Prolific panelist makes the right finding (this time).

National Arbitration Forum panelist Carolyn Marks Johnson is no friend of domain name owners. An early study of arbitrators found that she was one of the most prolific and biased, finding for complainants 97.2% of the time (compared to the typical 82.9% at the time). She was also recently sued for alleged judicial misconduct.

But she managed to find for the respondent on NMC.com, despite the respondent not filing a response to a case brought by Nebraska Machinery Company.

Mind you, it was pretty straight forward. NMC.com was registered in 1998, and Nebraska Machinery Company didn’t start using the NMC mark until 2007. I can’t help but wonder “if NMC had started using the mark prior to 1998, would she have handed the domain over even though it’s a generic three letter mark?”

After all, she found in favor of the complainant for Freebie.com, even though the respondent owned a company called Freebie, Inc. that used the web site for a “points site” for Blockbuster Video. That decision found its way to court, where two separate courts found that the UDRP was flat out wrong. The first court decided that the UDRP was “unsupported by the evidence” and should be reversed. An appeals court agreed.

She was also the arbitrator on the recent MothersMilk.com case. She was the second arbitrator to hear what amounts to basically the same case. The first arbitrator ruled in favor of the respondent; Johnson found in favor of the complainant.

But I guess I shouldn’t complain in this case. Regardless of the rationale, the end result is correct.

Lawsuit claims violation of California law and fraud.

Another lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed against Oversee.net over the SnapNames insider bidding scandal.

Law firm KamberEdelson LLC filed the case on behalf of its lead plaintiff, Stewart Resmer, in U.S. District Court Central District of California on November 18. Resmer, like Oversee.net, is located in Los Angeles.

Among other evidence, the lawsuit cites a now famous January 6, 2008 DNForum posting by a SnapNames employee that denied that bidder halvarez was associated with SnapNames.

It draws a parallel of SnapNames’ actions to a bank bidding on its own properties in a foreclosure auction”

halvarez bid in approximately 50,000 auctions or more from 2005 through 2009, thereby artificially raising the sale prices in these auctions and causing the bidders to spend thousands, if not millions of extra dollars. This is analogous to the bank that owns foreclosed homes secretly bidding in its own auctions to artificially increase the final amount paid by the winning bidder.

The complaint alleges Oversee committed a number of violations:

-Violation of California Auction Law
-Violations of Cal. Civ. Code 1572, 1573, 1709, & 1710 (having to do with deceit and fraud)
-Violation of Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 17200 (California’s Unfair Competition Law)
-Breach of Fiduciary Duty
-Fraudulent Concealment
-Restitution/Unjust Enrichment

In addition to payment for direct damages and legal fees, the suit seeks to “Disgorge Defendants of all revenue earned from SnapNames.com Internet domain name auctions during the Class period”.

A previous lawsuit was filed by another firm in a Florida circuit court.

A copy of the lawsuit is available here.

Man buys .net domain name for $62,500 with big plans.

Some people like to talk big. Patrick Gavin is putting his money where his mouth is.

The founder of Text-Link-Ads.com just plunked down $62,500 for SearchEngineOptimization.net at BuyDomains. It’s a steep price for a domain who’s .org version sold for just $750 back in 2006. But Gavin has a plan, and he’s going to let the world watch him succeed or fail.

Gavin plans to turn the web site into a learning resource for search engine optimization. He’s going to chronicle all of his SEO work for the domain as he attempts to get it ranked number one for the ultra-competitive term “search engine optimization” within one year.

Just goes to show what SEO experts and domainers already know: exact match domain names are a good foundation for search engine optimization.

Bill probably meant to regulate .uk but could ensnare .tel.

A bill introduced in the United Kingdom Parliament would have potentially adverse effects on domain name registries operating out of the United Kingdom.

The Digital Economy Bill includes clauses that would allow the government to essentially nationalize a domain name registry that met certain qualifications of “failing”. Although the bill was probably meant to target .uk registry Nominet, it was written broadly enough to ensnare any other registry operating out of Britain, including .Tel registry Telnic.

A fact sheet from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the department responsible for the Digital Economy Bill, explains its rationale for adding oversight to the domain name registry Nominet:

The domain name system is a crucial element in the Internet economy. It is the addressing system for the Internet. For years, the domain name industry in the UK has been self-regulated and this has largely worked well. However, there have been reported abuses of the domain name system in the UK, largely regarding the .uk country code Top Level Domain, such as cybersquatting (registering and occupying a domain name that might reasonably belong to somebody else in the hope of making a profit when selling that address), drop-catching (waiting for ownership of a domain name to expire and quickly re-registering it, sometimes before the current owner realises it), pressure sales of domain names, domain names used for phishing and distributing malware, and instances where foreign owned (and hosted) web sites with a .uk domain name dupe people into believing they are British.

Consumers and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are particularly vulnerable. Also, following disruptions at Board level at Nominet (the .uk registry), the Government has publicly questioned how Nominet’s present constitution and structure could protect the interests of all of its stakeholders in different possible
scenarios.

Although it’s clear the intent is to exert control over Nominet, the wording would also apply to Telnic.

Clause 2, section 18-20 defines how the government could insert a new board and effectively take control of a “failed” registry under the bill’s definition.

A quick look at domain name news.

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means some interesting things for web traffic. Shopping sites will see high traffic, news sites will see less as people stay home from work. Domain Name Wire will continue publishing next week, but I wanted to get a few thoughts and news items out there before my turkey-induced slumber.

Joe Biden did it again. On The Daily Show this week, he referred to Recovery.gov as Recovery.com. I do the same thing all of the time. If I had a dollar for every time I wrote about a .org domain and accidentally type .com…

Next year’s domain conference schedule is overwhelming. I’ve been doing travel planning with my wife for next year, and I must say I’m overwhelmed. Lots of domain shows to attend. Lots of travel to book.

The IDNs are coming! Four days into the fast track process, ten IDN top level domains have been applied for in five different languages.

Don’t miss the Luxury Names auction. Ending two days before Thanksgiving isn’t ideal, but that may mean good opportunities for buyers in the Luxury Names auction. I have three domains in the auction: MusicPhones.com, Newlyweds.net, and WeeklyPlanner.com. The latter is one of three domains at the auction to have received bids already.