Archive for the ‘Domainnamewire’ Category
G.me now registered to brand protection company.
The whois record for the domain name G.me recently changed to DNStination Inc., which is the proxy service for brand protection company Mark Monitor:
The change was just triggered on DomainTools yesterday, although the record shows it was altered on April 20.
The domain name was previously a registry reserved domain name.
Although nothing is definitive, there’s a good possibility that Google is the new owner. Google uses Mark Monitor for some of its domain name registrations. Given Mark Monitor’s need to avoid conflict of interest amongst clients, at a minimum I’d assume that Google was aware of any transaction for G.me.
There’s also a Google Chrome extension called G+Me.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Google gets RealTimeBidding.com domain [Updated]
- .Us whois privacy is alive and well if you use Mark Monitor
- Trademark Protection Firm Uses Trademarks in Its Meta Tags
Received yesterday…
Subject: Website Purchase Inquiry
Hi,
I am interested in setting up a new blogging website on your domain name.
My name is Adam and I located your contact information through a domain look up and I understand that you are the owner of DNW.com. I’ve been working in establishing a number of high quality websites for quite some time and think that your domain name fits in perfectly with the blog!
In my current situation, I would like to set up a new blogging site and conducted several site searches relating to my niche.
I decided to contact you after finding out that your domain is not one which is highly active at the moment. Obviously I would provide you some compensation for the exchange, so If you are willing to sell your domain name please let me know what sort of price range you would be willing to sell for and we can discuss further.
Furthermore since this is our first time to do business, I can easily set up an escrow service to ensure a safer business transaction for both of us if you would prefer.
Again, feel free to contact me through my email address if you would like to discuss.
Sincerely,
Adam Daniels
Zoom-IT
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File sharing company files IP lawsuit over trademarks.
BitTorrent (and especially its users) are familiar with intellectual property lawsuits. But usually they’re on the receiving end.
Now the tables are turned. BitTorrent, Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit in California against BitTorrent Marketing GMBH for trademark infringement and cybersquatting.
According to BitTorrent, Inc. founder Bram Cohen, he first became aware of the defendant when it contacted him in 2003 and asked for permission to register the Bittorrent.de domain name. Cohen refused. The defendant went ahead and registered a lot of related domain names (including the .de domain) and managed to secure trademark registrations for the BitTorrent mark in Germany and Europe. When BitTorrent, Inc. tried to get its own trademarks in Europe, the defendant filed a petition to oppose BitTorrent, Inc’s trademark applications.
BitTorrent, Inc initiated litigation in Germany against BitTorrent Marketing GMBH in 2010. Now BitTorrent is bringing a case against the firm in the U.S.
According to Cohen’s lawsuit, the German company has registered hundreds of domain names that include “Bittorent”, such as the typo bitorrent.com, bittorrent.net, and bittorrent.de.
BitTorrent, Inc also says that the defendant has a history of bad activity in file sharing. It alleges the defendant has tried to usurp trademarks owned by other file sharing companies such as Kazaa and Morpheus.
Cohen’s company is suing for federal trademark infringement and cybersquatting, among other claims. On the cybersquatting claims it is asking for $100,000 per infringing domain name. Both the defendant and the respondent have filed cybersquatting claims in the past, but not against each other.
You can read the lawsuit here (large PDF).
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Domain Tools files preemptive lawsuit over copyright claims and its trademark
- BMW Files Cybersquatting Lawsuit
- Facebook Files Massive Cybersquatting Lawsuit
Don’t forget to prove earlier rights if you claim them.
Publisher Hidden Values has lost a dispute over the domain name TriangleKidsDirectory.com.
Hidden Values publishes the Kids’ Directory. It also has a registered trademark for KID’S DIRECTORY.
It’s an admittedly weak mark. It’s even a concurrent use registration that is limited in geographic scope.
But, the registrant of the domain name was a former licensee of Kids Directory and published the directory in the North Carolina “triangle”. And he didn’t respond to the dispute. So the odds were tipped in Hidden Values’ favor.
Regardless of what you think of the merits of this case and if UDRP is the proper venue for it, the case seems to have come down to when Hidden Values got trademark rights in “Kid’s Directory”. And this is where the company screwed up.
Hidden Values’ complaint mentions that it started using the mark in 1990. That’s the first-use-in-commerce date on its trademark application. But the trademark application wasn’t filed until 2005, after the respondent registered the TriangleKidsDirectory.com domain name. It should have been easy for the lawyer to show some common law rights previous to 2005 that would have been acceptable to the panel, but he dropped the ball:
“In the instant proceeding, Complainant has provided no documentary or other evidence to support the date of first use in Commerce referenced in its trademark application. This Panel therefore finds there to be a lack of evidentiary basis by which it might reasonably conclude that Complainant held rights in the KID’S DIRECTORY trademark prior to the May 12, 1995 [sic] date on which Respondent registered the disputed domain name.”
Had the company’s lawyer provided what should have been easy proof, I bet the company wins this case.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Every blog is supposed to write about the IPO
I’ve got to write one, right?
If religious blogs find a way to cover an IPO then a domain blog should, too.
I actually have a bit of a domain angle. This morning I googled FacebookIPO.com because I recall seeing something about the domain previously. Here’s the first result:
Facebook-IPO.com has no content whatsoever. Google still cares about exact match domain searches, even if it’s on a really esoteric search. I suspect some people will type FacebookIPO.com into their browsers today.
OK, that’s my tie-in.
Facebook is expected to start trading this morning on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol FB.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Facebook URL Landrush This Friday Night
- Facebook Deals Launches Sans Domain Name
- Facebook Fights for Facebook.me Domain Name
A look at a few stories I haven’t covered this week…
There are a few notable stories in the domain name industry that I missed writing about over the past week, so here’s a quick run down.
A “monster” of an acquisition – Mesh Digital, which owns domain name registrar DomainMonster, has been acquired by Host Europe Group for an undisclosed sum. DomainMonster isn’t a huge registrar, but it has proven quite adept at mastering domain registrations when new top level domains enter their “general availability period”. This will come in handing with hundreds of TLDs coming on line in the next couple years.
iPhone5.com – Apple filed a UDRP to get iPhone5.com earlier this month. The owners put up an initial fight before deciding to hand the domain over the Apple this week.
Vanity.com – Quite a stink going on over at TheDomains about this UDRP filing. I hope there’s more to this story than meets the eye. For what it’s worth, the owner of the domain has had it since at least 2005. The company was formed in Nevada.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Apple and iPhone.org – What does it mean?
- Apple Fights for iPhone Porn Domain Names Including iphone4s.com
- iPhone Jailbreak Site Files Lawsuit Over Domain Name
Moniker auction nets close to $20,000 in sales.
The Moniker Premium Spring Auction at SnapNames just concluded. Here are the (unofficial) results:
drivinggloves.com 6450 – this is a recently developed site. Auction included Facebook page (with 2,000+ likes) and Twitter handle.
florists.info 3050 – good keyword, but not a bad price given how marketplace for secondary TLDs like this will change in coming years.
loaninterestrates.com 2000
obese.net 1650 – 5 bidders duked it out for this one. It was the last auction to close due to extensions.
scubadivinglessons.com 1267
bearings.net 770
alumn.com 590 – not a very common spelling of the term
njlawfirms.com 575
grilled.net 500
32a.com 470
wyvn.com 300
upcbarcodes.com 300
overnightpriority.com 300 – not to be confused with Fedex’s Priority Overnight
joggingshorts.com 300 – definitely falls under the “niche” category
attempt.net 300
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Moniker Spring auction begins, plus sites get new logos
- Moniker Trims Silent Auction List for TRAFFIC Auction
- Moniker Auction Results: 30 .Us Domain Name Sell
Company transfers domains between registrar accreditations.
If you start to see domain name registrar Domain.com growing in registrar ranking reports, there’s a good explanation for that.
Dotster, which owns Domain.com, has transferred the domain names from its Dotster accreditation to the Domain.com one.
I was alerted to this change when I received a DomainTools whois change alert on a friend’s domain name that I helped her register. My first thought was that her domain had been stolen, until I remembered that Dotster owns Domain.com.
I reached out to Dotster to find out what was going on. Brian Unruh, General Manager at Dotster, told Domain Name Wire:
Through acquisitions, Dotster historically has owned many registrar credentials. We consolidated them to deliver a higher quality customer experience and better efficiency. In fact this change is just one of many that we’re making to improve the services we provide our customers. While Dotster.com’s registrations are now using the Domain.com credential, Dotster customers will remain Dotster customers and continue to receive industry leading service and care.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- $1 Domains at Dotster!
- Dotster Happy Hour to offer free domain transfer
- Dotster Picks Up Domain Names from BestRegistrar.com
Oversee.net hires GM from online travel industry to run its travel network.
Oversee.net has hired Raj Beri as General Manager of its travel vertical, the company announced today. Beri was previously Director and COO of IgoUgo, a travel site owned by Travelocity.
The travel vertical is part of Oversee.net’s “vertical markets” business that includes fully developed web sites. Oversee.net is best known to domainers for its DomainSponsor domain parking service.
Oversee.net’s travel properties include LowFares.com, FareSpotter.net, AboutAirportParking.com and AirportParking.com. These are big sites; LowFares.com has a US Quantcast rank of 1,492 and FareSpotter.net is ranked 2,973.
So just how big is Oversee.net’s travel vertical? According to Beri’s LinkedIn profile, it’s a $40MM+ business.
Other vertical markets at Oversee.net include consumer finance (CreditCards.org, IdentityTheft.com) and shopping (ShopWiki.com).
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Oversee.net Trademark Attempt Rejected
- Oversee.net Acquires ShopWiki
- Oversee.net Launches CreditCards.org Web Site
From dessert names to rather unflattering names, here are 14 odd domain registrar names.
People get creative when coming up with domain names. Even registrars sometimes get into the act when naming their registrars.
Many registrar names are created by companies creating drop catching registrars. Since they aren’t public facing registrars, they get really creative. Here are some of the more amusing registrar names (both drop catching registrars and regular ones):
Afterdark Domains, Inc (eNom) – what is this, a registrar for porn names?
Backslap Domains, Inc. – just a really funny name for a domain registrar
BearTrapDomains.com LLC (Moniker) – I guess the visual makes sense for one of SnapNames’ domain registrars.
Betterthanaveragedomains.com LLC (Moniker) – Sell it to me!
Decentdomains, LLC (Dotster) – I’m having a tough time choosing between Better Than Average Domains and Decent Domains as my domain registrar.
Chocolatecovereddomains,LLC (Dotster) – Yeah, I’ll take a dozen.
Domainsouffle.com LLC (Moniker) – or maybe I want a souffle instead.
Dontaskwhy.ca Inc. – I won’t ask why. Forwards to NameScout.
DuckBilledDomains.com LLC (Moniker) – uh, ok.
eNom’s numbered registrars enom1008 Inc., enom1009 Inc (enom) – eNom didn’t have the all night drug induced namestorming session that SnapNames apparently had
EurotrashNames.com LLC (Moniker) – Love it!
Microbreweddomains.com LLC (Moniker) – Little know fact: name was brainstormed at a microbrewery.
NotSoFamousNames.com LLC (Moniker) – No thanks, I’ll keep my business at DecentDomains.
Wild West Domains (GoDaddy) – got to wonder what GoDaddy was thinking when it named its reseller division. Nothing says “lack of trust” more than the Wild West.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- GoDaddy Rated Best Domain Registrar (Again)
- GoDaddy Selected as Top Domain Name Registrar
- Survey: Go Daddy Top Domain Name Registrar
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