Group forms to object to .jobs expansion.

A group calling itself The .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition is asking ICANN’s board to reconsider its decision to open up the .jobs top level domain name to non-company name registrations. The coalition’s members include major employment web sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, along with a number of associations.

In a letter (pdf) to the Committee of the Board on Reconsideration, the group argues that:

-The .jobs phased allocation program violates the .jobs charter
-The members of the coalition will be harmed by the by the expansion of the .JOBS space beyond employers without any of the customary and usual protections against abusive and infringing registrations
-Other people will also be harmed by the expansion
-The board’s decision should be stayed pending the outcome of reconsideration
-ICANN’s staff-prepared comment summary was flawed

A number of job boards have been vocal opponents of the plan. Much of the opposition suggests that the purpose and charter of .jobs (an sTLD) has been violated. But I suspect we’ll see more of this sort of backlash as new top level domains are introduced in the coming years.

DomainConsultant.com reports that domain sold during auction today.

DomainConsultant.com, which organized an auction today for DomainName.com, is reporting that the name has sold.

Due to non-disclosure requests on both sides, we unfortunately cannot publish buyer or final selling price. We can tell you that, as predicted, DomainName.com name, site and registrar were sold today in a private auction.

We can also tell you new owner will prosper and thrive, we have no doubt whatsoever.

It’s unfortunate that a non-disclosure will keep the price from being public, but if multiple parties participated in the auction then word might eventually leak out. The domain included an accredited domain name registrar and about 8,000 existing registrations. The reserve was originally listed at $1 million.

DomainConsultant.com says it will hold another sales event in a couple weeks and is seeking domain submissions.

NBC wants lawsuit over domain name dismissed.

NBC Universal has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) a lawsuit filed by DONE! Ventures over DONE!’s failed purchase of Women.com. DONE! claims it had an agreement to buy women.com and women.net from NBC, and that NBC later backed out of the deal that was brokered by Sedo.

NBC’s first line of defense is that it hadn’t reached an agreement with DONE! because communications only referred to Women.com, not .net — so key terms hadn’t been agreed to:

The Complaint makes clear on its face that no binding contract was formed because there was no meeting of the minds on a material term: the property for sale. Plaintiff alleges that it made a $1 million offer for two domain names: women.com and women.net. Yet, the correspondence from the NBC Defendants’ broker, which Plaintiff attaches to the Complaint and specifically incorporates by reference, states that the NBC Defendants would accept $1 million for women.com alone. Thus, the parties never agreed on what could be purchased for the $1 million price.

Its second line of defense is that Sedo told DONE! it would need to complete a bill of sale with NBC before completing the transaction. NBC argues that no bill of sale was completed, so there was no breach of contract:

Further, the parties’ correspondence states that the NBC Defendants required specified information about the Plaintiff and the completion of a bill of sale before a deal could be consummated. As Plaintiff admits in the Complaint, no bill of sale was ever drafted or signed. Therefore, even if the parties had reached a meeting of the minds about what property was for sale and at what price, which they did not, at most, there was an unenforceable agreement to agree. Plaintiffs breach of contract claim thus fails as a matter of law.

If the court doesn’t buy either of these arguments, NBC wants it to move the case from California to New York.

So here’s the (literally) million dollar question: if DONE! would accept just the .com domain for $1 million, would NBC go through with it?

Domain marketplace release new search system.

Sedo has released new searching tools that make it much easier to sift through the site’s 7 17 million domain names for sale.

The new search allows you to add and change search criteria and get updated results on the fly. Limit the number of words in domains, price range, and even parking traffic (if the domain is parked at Sedo). You can also preview a listing by clicking on the domain rather than loading an entirely new page. DomainsBot technology is integrated to show synonyms and domains similar to the keywords you provide.

As you search you’re able to add domains to a watchlist for later review. You can also create RSS feeds for your saved searches.

The need for improved search features had developed as the number of domains at Sedo has grown. These new search features will hopefully boost sales as quality domains will be easier to find.

Given browser constraints and the speed of real time updates, you might have a better experience viewing the search tool in Google Chrome instead of Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Broker sells Angels.com domain name.

Sedo has sold the domain name Angels.com for $200,000 according to the company’s updated sales feed. The domain name is currently pending transfer.

Earlier this month I pointed out that the domain being listed for auction presented another chance for Major League Baseball to pick up the domain name. Major League Baseball tried to get the domain name through a UDRP filing earlier but failed. At the time the seller wanted $300,000 for the domain.

At $200,000, I’d be shocked if MLB didn’t buy this domain. Angels.com is one of just 7 team names that the league doesn’t own. It passed on a chance to buy Athletics.com at the DOMAINfest auction, but don’t be surprised if they come to a deal on that later. The league forwards the domains to its MLB.com web site.