Recent case involving restaurant guide shows limitations of UDRP for recovering stolen domains.

Companies often use UDRP to recover stolen domain names. I’ve seen several cases of three character domain names being recovered this way.

But there are limitations to using UDRP to recover a stolen domain name. Part of it has to do with how you position your trademark in the filing.

Here’s a case in point: ChicagoRestaurant.com. For over ten years David M. Lissner of Dining Chicago used the domain name. Then the current owner “obtained” the domain name in 2009.

Lissner filed a UDRP and lost, as the panelist noted that it would be very difficult to obtain rights to the descriptive term “Chicago Restaurant”.

But how the current owner “obtained” the domain wasn’t through an expired domain purchase. I contacted Lissner by phone today and he confirmed it was stolen. His technical service provider was listed in the whois, and they shut down. Then someone managed to get the domain name.

It’s pretty easy to figure out how the domain was stolen. The admin email address on the domain had expired and was registered by someone else, who could easily get access to transfer the domain name.

Perhaps the proper way to recover a domain name like this is through a lawsuit. But with a domain name owner in (supposedly) in Turkey, that won’t be easy.

Everything coming together for next week’s conference in Milan.

There are some things conference organizers can control, and there are some things they can’t. They can control the quality of their agenda. But volcanic eruptions? That’s a challenge.

Fortunately for Rick Latona and crew, everything seems to be shaping up nicely for its April 27-29 show in Milan.

First, on what they can control. TRAFFIC will look somewhat like Latona’s first foray into domain conferences at TRAFFIC ccTLDs last year. The program is full of country code experts, from ccTLD administrators to domainers to registrars.

The first day will include a session on .IT (Italy), followed by a discussion on the markets of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The day concludes with a 50 domain .eu auction.

Wednesday includes sessions on .fr, .uk and .es, .de, .nl and .at. It also has a case study session on developing ccTLDs. The day concludes with the main live auction.

Thursday covers .pl (Poland), .ru (Russia) and Eastern European markets, .com, IDNs, and ccTLD legal issues. The agenda finishes with Test Track.

Now, what about that volcanic ash cloud hanging over Europe? If the event would have been this week, it would be a challenge. Fortunately the skies are clearing and most people with originating travel should now be fine.

Want to make a last minute trip? Contact Rick Latona.

eNom offers promotional pricing on domain.

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines for the .tel top level domain name, your patience may have been rewarded: eNom is now offering the domains for only $2.99 per year under promotional pricing.

.tel domain names don’t function like normal top level domains. Instead, it’s sort of like a business card on the web. You can upload content such as your contact information, links to other web sites, etc. on the domains. Recently functionality was added to insert Google Adsense ads onto the domains as well.

Will lower pricing spur demand for the domain? It’s hard to tell. The domain was launched a little over a year ago, so the TLD just experienced its first major drop cycle. As of the end of last year about 265,000 .tel domains were registered. And with hundreds of new TLDs coming onto the market in a couple years, competition is about to get much more fierce.

Checking in on MLB domain names.

Major League Baseball is back, and that means I’m spending lots of time getting the latest scores and highlights online. While watching the Cardinals play on TV, I noticed they made a nice off-season pick up that I wasn’t aware of: Cardinals.com.

Previously, you had to type in StlCardinals.com to get to the team’s web site. But in October last year Major League Baseball acquired the Cardinals.com domain name. So I’ll save myself a few keystrokes.

That got me curious about other teams and if they own their “names”. With many teams named after generic things like birds and fish, getting these domains isn’t easy. Just ask the Angels. Nevertheless, MLB has managed to get most of its team names:

redsox.com
bluejays.com
tigers.com
royals.com
whitesox.com
indians.com
brewers.com
mariners.com
astros.com
yankees.com
padres.com
orioles.com
braves.com
cubs.com
reds.com
marlins.com
phillies.com
dodgers.com
mets.com
cardinals.com
pirates.com
diamondbacks.com
nationals.com

As for the domains it does not yet own, some will be more challenging that others:

Giants.com – owned by NFL football team
Rays.com – owned by Ray’s restaurant in Seattle. (Been there, loved the view.)
Rangers.com – owned by Future Media Architects, which never sells domain names
Angels.com – as mentioned earlier, lost UDRP case against owner
Rockies.com – information about Rocky Mountains
Twins.com – owned by California company. So many uses, it could be expensive
Athletics.com – login page for Selliquest

Of these domains, it would seem that Rockies.com might be the most obtainable. Rays.com would take a hefty check to convince Ray’s to change its domain. Angels.com can be bought, albeit for a much higher price than before the UDRP was filed. But there are really only two domains I’d rule out: Giants.com and Rangers.com.

It’s worth noting that all of the domains forward to a subdomain on MLB.com. So the league is truly using the domains just for their direct navigation and ease-of-recall.

Highlighting some of the domains in the DNW auction.

Is it possible to remain unbiased when you’re writing about an auction you organized and domain names you own? Doubtful. So I won’t even try. But I did want to highlight some of the domains in the Domain Name Wire auction, ending Tuesday.

So, in case it’s not perfectly clear, many of the domains below are mine. For the other domains, I don’t get any sort of cut.

This post covers just some of the domains in the auction; I’ll do another post later.

To bid on any of these domains, go to the auction here.

DUJ.net – I predict this domain will sell. OK, so it already has 10 bids and started at $99 with no reserve.

BroadcastQuality.com – This domain name was registered in 1997, has 550k Google results, and has a number of video uses.

BWWP.com and CSHT.com – both of these four letter .com’s were registered back in 1998. Both are also registered in .net and .org.

ExecutivePay.com – Executive Pay has always been a hot topic. Consultants provide executive pay services to many large corporations. But the past few years have seen a resurgence in attention on executive pay. There’s Obama’s Pay Czar. Wall Street Journal has an entire “executive pay” section. And many business magazines you pick up will have spreads clearly marked with the “executive pay” category.

EgyptianPyramids.com – if this domain sells at the reserve, I’ll take better than a $2k bath on this domain. But it’s worth a shot.

DJSet.com – I have to admit I had no idea what a DJ Set was when this domain was submitted. But it has 3.3 million Google results, lots of ads, and many other TLDs are registered.

MusicPhones.com – phones that double as MP3 players are increasingly popular. Samsung even ran commercials touting its “music phone”.

Fajitas.net – I sold Fajitas.org for $1320 a while back. .Net is nice, too.

Other .Nets – also check out Born.net, Heavy.net, and BeefJerky.net

Leptospirosis.com – you may not have heard of this illness, but it’s a pretty big deal. Want proof? A rather large pharma company owns the .net.