A look back at Friday’s GeoDomain activities and a unique twist on today’s auction.

Friday kicked off the first official full day of activities at the 2009 GeoDomain Expo in San Diego.

The day opened with a brief address from San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders. Associated Cities president Dan Pulcrano then provided a State of the Industry speech. Next, a panel of GeoDomain owners discussed how they’ve developed their sites. They provided some good tips on getting marketing buzz. For example, Scottsdale.com did a trade with a taxi company to show ads for Scottsdale.com in return for advertising on its site.

The next session was about daily newspapers and their extinction. The panel included several former TV and newspaper reporters who have moved to the online media world.

During lunch, Topix CEO Chris Tolles discussed his company’s approach to local news. He also discussed the company’s $1M purchase of the Topix.com domain name.

After lunch I was on a panel with Elliot Silver and Sean Stafford that covered domain news and competition.

The next panel was a superb overview of directory software and data that can be used to develop geo domain names. It featured representatives of Acxiom, New Media Broadcasting, eDirectory, MojoPages, and Databanq.

After dinner, HotelPlanner sponsored a party in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

Today at 4 PM PDT the DomainConsultant auction will take place, with a unique twist. Weather permitting, this will be the first live domain name auction (to my knowledge) that will take place outdoors. The background for the auction will be Mission Bay. Of course, you don’t need to be outside in San Diego to participate. Online bidding has already started at Aftermarket.com. Already over 1/3 of domains have bids.

Sedo launches white label solution for registrars to sell aftermarket domain names.

Domain name aftermarket Sedo released its new SedoMLS system today. The system allows domain registrars and other partners to plug in a domain sales aftermarket engine that offers domain names at fixed prices. For example, a domain registrar may offer aftermarket domains for sale in response to a customer’s domain query.

Domain sellers will get additional exposure on registrar partners’ sites for their domain names that are listed with fixed prices.

Admittedly, most of the 15 million domain names listed at Sedo do not have an asking price. For now, domain registrars’ own portfolios will probably make up many of the domains offered for sale through SedoMLS. In the future Sedo will be encouraging more fixed price listings. It is currently testing a limited release of an auto-appraisal tool to help sellers set an asking price.

Online pet medicine company loses dispute over domain names including term “Pet Med”.

Online pet medicine store PetMed Express (NASDAQ: PETS), which operates 1800PetMeds.com, lost a domain dispute at WIPO for a handful of domain names, including PetMedOutlet.com. Respondent Joseph Brinton was represented by Traverse Legal.

Brinton registered the domain name in 2006 and set up a web site that included affiliate links to companies selling pet medicine online. Brinton argued that “Pet Meds” was a generic term and no one could claim exclusive rights. Traverse Legal spotted that even the web site 1800PetMeds.com uses the term “pet meds” in a non-trademark manner, as described by the panel:

In point of fact, the Respondent is correct that evidence of such descriptive use can be found even on the Complainant’s own website (“at 1800PetMeds.com, we don’t just sell pet meds”; “1800PetMeds offers the highest quality pet meds at the best prices)

The panel determined that PetMeds Express did not prove that Brinton registered the domain name in bad faith.

You can read the full case here.

Online encyclopedia makes an ironic legal claim.

Wikipedia and its parent organization Wikimedia Foundation are trying to get their hands on the domain name WikipediaArt.org. The catch is Wikipedia Art is a non-commercial web site critical of Wikipedia.

A number of influential organizations are coming to the aid of WikipediaArt.org, including Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Ironically, EFF has come to the defense of Wikipedia in the past.

In a commentary on its web site, EFF asks:

Can a noncommercial critical website use the trademark of the entity it critiques in its domain name? Surprisingly, it appears that the usually open-minded folks at Wikipedia think not.

EFF thinks so.

Wikipedia should know better. There is no trademark or cybersquatting issue here. First, the site is entirely noncommercial, which puts it beyond the reach of U.S. trademark law.

The commentary on its web site also blasts the UDRP process, which does not always take into consideration fair use:

Of course, Wikipedia can bring an action under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), an international arbitration agreement to which all domain names registrars (and their customers) must agree. UDRP arbitrators aren’t bound by such niceties as fair use and the First Amendment (in fact, they’re not even bound to follow their own precedents), and UDRP decisions tend to favor established trademark holders like Wikipedia. But even if Wikipedia wins at arbitration, the arbitrator’s decision is subject to review by a U.S. court, which is bound to respect fair use and free speech principles.

Conference started yesterday with members only sessions and welcome luau.

The GeoDomain Expo kicked off in San Diego yesterday morning with a day of sessions limited to Associated Cities members. Sessions yesterday covered advanced topics that appealed to members, many of whom already have successful geo web sites.

I flew in Thursday and was on the same flight as the Parked.com team, which was flying in from Tampa with a layover in Austin.

Associated Cities Executive Director Patrick Carleton said he expects about 150 attendees. Last year’s conference in Chicago attracted about 200 people. Organizers are happy with this year’s attendance, especially in light of the economy.

GeoDomain Expo attracts a somewhat different crowd from the typical domain name conference. There are a number of local media companies here, most of which use the web to deliver news, event information, and drive real estate or apartment leads.

But many of the “regulars” are here, including domain parking companies Parked.com, NameDrive, and DomainSponsor.

Friday’s events, open to all attendees, start momentarily with an address from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders.