State tries to cut off gambling sites from the communication providers instead of domain names.

The state of Minnesota as informed 11 internet service providers that they must block access to about 200 gambling web sites. Sound familiar? Kentucky also tried to block online gambling but by seizing domain names that belonged to the gambling sites instead of cutting off ISPs.

Much like the case in Kentucky, Minnesota seems to be financially motivated. The Minneapolis Star Tribune quotes John Willems, director of the state’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division:

He did say he has anecdotal evidence that Internet gambling “is fairly large” in Minnesota, noting that Canterbury Park in Shakopee has said that its casino-style games have been hurt.

While it’s good that Minnesota isn’t going after domain owners’ rights directly, the state will soon hear a backlash from groups like Electronic Frontier Foundation that worry about where you draw the line.

Company to provide cash and coupons to class.

Network Solutions has settled a class action lawsuit stemming from its controversial practice of reserving domain names queried on its web site.

The settlement provides coupons or cash depending on what type of customer you are. If you searched for a domain name at Network Solutions while it used its reservation practice and subsequently registered it during the same session, you will receive a $6 coupon per domain toward a future purchase. If you searched for a domain name and returned within 4 days to register it, you will receive $9.91 cash. Presumably many of the people who registered the domains during the same session decided to do so on their own and were not forced to because Network Solutions “reserved” the domain name.

$9.91 seems like a low number given that Network Solutions charges about $25 more per registration than many competitors.

About 50,000 people fall into the “cash” class, meaning that about that many people were forced to register their desired domain name at Network Solutions because the company reserved the domain name immediately upon their search.

(Via DNN and Traverse Legal.)

Candy manufacturer wants domain name SwedishFish.com.

Cadbury Adams, maker of the tasty red Swedish Fish candy, has filed for arbitration with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name SwedishFish.com. Cadbury Adams currently uses the not-so-memorable domain name AfriendYouCanEat.com for its Swedish Fish web site. It also owns OriginalSwedishFish.com.

The SwedishFish.com domain name’s whois record is currently protected by whois privacy, but a record from February shows the owner to be a man in Wisconsin. The domain was registered back in 2001, and the current owner has held it since at least 2002. The domain name is parked at eNom and shows ads offering Swedish Fish candy. It was parked at Sedo for part of 2008.

If Cadbury gets the domain name it may help it sell more Swedish Fish in the future. Just filing the case at WIPO has helped it sell another bag of candy; writing this article has made my salivate for the candy right now. Off to the grocery store.

Many high quality domain names in today’s auction.

Today’s live domain name auction by Moniker at the TRAFFIC conference is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. local time (6 p.m. EDT).

Moniker did a good job getting some high quality domain names at low reserves. Will it be enough?

Attendance at this show is down considerably from past TRAFFIC shows. Word is that about 250 people registered for the show but fewer may actually be there. Thankfully, bidders can participate online. Moniker also improved its online catalog, allowing you to search by category, number of characters, and reserve range. (Now if only it will improve its extended auction bidding interface in SnapNames.)

Here are some of my picks for the auction:

Announced.com – no reserve – at no reserve, this one will surely sell. It’s a great domain for a press release service. Announce.com sold for $90,000 at Sedo in 2006.

Reelect.com – under $5,000 – wouldn’t it be great to see a politician use this?

SaveforCollege.com – $10k-$25k – SavingForCollege.com is a popular web site owned by BankRate.com, and I’ve found people tend to search for “saving for college” instead of “save for college”. But if this domain is near the low end of the reserve range it might be worth it, especially since the domain appears to get 500 type-ins a month.

Punks.com – under $5,000 – at this price the domain is worth it for the wildcat potential.

Sued.com – under $5,000 – a law firm should pick this up in a heartbeat. An investor should, too.

IndianaForeclosures.com – under $5,000 – worth every penny

Here are some domains I don’t like at the indicated prices:

Fixture.com $25k-$50k – I just don’t see how you would use it. If it were Fixtures.com it might work, but people probably want a more specific product.

MarketingFirm.com $50k-$100k – Any end user who would eventually buy this domain name shouldn’t be in the marketing business. Marketing firms need to have a brand.

UsedHummers.com – how did this make it through the trademark filter?

UsedMaseratis.com – again, trademark?

DomainAuction.com – $100k-$250k – Well, I suppose this is being sold to end users by being in this auction, but I don’t think it’s worth that much.

ComedyClub.com – $50,000-$100,000 – Similar to a marketing firm, this domain would be better as a plural and a directory of clubs.

CaliforniaCommercialRealEstate.com – I understand the niched, but this is too long for anything except SEO purposes. And when it comes to SEO, you could just buy the same thing with hyphens.

Longhorn.com and Ponce.com snag bids in extended auction.

I learned something important when I went to Las Vegas for DomainConsultant’s live domain auction: the initial results are just the beginning.

DomainConsultant does a great job closing sales after the auction ends. But they also make sure that no one has an incentive to hold off on buying domains in the live auction domains with the hope that they’ll be available for less: they never lower prices after the live auction, and often times increase them.

Already, DomainConsultant has bids on three more domains since the close of last week’s live geo domain auction. The two big ones are Longhorn.com at $35,000 and Ponce.com at $21,000.

Since I have a few domains in the Geo auction, I got to see first hand how DomainConsultant markets domain names. They reach out to end users through LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. The company also connects with domain investors to pitch domains. They create customized landing pages for each domain that you can forward your domains to prior to the auction. Sellers also get a “sellers kit” including information on how to get publicity for your domains at auction.

Bidding is available online at Aftermarket.com through May 5.