Be Interviewed on DomainSherpa
Every Friday, DomainSherpa.com provides you with a hand-selected, editorially-based review of the weekly news. In this summary, you will find the latest articles and videos produced by DomainSherpa staff and contributors. You will also find links to the best news articles in the domain name industry – so you don’t have to spend your time searching for news or reading something that was not worth your time.
This Week’s DomainSherpa Interview
- 7 Inspiring Interviews to Listen to on Your Summer Vacation
My family is going to be doing a little traveling this summer, so I’ve decided to take the month of June off from recording new interviews. It’s a first for me to take that much time off, and I may decide later that I’m stir crazy – but we’ll see.As you prepare for your summer vacations and staycations, whether they are in June, July or August, I wanted to provide you with a list of some of the most useful and popular interviews from the past two years of 118 recorded interviews and tutorials.
This Week’s News in Review
Kuek Yu-Chuang to Lead ICANN’s Asia Engagement Strategy – 06-Jun-13
Kuek Yu-Chuang, a leading executive in technology policy development has been named Vice President for Global Stakeholder Engagement for the Asia Region. He will assume the role on August 1st, 2013. Kuek has served most recently as a Senior Director …
27 Investors Chip $7 Million Into .club As It Wins Private TLD Auction – 06-Jun-13
.Club applicant eliminates competition and raises $7 million to launch top level domain. .Club Domains, LLC has raised a combined $7 million from 27 individual investors and has eliminated its competition for the .club top level domain through a private auction. The new top level domain applicant recently filed its SEC Form D to raise […]
.club Domains Wins The New gTLD .club “In Historic First Private Auction” – 06-Jun-13
.Club Domains, LLC announced today they have won the rights to the new generic top level domain (gTLD) name .CLUB. The .CLUB name was obtained in the first private auction to be completed since ICANN began the new gTLD process. The other applicants for .Club that participated in the private auction was Donuts and the Merchant Law Group LLP…
Heads Up, .gmbh Applicants: This Trademark Application is Slipping Through The Cracks – 06-Jun-13
.GMBH applicant’s trademark application approved for publishing. I’ve written numerous times about companies trying to trademark top level domain name strings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Although the USPTO won’t grant trademarks on top level domains, some applicants have been able to sneak their applications through at least part of the process. One […]
ICA Tells ICANN The Draft of RAA Agreement is “Deficient in Scope” – 06-Jun-13
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) submitted comments to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) website, on the current draft statement of Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities (RRR) calling it “deficient in scope”…
The CEO of Blacknight Elected Chair of Registrar Stakeholder Group of ICANN – 05-Jun-13
Michele Neylon the CEO of the ICANN accredited domain name registrar, Blackight, has been elected Chair of The Registrar Stakeholder Group of ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), becoming the first European to hold such position…
Centr Report: 64.2 Million ccTLD Registrations in Europe, 112 Million ccTLD World Registrations – 05-Jun-13
Council of European National Top level Domain Registries (CENTR) published the DomainWire Stat Report for May 2013 that is CENTR’s biannual publication covering basic domain name statistics with a focus on European ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains). A ccTLD …
The official (unrealistic) go-live date for new gTLDs is September 28 – 05-Jun-13
September 28 could be (won’t be) the launch date of the first new gTLD sunrise period, according to a (unrealistic) timetable released by ICANN yesterday. During a webinar for new gTLD applicants, program head Christine Willett presented the following slide: As you can see, using this timetable the first registry contract would be signed one […]
GNSO Wins Minor Victory in Trademark+50 Dispute – 05-Jun-13
The ICANN board has rescheduled an important decision for trademark owners, apparently at the behest of members of the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council. The board’s New gTLD Program Committee was due to vote June 11 on whether to approve the rejection of a Reconsideration Request filed by the Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group. But the item […]
Donuts Withdraws Its .vote Bid, Raising Questions About New gTLD Auctions – 05-Jun-13
One down, only 306 to go! Donuts has withdrawn its application for the .vote new gTLD, leaving an Afilias joint venture as the sole remaining applicant, it emerged today. It’s reasonable to assume that this is the first result of the private string auctions, designed by Cramton Associates, that are being run by Innovative Auctions […]
Microsoft Buys ToDoApp.com, and 16 Other Domain Name Sales – 05-Jun-13
Microsoft and Magazines.com among end user buyers at Sedo last week. Is Microsoft about to release an organization app a la Evernote and Google’s Keep? It bought ToDoApp.com last week on Sedo. Here are details on that sale and many other end user sales. Financing First Limited in the United Kingdom bought DentalFinance.co.uk for 1,500 […]
First New gTLDs Could Be Delegated As Soon As Aug 28th W/ Sunrise Ending Oct 27th – 05-Jun-13
As part of its Webinar today ICANN laid out a “best case scenario” for when the first new gTLD’s might roll out. According to a time line laid out by ICANN the first new gTLD could be delegated to the root by as early as August 28, 2013 in which event the Sunrise notice for trademark and other rights holders for the new gTLD could start the following day August 29th…
ICM Registry Sells Love.xxx for $79,530 to California Filmmaking Team Everynone – 05-Jun-13
ICM Registry has been offering a list of 1046 .xxx domain names for sale with prices. So far 57 domain names have been removed from this list and have been sold or a sale is pending. This week 2 more …
ICANN New gTLD Contention Auctions to Start in October – 05-Jun-13
During a Webinar today, ICANN announced it is intending to hold the first round of the ICANN Last Resort auction starting in October for those Contention sets which DO NOT include community applications. Auctions are also not expected for strings that have outstanding objections in the first group of strings…
A Subtle (Yet Big) Change in GoDaddy’s Ads – 05-Jun-13
Verisign paying to include .com in GoDaddy ad. I was watching the Cardinals game last night when I noticed ads for GoDaddy.com behind the batter. This is nothing new. GoDaddy frequently advertises on baseball broadcasts. But something about the ad looked different. Take a look. Can’t see the difference? Here’s a close-up. We already know […]
Techcrunch Covers Twitch.tv Which Gets 35 Million Viewers a Month – 04-Jun-13
TechCrunch.com covered the “E-sports streaming startup Twitch.TV this morning.
The site according to TechCrunch “has already seen massive growth in its audience since launching to the public just about two years ago and gets “more than 35 million unique viewers a month, up from 20 million last September.”…
Scammy Survey Site Beats Tumblr in Domain Dispute – 04-Jun-13
Lawyers don’t provide enough evidence to convince panel that domain was registered in bad faith. Tumblr, the company that Yahoo is acquiring for $1.1 billion, has lost a cybersquatting claim for the domain name tublr.com. In its complaint filed with World Intellectual Property Organization, Tumblr argued the domain name was registered as a typo of […]
Gucci Wins UDRP On 165 Domain Names – 04-Jun-13
Gucci this morning Won a UDRP seeking 165 domain names which all contain the famous trademark. The complaint was filed by the formal name of the company that owns the trademark to the Gucci brand, Guccio Gucci S.p.A…
Tumblr.com Loses UDRP On Tublr.com – 04-Jun-13
In a decision certain to drive the Trademark Holder groups crazy, Tumblr.com just lost a UDRP on the domain name Tublr.com although the domain name was going to one of those “sweepstakes/survey” sites cited by so many UDRP panels which have ordered domains transferred…
.nl Domain Name Growth Slows Down in 2012 and The Registry Blames Domainers – 04-Jun-13
Growth in the number of .nl domain names slowed considerably in 2012 and SIDN’s annual report says that this happened because there isn’t as much money to be made from domain name trading now. So was the lack of growth …
Today’s New gTLD Withdrawals: .play and .design – 04-Jun-13
Two new gTLD applications have been withdrawn today: Directi’s .play and Starting Dot’s .design. They’re the second application to be withdrawn by Directi after .movie, which it pulled last month for undisclosed reasons, and the first of Starting Dot’s five bids to die. Starting Dot said that it has bowed out of the .design fight […]
New gTLD Program Posts 100 New Initial Evaluation Results: 81 Applications Get a Pass (Total is 514) – 04-Jun-13
The next set of Initial Evaluation (IE) Results was released by ICANN. ICANN has ramped up the number of results to batches of 100 prioritized applications per week. The total number of passing applications is now 514 (was 433 last week). …
Name Administration Wins Another UDRP Case – 04-Jun-13
No one has ultimately prevailed after filing a UDRP against Name Administration. Before you filed a UDRP, you’d think you’d google the domain name’s owner to learn more. Yet time after time I see people file long shot UDRP complaints against Frank Schilling’s Name Administration. Today’s winner is the company that filed against Klipz.com. Since […]
Wholesale Prices in 2019: .info at $14.42 and .biz at $15.25 While .com Remains at $7.85 – 04-Jun-13
ICANN posted for public comment the proposed renewal agreements of the .INFO and .BIZ Registries. The new contracts will have a 6 year duration spanning up to 2019. Afilias Limited, the .info registry, and Neustar, the .biz registry, as per …
ICANN Posts for Public Comment The Proposed Renewal Agreements of The .info and .biz Registries – 04-Jun-13
ICANN posted today for public comment the proposed agreements for renewal of the Registry Agreement for .INFO and for .BIZ. This proposals are a result of discussions between ICANN/Afilias Limited and ICANN/Neustar, Inc. respectively. After review of the public comments received, the …
Telepathy Fends Off Valio’s Attack On Lgg.com – 03-Jun-13
Company tries to make claim to LGG.com 15 years after it’s registered. Telepathy, the domain name company run by domain investor Nat Cohen, has successfully defended his domain name LGG.com in a UDRP. The complaint was brought by Valio Ltd, a Finnish dairy company and was filed with Czech Arbitration Court. If you’re not familiar […]
Huge registrar shake-up coming to .biz and .info – 03-Jun-13
Afilias and Neustar will be soon able to sell .biz and .info domains direct, and may have to shut down registrars that refuse to sign up to the new 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Those are two of the biggest changes proposed to the companies’ ICANN contracts, drafts of which were published this morning six months […]
CrowdFunding.com Sells for “About” $170,000 – 03-Jun-13
According to AllThingsD.com the domain name CrowdFunding.com has been sold for “about” $170,000. The buyer of the domain name is GoFundMe.com which bought the domain but doesn’t plan on changing the name of its site. According to the article on AllThingsD.com, GoFundMe.com has raised $75 million dollars for personal fundraising campaigns…
Marchex co-founder John Keister resigns from board – 03-Jun-13
Keister has held a number of executive positions with the company. John Keister, a founder of Marchex, resigned his board position today. Keister was executive vice chairman since May 2010 and was a member of Marchex’ board of directors since its inception in January 2003. He also served in a number of executive positions for […]
Uncontested .catalonia Drops Out of gTLD Race – 03-Jun-13
The regional Government of Catalonia has withdrawn its application for .catalonia. This is a bit of a weird one. The application was designated officially “geographic”, but also presented as a single-registrant “dot-brand”, exclusively for the government’s use in promoting tourism. It wasn’t contested, had no objections and was not covered by Governmental Advisory Committee advice. […]
The Rise of Cyrillic Domain Names – 03-Jun-13
This week, on a cruise ship navigating Russia’s Neva river, around 250 domain registrars and resellers are gathered for the RU-CENTER annual domain conference. RU-CENTER is the largest Russian registrar in a market that is dominated by three companies. RU-CENTER and competitor Reg.Ru both manage around 28% of domains registered in the country’s national suffix… RU-CENTER is also a figurehead for Russia’s drive to make Internet use more palatable for those who are not natural ASCII writers.
Famous Four Applicant for New gTLD .rugby Launches .rugby Council – 03-Jun-13
Dot Rugby Limited, which has submitted its application to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to operate the .Rugby top-level domain (gTLD), today announced the launch of the .Rugby Governance Council. Worldwide rugby stakeholders are being invited to contribute their perspective on the direction of the .Rugby gTLD, including advice on best practices for the sport’s premier domain…
Famous Four Applicant for New gTLD .rugby Launches .rugby Council – 03-Jun-13
Dot Rugby Limited, which has submitted its application to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to operate the .Rugby top-level domain (gTLD), today announced the launch of the .Rugby Governance Council. Worldwide rugby stakeholders are being invited to contribute their perspective on the direction of the .Rugby gTLD, including advice on best practices for the sport’s premier domain…
Directi’s t.co? Single-letter .pw sold to Upworthy – 03-Jun-13
Directi has sold u.pw to social media linking service Upworthy for what is likely to be a five-figure sum. Upworthy will use the domain for its custom link-shorteners. It’s the third announced single-character .pw sale to be announced. The first two, w.pw and p.pw were sold to a hosting company for $8,000 each. I expect […]
IAB: Internet Ad Revenue Hits All Time High of $9.6 Billion in 1st Q – 03-Jun-13
According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) 1st quarter 2013 Internet Ad revenue hit an all time record with $9.6 billion in sales representing a 15.6% increase over the $8.3 billion figure reported in the first quarter 2012. “Internet advertising revenue continues to exhibit double-digit growth, even as the business matures,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics & Measurement, IAB. “This is an accomplishment that can be attributed to growing recognition by marketers that digital advertising is a critical part of all marketing in today’s world.”…
Sedo is removing non-resolving (but registered) domain names from it’s database – 03-Jun-13
Sedo send me an email with the subject “Removal of domains with inactive DNS entries from Sedo” telling me that it will remove 486 domains from my account within 7 days unless I use active nameservers: “To ensure that you …
Upworthy.com Buys U.pw As Url Shortener – 03-Jun-13
According to a post on the company blog, Upworthy.com which bills itself as “social media with a mission” that appeals to the The Daily Show” generation”, has just bought the domain name U.pw to use at a URL shortener…
Samsung News Site Can Keep Its Domain Name Despite Adsense Ads – 03-Jun-13
Site with Google Adsense ads still may qualify for “non-commercial”, UDRP panel rules. The owner of SamsungHub.com can keep his domain name, a WIPO panel has ruled in a UDRP brought by tech giant Samsung. Kunal Gangar began using the domain name in 2006. In 2011 Samsung released an app called SamsungHub, so Gangar registered […]
German Court Limits Use of Berlin.com & Requires Disclaimers On Site – 02-Jun-13
A German Appellate court has ruled that World Media Group LLC (World.com) which owns the domain name Berlin.com has to cease using the domain name in connection with a website providing information on Berlin because such use constitutes an infringement of the rights of the state Berlin in the name under Sec. 12 of the German Civil Code…
TLDH Raises $10 Million for New TLDs – 02-Jun-13
New TLD applicant issues new shares to raise money, also confirms possibility of participating in private new TLD auctions. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited, parent company of Minds + Machines, has conditionally raised $10 million. The company today conditionally placed 110,375,276 new ordinary shares at 6p per share. The money will be used as additional […]
Nokta Domains Leases 18 Domain Names in May – 02-Jun-13
Nokta’s typical lease is about $100 a month. When you think of domain leasing, you probably think of big ticket domains that companies couldn’t buy outright so they opted for a lease instead. But it’s not just expensive domains that people are leasing. Case in point: Nokta Domains has published a list of the 18 […]
DENIC Will Introduce a Redemption-Grace-Period(RGP) for .de – 02-Jun-13
Upon consultation with the Cooperative members, DENIC eG (the .de registry) has decided to introduce a Redemption Grace Period (hereinafter referred to as RGP) for the TLD .de. What does this mean? When a domain contract is terminated, the related …
ICANN Hires New VP From Yahoo! – 02-Jun-13
ICANN has poached a Yahoo! executive to head up its outreach efforts in Asia. Singapore-based Kuek Yu-Chuang, who held a similar role at Yahoo, has been named vice president for global stakeholder engagement for Asia. He starts August 1. Asia is one of the regions in which ICANN is trying to establish itself a more […]
.eu Registry Contract Up for Grabs – 02-Jun-13
The European Commission has opened up the .eu registry contract to competitive bidding. The sort-of ccTLD has been managed by EurID since it launched 2004 but its contract, which has already been extended to its maximum term, is due to expire in October next year. Would-be usurpers must be not-for-profit organizations based in the European […]
ICANN Transfers Domain Names From 4 Registrars to Astutium – 02-Jun-13
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has authorised the bulk transfer of gTLD domain names from four registrars including C I Host, Central Registrar, DBA Domainmonger.com, Power Brand Center to the UK-based Astutium due to compliance actions taken by ICANN that resulted in the de-accreditation of registrars C I Host, Central Registrar and Power Brand Center.
Four Registrars Terminated – 02-Jun-13
Four small domain name registrars have lost their ICANN accreditation and their domain names have been transferred to another. ICANN announced on Friday that US-based C I Host and Central Registrar (Domainmonger.com), along with Panama-based Power Brand Center have all been terminated for non-compliance. Breach notices had been sent earlier this year covering everything from […]
ICM Price Cut Sees 10 Times More .xxx Sales – 02-Jun-13
ICM Registry saw 13,348 newly added .xxx domain name registrations in May, a period during which it and its registrars were offering the names at .com prices. That’s more than 10 times the volume it shifted in January, the last month for which official numbers are available. ICM dropped the registry fee for .xxx from […]
Verisign WHOIS Falsely Returning “No Match” Results – 02-Jun-13
Have to submit query twice to get correct result on Verisign’s whois. Verisign’s whois service for .com and .net is sometimes falsely returning a result of “no match” the initial time you search for a domain name. For example, if you search for DNW.com on Verisign’s site or via port 43 whois, you’ll get a […]
Verisign Says People Might Die if New gTLDs are Delegated – 01-Jun-13
If there was any doubt in your mind that Verisign is trying to delay the launch of new gTLDs, its latest letter to ICANN and the Governmental Advisory Committee advice should settle it. The company has ramped up its anti-expansion rhetoric, calling on the GAC to support its view that launching new gTLDs now will […]
Parklogic Partners With Ip Neighborhood to Enhance Parking Platform – 31-May-13
ParkLogic announced today that it has appointed IP Neighborhood as its exclusive provider of domain name data. ParkLogic founder Michael Gilmour made the official announcement today, at the industry tradeshow TRAFFIC in Las Vegas. “We have partnered with IP Neighborhood …
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to Icann: Blocking “ISO” is Unacceptable – 30-May-13
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) send a letter to ICANN on the 13th of May 2013 regarding the blocking of the term “ISO” within gTLDs for the International Sugar Organization. The International Organization for Standardization was established in 1947 and …
Financial Firm and New TLD Applicant Buys Ig.com Domain Name – 30-May-13
Company that applied for seven new TLDs buys a coveted two letter domain name. UK Financial firm IG Group has acquired the domain name IG.com, which was previously used by a Brazilian search portal. According to IP Pro The Internet, the company announced the deal to the press, although I can’t locate the actual announcement […]
UCRP Filed On NJTurnpike.com & GardenStateParkway.com, Registered in 1998 – 30-May-13
A UDRP has just been filed on the matching domain names of the two major highways in New Jersey. The UDRP was filed on the domain names NJturnpike.com & GardenStateParkway.com both which are registered by a David P Matteo who lives in New Jersey…
ICANN Sends Notice of Breach to Hong Kong Registrar: Asiaregister, Inc. – 30-May-13
As of 28 May 2013, 1 more ICANN accredited registrar is in breach of their Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Registrar: AsiaRegister, Inc. (IANA ID#1084) Address: 11/F., AXA Centre, 151 Gloucester …
Fling.com Discovers The Challenges of Branding With a Generic Domain Name – 30-May-13
Descriptive nature of domain means registrant not necessarily lacking rights or legitimate interests in domain. Fling.com, an adult social network that facilitates hookups, has lost a domain name dispute over best-fling-sites.com. According to Fling.com owner Global Personals, LLC, the registrant of the domain optimized it to show up high in search results when a user […]
Tiny Tokelau Now Has The Biggest ccTLD in The World – 30-May-13
The .tk domain is now the biggest ccTLD in the world, according to the latest stats from Centr. In its just-published biannual Domainwire Stat Report, Centr says that .tk had 16.7 million registered domains in April, taking the #1 spot in the league table for the first time. It now out-ranks Germany’s .de (15.4 million), […]
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