in September, but starting in December, it became a flood: the domain received over 85 inquiries from December until January 6.
Most of these inquiries were relegated to “Afternic Automation”, meaning Afternic thinks they have very low potential.
It’s quite clear that people are confused. This domain was set to the Request Price lander, and people were filling out the form because they were looking for something other than to buy the domain.
I have no idea what they’re looking for. If I had to guess, it has something to do with this same domain in the .online extension.
Getting all of these misguided inquiries is a waste of time and clutters up your Afternic Lead Center.
But there’s a simple way to get rid of these misguided inquiries — and you can make a bit of money at the same time.
You have two options. One is to change the lander to Buy Now. This will instantly turn off your bad inquiries and turn people away.
But unless you have concerns about the ads your domain will show, I’d recommend switching your domain to the Cash Parking lander instead. This lander still gets rid of confused people making an inquiry but can also earn you some pay-per-click revenue. And there will still be a banner at the top that people can click on if they are actually interested in buying the domain name.
Sure enough, within a few days of switching this lander to PPC, it has started generating revenue.
More importantly, the bad inquiries stopped.
Post link: What to do if your Afternic lead list looks like this:
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End user domain name sales led by a .xyz domain
A web3 technology company, two restaurant chains and an industrial vacuum cleaner business bought domain names.
Sedo dropped three weeks of domain name sales this week. For my first end user report, I reviewed the list of domains that sold just before Christmas.
The top sale that week was culinary.com, but it’s unclear who paid $80,000 for the domain name.
Here’s a list of domain names from that week for which I could figure out the buyer. You can view previous lists like this here.
Ten.xyz $29,888 – Ten is a web3 technology for encrypting Ethereum.
EnergieAusweis.de €17,850 – Ausweis is German for ID, and this domain forwards to a site that helps people create energy certificates.
nfit.com $8,888 – neuroFit, Inc. is a neuroscience company that spun out of NASA. It uses the domain name neurofit.tech.
All-on-4.com €7,500 – All-On-4 is a dentures technology business. All-on-4 is a dental implant term.
AdPartners.de €7,500 – AdPartners is a digital advertising agency.
Momomia.com $5,000 – MomoMia is an Indian food restaurant chain specializing in a dumpling called momo.
Websocket.org €4,000 – This domain resolves to a page about the websocket technology. It doesn’t disclose who is behind the site.
Foerderlotse.de €2,995 – This domain forwards to the site of Deutsche Fördermittelberatung Steidele GmbH, a company that provides funding services.
BYD-auto.de €2,980 – This website provides information about buying a BYD brand car in Germany.
Veganland.de €2,500 – VeganLand is a vegan restaurant chain in Germany.
IndustriesAuger.de €2,500 – Ruwac Industries Auguer forwards this domain to its website. The company makes industrial vacuum cleaners.
Unblocked .lol $2,500 – This site helps people access blocked websites.
Post link: End user domain name sales led by a .xyz domain
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Identity Digital gets patent for “Assisted setup of domain name registry”
Patent describes method for setting up a domain name registry.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 11,870,750 (pdf) to Identity Digital for Assisted setup of domain name registry.
The patent describes a process for setting up a domain name registry. The abstract summarizes the invention as:
A gateway server and methods operating as a web service providing a self-serve methodology for establishing a domain name registry over a communications network, comprising: receiving a request from the computing device to establish the domain name registry of a specified type; determining the specified type requires ICANN approval and receiving access credentials of the RO; confirming completion of a Registry Agreement between ICANN and the RO [registry operator]; collecting registry technical information for the domain name registry from the computing device; using the access credentials to access via the communications network the RO account on the server during a registry testing phase of the self-serve methodology to complete registry services testing for the domain name registry with ICANN; and updating a workflow interface with a completion status of the registry testing phase for subsequent access by the computing device of the RO over the communications network.
Three inventors are listed: Kroopa Shah, Senior Director, Registry Support and Management; James Galvin, Director, Technical Policy and Standards; and Jimmy Lam, Director, Product Strategy. (Titles from LinkedIn profiles.)
Identity Digital filed the patent application on April 21, 2023, and it was granted today.
Post link: Identity Digital gets patent for “Assisted setup of domain name registry”
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NameJet and SnapNames combine for $500k+ sales in November and December
Check out what sold over the past two months.
NameJet and SnapNames had a couple of slow months to finish the year, at least as far as sales of $2,000 or more are concerned.
Namefold’s two expired domain services combined for $239k of sales in November and $293k in December. 57 domains in November and 63 in December went for $2,000 or more.
Here are some domains that stand out to me:
BostonHomes.com $1,595 – Big city “homes .com” domains are super valuable. I’m less enthusiastic about long-tail real estate domains because we’ll likely see a steep drop in the number of Realtors over the next few years due to commission changes.
Mompreneur.com $6,250 – Big market for this domain geared to women entrepreneurs.
Newscaster .com $4,400 – I bought this one.
DigitalCoupons.com $4,300 – Online coupon clipping is a huge market.
RetireOnYourTerms .org $3,600 – This shows how much SEO/prior use can play a role in expired domains. I paid a lot less for the matching .com domain in July.
PittsburghRealEstate.com $3,332 – Another good city real estate domain, if not a little long.
TherapistFinder .com $2,013 – I flagged this auction while it was running. A therapist directory should absolutely not use this domain name. Stare at it long enough, and you’ll understand why. (There is some SEO value in this one, though.)
Here’s the combined list of sales over $2,000 during the past two months:
MonthDomainSales Amount 23-Novicinsights.com$13,500 23-Novsnappytv.com$8,250 23-Novtakt.com$7,800 23-Novciese.org$6,600 23-Novepicurus.com$5,555 23-Novbluesprig.com$4,710 23-Novcrosscurrent.com$4,702 23-Novmalaika.com$4,600 23-Novdigitalcoupons.com$4,300 23-Novprovidersedge.com$3,920 23-Novtechchat.com$3,700 23-Novthecakegirls.com$3,560 23-Novreefbase.org$3,500 23-Novgridforum.org$3,450 23-Novpuresoul.com$3,203 23-Novpdic.com$3,101 23-Novroboman.com$2,560 23-Novmaoi.org$2,300 23-Novbafuture.org$2,200 23-Novzray.com$2,071 23-Noveastfieldmall.com$2,051 23-Novdelitsdopinion.com$2,050 23-Novlured.com$2,050 23-Novtripmates.com$2,049 23-Novcolor-wheel-pro.com$2,019 23-Novitsok.com$12,100 23-Novbridgestreet.com$11,750 23-Novajemjournal.com$11,500 23-Novusemod.com$11,000 23-Novbankstreetbooks.com$7,550 23-Novlooksgood.com$7,077 23-Novartingeneral.org$5,750 23-Novaftron.com$4,465 23-Novservicestar.com$4,200 23-Novquicklift.com$3,649 23-Novradioworks.com$3,600 23-Novretireonyourterms.org$3,600 23-Novfcfc.com$3,038 23-Novrationalchristianity.net$3,000 23-Novsynoptics.com$2,811 23-Novmygeek.com$2,800 23-Novscreeny.com$2,625 23-Novyins.com$2,600 23-Novcafm.com$2,505 23-Novhairpro.com$2,501 23-Novhendersoninsurance.com$2,499 23-Novpoliticsoftheplate.com$2,410 23-Novhg21.com$2,400 23-Novhg67.com$2,400 23-Novadriaan.com$2,350 23-Novswales.com$2,252 23-Novpawspice.com$2,215 23-Novmakura.com$2,155 23-Novautonomously.com$2,149 23-Novtvdaily.com$2,050 23-Novinterinvest.com$2,049 23-Novthewpclub.net$2,049 23-Dectabula.com$24,000 23-Decbostonhomes.com$15,595 23-Deceeva.com$10,150 23-Decwebcraft.com$9,850 23-Dechrcr.org$6,760 23-Decpowergeneration.com$6,395 23-Decmompreneur.com$6,250 23-Dectheodore-roosevelt.com$6,055 23-Decsterlingcodifiers.com$5,761 23-Decgloballife.com$5,250 23-Decserpo.org$4,000 23-Decearlychildhoodohio.org$3,900 23-Dechexadecimal.com$3,650 23-Decietdl.org$3,100 23-Deccedd.net$3,031 23-Decasbj.com$2,504 23-Decasciiwwdc.com$2,350 23-Deccomoco.com$2,170 23-Decsupercomp.org$2,100 23-Decdailyjob.com$2,050 23-Dectherapistfinder.com$2,013 23-Decxela.com$15,700 23-Decfakeaddressgenerator.com$8,009 23-Dectoycars.com$7,025 23-Decvoosh.com$6,299 23-Decelitemedical.com$6,251 23-Decsmartbuyer.com$5,305 23-Decquadernsdigitals.net$5,000 23-Decskymania.com$5,000 23-Decneurosurgical.com$4,756 23-Declurch.com$4,650 23-Decsaly.com$4,538 23-Decnewscaster.com$4,400 23-Decplann.com$4,338 23-Decwildretreat.com$4,249 23-Declaplume.com$4,189 23-Decflightrights.com$3,950 23-Decidunn.com$3,700 23-Decseattlecentral.org$3,700 23-Decraar.com$3,433 23-Decinovamed.com$3,400 23-Decpittsburghrealestate.com$3,332 23-Decmedcode.com$3,300 23-Decmyways.com$3,300 23-Decdekon.com$3,207 23-Decmzrsrc.com$3,100 23-Decgraceway.com$3,011 23-Decnationalcad.org$3,011 23-Deckommerce.com$2,919 23-Decinterfit.com$2,800 23-Decallclaims.com$2,749 23-Deccarclick.com$2,600 23-Decnantucketproperty.com$2,600 23-Decbrightinfo.com$2,519 23-Decautodeploy.com$2,425 23-Decgchc.com$2,399 23-Decpopline.org$2,300 23-Decamcat.com$2,169 23-Decenacademic.com$2,160 23-Deccbd-oil.com$2,101 23-Decpench.com$2,005 23-Deccustomnails.com$2,002 23-Dec8b8b.com$2,000Post link: NameJet and SnapNames combine for $500k+ sales in November and December
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Efty to launch Efty Pay along with new branding
The company says Efty Pay will make domain name transactions easier for both buyers and sellers.
Efty is launching a new payments service and rebranding early this year.Big changes are in store for domain name sales platform Efty.
The company is launching Efty Pay, along with a complete overhaul of its marketplace and branding, early this year.
Efty promises that Efty Pay will simplify the domain sales checkout and transfer process, using automated workflows to make it easier for both buyers and sellers.
The domain sales platform partnered with a European payment processor to accept payments of all types. The payment processor will collect the payment and then disburse the seller’s funds directly to the seller (while sending the commission to Efty), ensuring that Efty never holds the buyer’s money directly. Efty declined to name the payment processor but said it will reveal it when it launches the service.
“The domain name aftermarket has been through many changes recently, such as consolidation, price alignment, and increased commission,” said Doron Vermaat, COO of Efty. “As a result, we’ve seen strong demand from the domain name investor community for an independent solution to sell domain names for a fair commission, giving them back more control and insights into their sales process and transactions.”
Unlike most domain sales platforms, Efty works on a SaaS model. Sellers pay a monthly fee based on how many domains they have on the platform and don’t pay a commission unless the domain sale originates through Efty’s separate marketplace.
Sellers have the option of using Escrow.com, Dan Payments, and now Efty Pay to consummate the transaction. This typically involves a fee for the seller.
In the case of Efty Pay, any sale that originates from the seller’s Efty landing page, custom (personal) marketplace, or lead import will have a 5% transaction fee. (There’s a 12.5% commission for domains sold through Efty’s marketplace.)
Efty will also launch a partner API so other marketplaces can use Efty Pay.
This all sounds a bit like Dan.com’s payment system, but Efty doesn’t look at it as a replacement.
“Our objective is to offer domain name investors freedom of choice,” said Vermaat. “This means Efty Pay will be available in addition to our existing integration with Dan.com and Escrow.com.”
It seems like a smart move. With Dan.com now owned by competitor GoDaddy, it’s possible that Dan payments will go away at some point.
In addition to launching Efty Pay, Efty is redesigning its marketplace and brand identity in conjunction with the new product rollout. An exact date of the launch has not been announced.
Efty shared this preview video with Domain Name Wire:
Post link: Efty to launch Efty Pay along with new branding
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The world’s sweetest domain names – DNW Podcast #468
Learn how GOAT Foods is building brands on great domain names like chocolate.com.
Chocolate.com. Licorice.com. Caramels.com. These are some really sweet domain names, and they’re all owned by one company: GOAT Foods. The company is leveraging these great domain names to sell snacks and confections online.
On today’s show, GOAT Foods cofounder Jonathan Packer tells the company’s origin story and explains how the high-quality domain names have helped it launch its brands. He also discloses which great domains the company is turning into businesses next.
Also: Squarespace dip, Roberto.com, Century.com, Verizon’s cybersquatting win
Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers
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: The world’s sweetest domain names – DNW Podcast #468
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Dynadot’s monthly .ai auction grosses over $300k with six figure sale
Here’s everything that closed at $500 or more.
Dynadot’s monthly .ai expired domain name auction ended last Monday. It was New Year’s Day and I wasn’t able to keep tabs on the auction. However, I now have the final bid prices.
Assuming all of these transactions go through, the auction will gross over $300,000. That’s less than the auction that closed in December, although the inventory probably wasn’t as strong. It didn’t help that the auction ended on a major holiday, either.
Vision.ai led the pack with a six-figure closing price. Here are all of the domains that closed at $500 or more:
vision.ai 100,000
trick.ai 24,977
insure.ai 24,700
dog.ai 21,311
betty.ai 20,088
he.ai 15,800
initiate.ai 13,200
magazine.ai 10,000
sustainable.ai 7,100
hoax.ai 6,101
persons.ai 6,100
ru.ai 6,100
streak.ai 4,300
producers.ai 4,054
l1.ai 3,850
discussion.ai 3,383
actualize.ai 3,209
astound.ai 2,939
reconstruction.ai 2,827
redrock.ai 2,551
selena.ai 2,345
rainfall.ai 2,025
twice.ai 2,025
epay.ai 2,001
h3.ai 1,934
visionx.ai 1,913
hose.ai 1,631
esignature.ai 1,525
thermostat.ai 1,501
jobfind.ai 1,325
katherine.ai 1,314
stylus.ai 1,289
chateau.ai 1,136
jazzy.ai 1,006
banshee.ai 1,001
enigmatic.ai 999
countable.ai 965
omo.ai 965
calvary.ai 929
cathedral.ai 918
gfe.ai 918
3dprinted.ai 898
fireup.ai 898
ugo.ai 810
employed.ai 807
emg.ai 801
mediq.ai 785
voicestudio.ai 760
brg.ai 740
drain.ai 737
protech.ai 735
zoomer.ai 703
logistica.ai 698
smartcart.ai 695
alx.ai 676
ebanking.ai 676
medscan.ai 671
utc.ai 671
bng.ai 625
documented.ai 616
fixel.ai 616
settled.ai 616
ddr.ai 605
scoops.ai 586
myart.ai 565
reserva.ai 565
waking.ai 561
dinos.ai 551
grains.ai 545
futurelab.ai 544
bhg.ai 515
gtl.ai 515
utg.ai 515
v5.ai 510
york.ai 504
sweeps.ai 501
Post link: Dynadot’s monthly .ai auction grosses over $300k with six figure sale
© DomainNameWire.com 2023. 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 editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Verizon wins $450k cybersquatting judgment
Company gets $50,000 in statutory damages per domain.
Telecommunications company Verizon, through its Verizon Trademark Services LLC affiliate, has been awarded $450,000 in statutory damages against a cybersquatter.
The company filed the case in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. against Verizon Trademark Services LLC and Matt McMan.
If the corporate name of the defendant sounds confusing, it’s because the defendant took a rather interesting approach to cybersquatting. According to the court’s opinion, issued yesterday:
Per the Complaint, VTS LLC—under the exclusive control of its “sole organizer and contact,” Co-Defendant Matt McMan—registered multiple infringing domain names and trade names as part of a scheme to mislead consumers, damage the VERIZON mark, and extort Verizon. Id. ¶¶ 10, 67–68, 96–100. As early as April 2023, the various named Defendants (including VTS LLC), through McMan, began registering domains that derived from or incorporated trademarks owned by Verizon, which prompted Verizon to send cease-and-desist letters objecting to the unauthorized use of its trademarks. Id. ¶¶ 41, 44, 72. In response, Defendants doubled down, registering additional domain names (as well as trade names) incorporating the entirety of the VERIZON mark or other marks owned by Plaintiff. Id. ¶¶ 45, 73–74, 77, 83–84. When registering the domains at issue, Defendants often did so anonymously, using “a popular domain privacy service” known as “Domains By Proxy.” Id. ¶¶ 42, 103.
At the height of this misconduct, VTS LLC drafted a “Complaint” alleging that Plaintiff was misleading consumers. Id. ¶ 94. This same document also boasted that Plaintiff “Can’t Even Get a DBA in Washington, DC for ‘Verizon Trademark Services’ LLC because . . . Verizon Trademark Services LLC Owned By Matt McMan Will NOT Grant ‘Verizon’ written Consent.” ECF 1-10 at 4. On multiple occasions, Defendant sent versions of this “Complaint” to Plaintiff and government officials in a coercive attempt to sell or license these marks to Verizon. See ECF 1 ¶¶ 88, 94, 100; ECF 1-11; ECF 1-12; ECF 1-13. When Verizon resisted those efforts, Defendants promptly registered even more domains incorporating the VERIZON mark.
The defendant didn’t show up in court and Verizon won a default judgment.
Verizon asked for $50,000 statutory damages for nine domain registrations, including VerizonTrademark .com and Verizon .com.co. The court awarded (pdf) this amount and ordered the domains transferred to Verizon.
This appears to be the defendant’s website.
Post link: Verizon wins $450k cybersquatting judgment
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New registrations plummet after Squarespace takes over Google Domains
Unsurprisingly, the strong brand name mattered.
Squarespace acquired Google Domains on September 8, 2023, and we now have an idea of how important the Google brand name was to ginning up registrations there.
ICANN has published data from .com registry Verisign showing new registrations at each registrar for September.
In August, Google Domains and Squarespace registered a combined 250,324 domains. In September, they registered just 189,713 new .com domains.
Google is using Squarespace when people buy some of its products that need a domain and is also sending people to Squarespace when they land on the Google Domains site. (Google Domains still shows up #2 for me in Google when I search for domain names.) Still, it’s clear that the brand name drove a lot of registrations. And these numbers reflect only .com domains, so it’s surely a bigger delta when including all domains.
The winners? Other registrars that picked up the registrations that would have gone to Google had it still been a domain registrar.
Below is a chart showing how the largest registrars did in terms of new registrations in September. Note that the rankings include multiple registrar accreditations within families of registrars. You can see the list at the end of this post. (I started including Mesh Digital and the five “Go” registrars (e.g., Go China Domains) in GoDaddy’s numbers this month. This added about 2k new registrations and 530k total registrations.)
1. GoDaddy.com (NYSE: GDDY) 715,431 (775,175 in August 2023)
2. Namecheap Inc. 283,620 (291,747)
4. Newfold Digital 216,538 (169,663)
3. Squarespace (NYSE: SQSP) 189,713 (250,324)
5. Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) 163,648 (163,629)
6. Gname.com 133,917 (115,409)
7. IONOS 79,420 (99,454)
8. Alibaba 71,895
9. Dynadot 71,212
10. Wix 70,798 (71,825)
Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations under management as of the end of August.
1. GoDaddy 56,142,674 (55,638,534 in August 2023)
2. Newfold Digital 12,380,044 (12,370,532)
3. Tucows 11,113,636 (11,131,272)
4. Namecheap 9,387,689 (9,376,275)
5. Squarespace 8,184,335 (8,166,306)
6. TurnCommerce 5,940,486 (5,958,992)
7. IONOS# 5,669,464 (5,659,585)
8. Alibaba 4,187,402 (4,213,654)
9. Gname 4,237,209 (4,155,354)
10. CentralNic 3,826,492 (3,910,648)
Many domain companies have multiple accreditations, and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.
- GoDaddy includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry, GoDaddy Corporate Domains, MeshDigital, the 5 “Go Country” registrars, and 123 Reg
- Namecheap includes Namecheap and Spaceship
- Tucows includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
- Newfold Digital Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, MarkMonitor, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
- Squarespace includes Squarespace and Google
- TurnCommerce Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
- IONOS includes Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys, and world4you
- CentralNic includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra
Post link: New registrations plummet after Squarespace takes over Google Domains
© DomainNameWire.com 2023. 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 editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
December’s top domain name stories
A look back at the holiday month in the domain name business.
These were the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month:
1. 14 things you can’t do with .AI domain names – .ai is a country code domain, and you should understand the rules Anguilla has placed on it…which are constantly changing.
2. ICANN debates action after community member’s antisemitic comments – He is behind a domain registrar, a UDRP provider, and an L-Root operator. ICANN is trying to figure out how best to respond to his comments.
3. Two things to do today for your Afternic domain names – One isn’t quite as urgent as I thought, but owners of .io and .xyz domains should take notice of the other.
4. Using Domain Academy’s Research Snapshot to evaluate domains – Some nifty data tools help when evaluating domain names.
5. 3 end user domain buyers tell their stories – A lease-to-own deal, a ccTLD-to-gTLD upgrade, and an expired domain purchase.
Here are podcasts you might have missed:
Selling brandable domains with Keith DeBoer – DNW Podcast #466
2023’s top stories – DNW Podcast #465
NIS2 is here – DNW Podcast #464
Post link: December’s top domain name stories
© DomainNameWire.com 2023. 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 editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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ICANN might not renew TAG-Domains accreditation after antisemitic remarks
ICANN gives registrar mini-extension while it awaits Ombud’s determination.
ICANN has delayed fully renewing the accreditation agreement for TAG-Domains after one of the registrar’s leaders made antisemitic remarks.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, a leader in the intellectual property community in the Middle East, said in a TV interview:
The Jews do not have any ideology. All they care about is money and interests. I had a friend who was a German cabinet member. I once asked him: ‘When Hitler, may God forgive him, carried out the Holocaust, why didn’t he finish the job and kill all the Jews?’ He said to me: ‘It’s the other way around, but don’t tell anyone I said this. He left a group of them on purpose, so that people would know why we carried out the Holocaust. When you would be tormented by them, you would know the reason.
Abu-Ghazaleh is also affiliated with a UDRP provider and a group that hosts an instance of ICANN’s L Root in Jordan.
ICANN has referred the matter to its Ombuds, stating that this violates ICANN’s Expected Standards of Behavior.
In a letter to TAG-Domains, ICANN noted that the group’s accreditation is set to renew on January 16. Rather than renewing it for a full term, ICANN is renewing it for three months to allow for the conclusion of the Ombuds investigation.
While many people find Abu-Ghazaleh’s comments abhorrent, some in the ICANN community are privately questioning the extension of ICANN’s Expected Standards of Behavior to speech made outside of any connection to ICANN and the domain name community.
This particular case puts ICANN in a precarious position. Abu-Ghazaleh commented in the heat of a war between Israel, which has generally been backed by the United States, where ICANN is based, and someone in a region that has often opposed the establishment of Isreal.
ICANN seems to understand this to a degree and has alluded to free speech considerations.
It’s possible that an apology from Abu-Ghazaleh would resolve the matter, but I’m not sure that one is forthcoming.
One thing’s certain: ICANN’s interim Ombuds has her hands full.
Post link: ICANN might not renew TAG-Domains accreditation after antisemitic remarks
© DomainNameWire.com 2023. 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 editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
WIPO panel lets bakery off the hook
Panel says Complainant, represented by a 100+-year-old IP law firm, has “simply not understood the Policy.”
Some UDRP filings have no chance of succeeding.
Consider the case (pdf) that Roberto Industria Alimentare S.r.l. filed against the domain name roberto.com. The Italian baked goods company filed the dispute against Reflex Publishing, which acquired the domain name over two decades ago.
You don’t have to be Italian to know that Roberto is a very common name. In fact, it’s one of the top 20 most common names in Italy.
Yet Roberto Industria Alimentare S.r.l. argued in its case that “ROBERTO” is not a common or descriptive term but is obviously a trade mark in which the Complainant has rights.”
Um, OK.
The World Intellectual Property Organization rightly found in Reflex Publishing’s favor. It noted that Reflex is a company in Florida and probably wasn’t aware of the Complainant. And even if it was aware of the Complainant, “Having regard to the fact of its varied potential uses and the Respondent’s intended use non-infringing of the disputed domain name, registration of it by the Respondent, would not have been abusive.”
The three-person panel then listed several reasons why this appears to be a case of reverse domain name hijacking:
- the Complainant has been professionally represented and many panels will find that such a party should be held to a higher standard.
- this was a misconceived Complaint in that the Complainant had no credible basis for alleging that its mark had a reputation in the United States and consequently that the Respondent was, or should have been, aware of it. Moreover, it adduced scarcely any evidence to support its assertions and it produced no evidence at all in relation to the alleged repute of its ROBERTO mark in the United States as at the date of registration of the disputed domain name.
- the record suggests that the Complainant bought these proceedings because its offer of USD 1,000 for the disputed domain name had been rejected by the Respondent. The Panel notes that the Complainant’s offer did not contain any allegation of wrongdoing on the part of the Respondent in its registration and use of the disputed domain name and was made some 23 years after the Respondent’s registration of it. Having recourse to proceedings under the Policy following an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a domain name is sometimes referred to as a “Plan B.”
Got it, so reverse domain name hijacking.
Except the panel let the Complainant off the hook, saying it probably just didn’t know what it was doing by filing the complaint:
In these proceedings, some of more egregious features associated with a finding of RDNH, such as manifestly untrue allegations against a respondent and attempts to mislead the panel, are absent. The overall impression is that the Complainant has simply not understood the Policy and the burden it has to meet. For this reason, by a very narrow balance, the Panel declines to make a finding of RDNH.
Wouldn’t you say that not mentioning that Roberto is a common first name was an attempt to mislead the panel?
And get this. The Complainant’s representative was Società Italiana Brevetti S.p.A. Go to its website, and you’ll see that it prominently displays “Intellectual Property since 1882” in Italian at the very top.
So it just didn’t know what it was doing? Hmm.
John Berryhill represented Reflex Publishing.
Post link: WIPO panel lets bakery off the hook
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