The return of domain name tasting?
Demand Media, parent company of eNom, has been awarded United States Patent 7539774 for “Method for domain name registration and a corresponding apparatus”.
The patent application was filed in 2005 and appears to be targeted toward domain monetization of low traffic domains. The idea would be for the registry, such as VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN), to offer domain registrations at different prices but with different rights. For example, there could be three tiers:
Tier 1 – a standard domain registration as it exists today. You have full control of the domain and full rights until expiration. This would be charged full price by the registry, say $7.00.
Tier 2 – you’d have rights to the domain name unless someone comes along and offers to register it under tier 1. You may have full rights to control the domain, or you may be limited to making certain changes such as DNS. You would pay a lower amount to the registry, such as $4.00.
Tier 3 – similar to tier 2, but with fewer rights. For example, someone may come along and register the domain at tier 2 or tier 1 and you would no longer have rights to the domain. This tier would cost less, perhaps $2.00 per year.
Each tier may also have different “add grace period” limits that give you longer to taste the domain. (Keep in mind the patent was filed prior to ICANN effectively eliminating domain tasting.) Now that ICANN has quashed domain tasting, Demand Media’s system could be used to create a new type of tasting. For example, VeriSign could offer a registration option for 1 cent per domain, with additional fees if a registrant decides to fully control the domain.
The underlying idea of the patent is that some domains may not earn $7.00 per year in pay-per-click income, but may earn $3.00. In this case the domain probably goes unused, but under the proposed system someone could register it at tier 3. The registrant and registry would make money. If someone later decided they wanted to the domain for a web site, they could register it under tier 1. Or, if earnings on the domain suddenly increased the tier 3 registrant could upgrade to tier 1. And, as I pointed out previously, this idea could now be used to bring back a form of domain tasting. It will also be interesting to see if Demand Media tries to apply this scheme to the new top level domains it plans to launch.
You can read the patent here.
Ross says
I kind of like this idea even though it does open a door to tasting. The reason i like it is because the domain might be regged at tier 2 or 3 but that still leaves open tier 1. Which in return still allows the domain open for registration, no harm no foul i guess you could say.
Bad thing about this is if someone regs it at say tier 2 and gets the domain ripped because of tier 1 then i can see an upset customer. Biggest problem with this would be to get customers to understand whats going on and how the system works.
Though IMO, i do not think this is for the customer at all but rather for the company itself to have another option of tasting out and about.
Reece Berg says
Sounds like a great idea to me — maybe a tweak that a tier 2 or tier 3 customer gets the opportunity to pay the tier 1 price when someone else inquires about the domain before anyone else can buy it.. Other than that, I think this really has potential 🙂
Andrew Allemann says
@ Reece
“maybe a tweak that a tier 2 or tier 3 customer gets the opportunity to pay the tier 1 price when someone else inquires about the domain before anyone else can buy it”
That’s one example given in the patent
Premium Wordpress Themes says
That does sound like a good idea certainly. The only worry would be – how would Joe Bloggs know that it was only registiered at a lower tier – and that it was in affect still available?
If I (and I imagine most other people) go on a site, and it has a holding page/parked page – I assume that it is not available to be registered…