.CA Geo Domains may be a Liability to hold
Posted by Jeff Behrendt , Thursday, 13 March 2008
When the .ca registry was set up, the names of all Canadian municipalities were reserved and could not be registered. However, enterprising domainers often registered geo domains that were two-word combinations, which included the city name. These domains may now be open to be taken away by the municipalities, following the recent decision about the domain NiagaraRegion.ca.
The Regional Municipality of Niagara had the domain Niagara.on.ca reserved for them. John Vail, a real estate agent in nearby Oakville, registered the domain NiagaraRegion.ca and redirected this domain to his real estate agency website.
The municipality contacted Mr Vail to see if he would be willing to sell the domain to them. He indicated an interest, but failed to respond when they only offered the meagre sum of $500 Canadian.
As a result, the municipality filed a complaint under the Canadian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the equivalent of the UDRP for .ca domains). Unfortunately, Mr Vail never responded, so we do not have his side of the story. Alternative Solutions to a Domain Name Dispute
Posted by Brian Hall , Thursday, 13 March 2008
When most domain name disputes arise, the trademark owner routinely pursues one of three courses of action.
First, the trademark owner may decide to start with a threat letter to the domain name registrant. Typically, the trademark owner explains why he/she has rights in the domain name, shows why the registrant’s registration and/or use violates his/her rights, and threatens to file a lawsuit under the ACPA and collect statutory damages of $100,000.
Second, the trademark owner may simply decide to forego the uncertain response of a threat letter and file a UDRP Complaint. TRAFFIC offers FREE Accommodation
Posted by Michael Gilmour , Thursday, 13 March 2008
I just received an email from Rick Schwartz regarding TRAFFIC Orland in May 20-24. As well as encouraging us all to attend the conference TRAFFIC is offering free accommodation for all new attendees.
EFF Stands Against Anti-Phishing Act
Posted by Caycee Boyce , Thursday, 13 March 2008
Ron Jackson’s latest Lowdown post announces that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken a stand against the proposed Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008.
Jackson quotes EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry, who said:
“The bill starts off relatively inoffensively by prohibiting the use of false information to solicit identifying data from a computer (this was already illegal, but we’ll let that go for now). Moniker Holds Casino Domain Auction
Posted by David Goldstein , Thursday, 13 March 2008
Moniker announced on Wednesday it is hosting its second online auction of premium gaming and casino industry domain names at Casino Affiliate Convention Amsterdam.
The auction will begin April 4 at 5:30 p.m. at the NH Grand Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam, Holland, and continue into the week following CAC Amsterdam. ASSISTA Gets New User Interface, and More
Posted by Caycee Boyce , Thursday, 13 March 2008
(Click to enlarge)
New user interface is out which deals with some design issues we felt needed some work. Fund.com sells for $10 million (almost)
Posted by David Goldstein , Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Fund.com sold yesterday for US$9,999,950 in an all-cash transaction Clek Media announced. Clek Media also brokered the sale. The buyer is Fund.com Inc., a New York firm previously named Meade Technologies Inc. To date the buyer has revealed their plans for the domain mostly in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Spitzer Scandal Erupts; Domain Names Registered
Posted by David Goldstein , Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Spitzer Scandal Erupts; Domain Names Registered Within minutes of the scandal involving New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, allegedly “Client 9â€Â, breaking in the New York Times, Nick Galbreath, a 37 year-old software engineer in Manhattan, registered the client9.com domain for $10.13 according to Wired. "The original story didn’t name [Governor Eliot] Spitzer directly, but I thought [Client9.com] sounded catchy, so I bought it," Mr Galbreath told Wired. He wasn’t alone. Speculators have bought up all client 9-related domains, including client-9.net, client-9.com, and client69.com. While rm871.com was already registered – the tryst allegedly took place in room 871 – room871.com is for sale for US$750. However Mr Galbreath may not get much in the way of returns. He says he has made around $11 in ad sales over the 24 hours prior to the Wired story, but that he has spent eight hours developing the website, and answering emails and phone calls. Not a great return, to date anyway. And he has not had any offers to purchase the domain name either. Meanwhile client-9.net was registered as soon as the scandal broke. It now has a website that describes itself as “dedicated to Eliot Spitzer and his recent involvement with a prostitution ring is not explicit, it is intended for mature audiences. Client9.net contains material regarding Eliot Spitzer which is intended for mature audiences. If you find information regarding prostitution rings, The Emporers Club VIP, or if you are not of legal age to follow links to adult material, please exit now.†This site has resulted in new members joining an existing website and an increase in sales, and the owners intend to keep the website up. “As long as I make one sale per year, the domain pays for itself. This type of news lasts forever. And so does the traffic," Chris Potoski, owner of No Rival Media, a publisher that dabbles in adult content, told Wired. The Wired story is available at blog.wired.com/business/2008/03/client-9-client.html.
Posted by David Goldstein , Tuesday, 11 March 2008
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), in cooperation with the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), is conducting a survey to gather data regarding the current and future use of IPv6 throughout the ARIN Region. For a complete list of countries go to: arin.net/community/ARINcountries.html We encourage all organizations in the ARIN region to participate in the survey so we can establish a comprehensive view of present IPv6 penetration and future plans of IPv6 deployment. The survey will open on 10 March and remain available until noon ET on 24 March. The results of the survey will be presented and discussed at the ARIN XXI Public Policy and Members Meeting to be held in Denver 6-9 April 2008, and the survey data will support ongoing research. The survey is composed of 20 questions that can be answered in a few minutes. When you complete the survey you will be entered in a draw for prizes. You must provide your contact information to win. This is a secure survey and all data will be presented in summary form only, and kept confidential between ARIN and CAIDA. Please take a few moments to complete the survey located at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2x5j2OlJl0cq44iYfQadrw_3d_3d Regards, Member Services American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) Fox News Fails to Learn Basic Business Lessons
Posted by David Goldstein , Tuesday, 11 March 2008
If you are a major corporation about to launch a new product or service, one of the boxes you should tick these days is to register the relevant domain name(s) along with the relevant trade marks. But Fox News failed this simple test last year when it launched a business news channel and failed to register the domain name foxbusinessnetwork.com and the relevant trade mark.On the same day Fox launched its business news channel, Worldwide Directory Services (WDS) registered the domain name foxbusinessnetwork.com. It was not until to July 16, 2007 that Fox News registered the trade marks for the term Fox Business Network and because of this, there was no obligation on WDS to hand over the domain name. As Out-Law.com reports, WIPO sets three conditions for them to consider ordering domain names to be transferred. These are “[th]e name must be identical or confusingly similar to a trade or service mark held by the person who wants to gain control of it, the person holding the domain name must have no rights in it, and the domain name must be registered and used in bad faith.†Fox failed to meet the second condition. “Fox argued that the registration of the name was designed to create a likelihood of confusion from which WDS would benefit. It also said that WDS had contacted it and offered to sell the domain for $50,000,†according to Out-Law.com. Further, “WDS claimed that it had been publishing web pages using the term ‘fox business network’ since 2002, and that the ‘fox’ in question referred to its president’s nickname, which it said was ‘the British fox’.†To read more of Out-Law’s article, see out-law.com/page-8924.
