Man loses DEACOM.com despite overwhelming evidence of rights and fair use.

Businessman Ben Dean lost a UDRP this month for deacom.com, a domain name he’s owned since 1997 and used for his business. He says he can’t afford to fight the action in court, but set up UDRPfail.com to tell the world about his predicament.

A company filed a trademark for DEACOM in 2006, claiming first use in commerce in 1995. It decided to file the arbitration case to get the corresponding domain name.

Dean registered the domain name in 1997 and started using it for business and personal uses. He is a sole proprietor operating under the name DEACOM. He even had a corporation DEACOM Inc from 2002-2006 registered in New Jersey. He has used the domain name for e-mail throughout, most recently using Google Apps. He provided the arbitration panel with screenshots of his Gmail inbox that he uses with the e-mail ben@deacom.com to the panel, along with the relevant incorporation documents.

But National Arbitration Forum arbitrator Estella S. Gold seemed to ignore the evidence and Dean’s use of the domain name, stating “The Panel agrees with Complainant’s assertion that Respondent has not utilized the disputed domain name in an active manner.” Apparently the use of a domain for e-mail and business purposes is not a legitimate use.

If Dean would have hired a good UDRP lawyer to handle his case he probably would have won. But you can read all of the documents in the case on Dean’s web site. It sure seems that the evidence was overwhelmingly in his favor.

Direct navigation with a potential timebomb.

Online CRM and application provider Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) just made an interesting direct navigation move that could potentially land it in hot water.

Realizing that it can be difficult finding particular pages on its site and its channels on social networking sites, it registered over 20 direct navigation domain names to make it easier. For example, it registered FeatureComparisionChart.com to direct visitors to its page that compares Salesforce.com editions. That’s smart.

But then it went another level, registering domain names including famous trademarks such as YouTube and Facebook to direct people to its social networking channels. For example, the company registered:

YouTubeSalesforce.com
FacebookSalesforce.com
LinkedInSalesforce.com
FlickrSalesforce.com

Will those brand owners agree to Salesforce.com’s registration of domains including their brands? Perhaps they cleared it in advance, but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t make those company’s lawyers cringe.

Salesforce went a step further, registering YouTube domain names that include generic terms instead of Salesforce.com’s name, such as YouTubeCloudComputing.com and YouTubeSuccessStories.com.

Even more worrisome is that the domain names are registered in the name of a Salesforce.com employee rather than the company. This tells you that the company doesn’t have a good domain name registration policy in place.

[Hat tip to HotNameList for the link]

Two number domain name leads weekly sales list.

Sedo’s top completed sale for the past week was 90.com, which sold for EUR 56,000 (about $73,000 USD) to a buyer in China.

The seller of 90.com may have missed an earlier opportunity. According to a March 19 email from Sedo’s Great Domains group, 90.com received a $123,456 bid during a February auction but did not reach its reserve.

Sedo had some other solid .com sales. Concept.com sold for EUR 40,000, TeamFeed.com brought in $35,000, and Kosovo.com sold for EUR 32,500.

On the ccTLD side, Pizzeria.at sold for EUR 17,000. Some .me domain name sales were completed, including Pay.me for $11,501, Test.me for $11,100, and Bet.me for $10,099.

Here’s a look at other Sedo sales over $5,000 over the past week:

.COM
videosx.com 29,900 EUR
etech.com GreatDomains 21,000 USD
japanpokertour.com 15,000 USD
clickr.com 10,000 USD
skinflint.com 8,500 USD
ilovethiscountry.com 7,500 USD
padz.com 7,500 USD
snapitup.com 6,500 EUR
ycar.com 5,890 USD
complementos.com 5,100 EUR
datapop.com 5,000 USD

ccTLD
travelmatch.co.uk 11,500 GBP
book.me 9,900 USD
print.me 9,100 USD
menstrainers.co.uk 6,100 GBP
damenuhr.de 6,000 EUR
hotelbedarf.de 5,000 EUR

Other
loanmodification.net 10,000 USD
essen.net 9,550 EUR
snowshoes.net 8,100 USD
cashloan.org 7,500 USD

Domain name parking company acquires parking alternative.

Domain name parking company Parked.com has acquired WhyPark, a domain building service. Financial details were not disclosed.

Yesterday WhyPark announced it was scrapping its $99 set up fee and moving to a free model. This is part of the transition to Parked.com.

“Now that we have Parked.com’s expertise in monetizing traffic as part of WhyPark, we were able to change our business model to allow free access to our platform,” WhyPark founderCraig Rowe told Domain Name Wire. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to show what we can offer without the previous barrier of a signup fee in place.”

Customers who previously paid for the product will get additional benefits, such as the ability to place their own ads instead of using the embedded ad feed.

WhyPark will continue to operate as a separate product, but with the added benefits that come with being part of Parked. For example, WhyPark now includes Parked.com’s top tier ad feed, payments twice a month, and multiple payment options. This should substantially increase earnings compared to WhyPark’s previous system.

Value of newspapers plummets to point that real estate is most valuable asset.

An article in the Boston Business Journal suggests that the most valuable asset of The Boston Globe is the land it owns. The Boston Globe is anticipated to lose $80M in 2009, but its real estate holdings may be worth $65M.

This is a common story. Because they need to be close to the action, many newspapers set up their headquarters near downtown. As city populations swelled and urban revitalization occurred, the land these headquarters sat on became the most valuable part of the company. When the Austin American-Statesman was posted for sale recently, many opined that its real estate would be a key asset.

The Boston Business Journal article quotes analysts who think The Boston Globe could sell off its Boston.com assets for $20M. Boston.com is one of the most successful city sites on the web and is ranked #254 by Compete.com.

I found this story particularly interesting after attending GeoDomain Expo last week. More and more geo domain owners are getting into the news business. But print newspapers drive a lot of the traffic to the corresponding web site. They complement each other. City.com owners will need to do more than just count on their brand if they wish to become news organizations.

[Hat tip to Rob Sequin for the article.]