Company tries to get “proper” version of its domain through UDRP but fails.

I’ve argued many, many times that you shouldn’t create a web site at a “domain hack”, where the top level domain name is part of the keywords. Here’s just another example, courtesy of a decision at World Intellectual Property Organization.

Sazze, Inc, which operates DealsPl.us, has lost a case brought against the owner of DealsPlus.com.

DealsPl.us is a big web site, getting well over a million unique visits per month according to Compete. But imagine trying to tell someone to go to the actual web site:

“It’s DealsPlus. That’s deals-p-l-dot-u-s.”

That doesn’t work well.

So DealsPl.us filed a UDRP to get the better domain name DealsPlus.com. A three person panel found that the domain name wasn’t registered and used in bad faith.

Like just about every site on a domain hack that has become popular, I bet Sazze wishes it would have done things right from the beginning.

Here’s the scoop on the next TRAFFIC conference.

TRAFFIC is taking the show on the road again next month, traveling to Dublin, Ireland August 24-25. Domain Name Wire caught up with show organizer Rick Latona to get the scoop on the show.

DNW: Why did you pick Dublin as one of the locations for this year?

Latona: Many Internet companies are setting up their European headquarters in Ireland. There are excellent tax advantages as well as a very tech friendly infrastructure. English is also a great benefit for us American companies that are exploring business opportunities. Ireland is far less expensive than Britain and of course, it’s in the European Union. The beer is good too.

We go to Ireland often on business and wanted to show our American domainers who travel to the overseas shows and the main land Europeans the benefits of the environment.

DNW: At the Vancouver show you lowered prices but cut some of the extras. I understand the meals and parties are back for Dublin. What can people expect in terms of entertainment and food?

Latona: Domain Invest (.com, not to be confused with domaininvest.lu) is throwing a big dinner on the second night and Latona’s will be sponsoring the opening night cocktail. Dublin is a great place to let loose a little because the bars aren’t open so late that we’ll get into too much trouble!

DNW: The Dublin show is only 2 days, as opposed to 2 1/2 to three at previous conferences. Why the change?

Latona: We understand that many people have been going to a lot of shows and they want to focus on their businesses. So, we’ve jam packed the two days, cut the auction back to a single event and included parties on both days. It’ll be a tiring two days but it’ll be productive and to the point.

DNW: What new and different events or panels will people want to see at this TRAFFIC?

Latona: The Test Track is always good and our guests tell us often that it is their favorite part of the show. Sponsored by .CO the Test Track is the event where entrepreneurs can pitch their businesses to the panel of investors at the show. Please note that we still have room for applications if anyone is interested.

DNW: Looking forward, any updates/info about Hong Kong show?

Latona: The Hong Kong event isn’t until November and we’ll be posting updates about it soon enough. We want to focus on Dublin for now. That’s one thing that we’ve definitely learned this year. Focus on just one show at a time.

Here are 13 ccTLDs just begging to be commercialized.

With the recent launch of .co, we’ve seen another re-purposed country code domain name get international recognition. It joins other fairly successful commercializations such as .tv and .me, as well as failures such as .ws and .md.

Here are some other country code top level domain names that might have commercial potential, and my predicted marketing success for each one. But these countries better act fast, as soon they will have to compete with hundreds of new generic TLDs.

.AD (Andorra) – Shortly after beginning the sunrise period, AOL claims rights to every .AD domain name based on its non-existent trademark for Ad.com.

.BJ (Benin) – Fresh off the success of .xxx, ICM Registry expands its empire.

.BS (Bahamas) – Tired of political BS? Bahamas will sell you the domain of your favorite politician.

.CD (Congo) – Thousands of CD stores line up to register their .cd domain name, only to all go out of business before landrush.

.DJ (Djibouti) – Thousands of DJs high on acid end up registering their own .dj domain name.

.EE (Estonia) – Every electrical engineer is provided with a .ee domain name upon graduation.

.ET (Ethiopia) – ET Phones Home with this launch.

.GM (Gambia) – Every person who has lent money to General Motors gets a free domain name. Instantly, 300 million U.S. citizens become .gm domain registrants, creating the most successful TLD of all time.

.MO (Macao) – Interviewees of Brian Null’s MO.com get a free .mo domain. Because MO.com is just too long.

.MY (Malaysia) Hoping to piggyback on the success of .me, Malaysia markets .my domains, before figuring out that screw.my doesn’t have the same ring to it as screw.me.

.NO (Norway) – Thousands of corporate minions register .no domain names for corporate big wigs up the food chain who only know how to say “NO!”.

.PR (Puerto Rico) – Step right up, PR firms!

.SM (San Marino) – Another new market opportunity for ICM Registry.

Juice bar wants .com, but will have to pay for it.

A WIPO UDRP panelist has ruled against a juice bar called “Juicy Details”, calling the complainant’s assertions about bad faith registration of JuicyDetails.com “Mystifying”.

Juicy Details, based in the Netherlands, filed the complaint against Another.com, which owns JuicyDetails.com. But the panelist thought Juicy Detail’s accusations didn’t add up:

The Panel finds these assertions mystifying. From the record in this proceeding, it appears that the Complainant, a Dutch company, was only established in 2002 and operated only in the Netherlands. It applied for a Benelux trademark registration in March 2002 and did not obtain a Community Trade Mark until January 2009. The Complainant registered a domain name based on its JUICY DETAILS mark in the “.nl” country domain in March 2002, but the Complainant does not indicate when it launched a commercial website associated with that domain name. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine displays no archived copies of a website associated with the Complainant’s domain name until 2003, when the page simply displayed a message in Dutch to the effect that a website would appear “shortly”. There is no evidence in the record that the Complainant operated or advertised in the United Kingdom, where the Respondent is located, in 2002. Thus, it is not clear how the Respondent would have been aware of the Complainant’s mark in May 2002, when it registered the Domain Name in the United Kingdom, unless it examined the records of Benelux trademark applications. The Panel does not read the Policy as requiring such an investigation.

The Respondent denies prior knowledge of the Complainant or its mark, and this is plausible in the circumstances. Moreover, the mark consists of two English dictionary words, commonly used as a phrase to denote gossip or titillating information.

Why is Juicy Details interested in the .com? It operates at JuicyDetails.nl, and wants to expand outside the Netherlands.

Two three digit domains sell for big bucks.

Domain name brokerage Sedo has sold the domain name 029.com for $110,000, and also moved 980.com for $40,000 to lead its weekly sales charts. Both domain names now have proxy whois registrations.

Another big sale was Underdog.com, which must have beaten the favorite when it sold for 40,000 GBP, or roughly $62,000 USD.

Here are other notable sales for the week:

.com
cured.com 25000 USD
123123.com 20000 USD
oink.com 17000 USD
dressupgamesforgirls.com 15000 USD
germanfood.com 15000 USD
findmelove.com 12000 USD
cachorros.com 10000 EUR
posteando.com 9999 EUR
fernlinienbus.com 7500 EUR
pr1me.com 7500 GBP
superaccounting.com 6500 USD
adamsfoods.com 5000 USD
engineeringviews.com 5000 USD
facemuscles.com 5000 USD
guyspy.com 5000 USD
hellohotels.com 5000 USD
homewarrantyreview.com 5000 USD
kamra.com 5000 USD
orangeconstruction.com 5000 USD
topstockpicks.com 5000 USD
vestimenta.com 5000 USD

ccTLDs
kinderspiele.de 16000 EUR
sm.de 15000 EUR
europoker.fr 12000 EUR
holidaylettings.in 10600 GBP
saunabon.nl 10500 EUR
annonsera.se 10000 EUR
independentfinancialadviser.co.uk 9975 GBP
betnet.de 8888 EUR
leathersofa.co.uk 8000 USD
esp.de 5500 EUR
irobot.es 5000 USD
maleev.ru 5000 USD
secret.nl 5000 EUR
adultdvd.co.uk 4750 GBP
carparto.de 4750 EUR
checker.at 4000 EUR

Other
randomactsofkindness.org 25000 USD
booking.travel 11000 USD
datingservice.net 7000 USD
heating.net 5655 USD
onlinedegreeprogram.org 4000 USD