Former owner of domain claims cybersquatting after letting domain registration lapse.

Imagine that a domain name expires and you pick it up in an expired domain auction. Then the previous owner files a UDRP against you claiming cybersquatting to get the domain name back.

I’ve seen a few cases like this, including one just decided for PitRoad.com.

In this case the complainant had a registered trademark for PitRoad.com*, which could have been harmful to the respondent. But the trademark was for internet services while the new registrant planns to use the domain name for auto racing — a very plausible claim given what the name means.

Panelist Bruce E. Meyerson found that the domain name wasn’t registered in bad faith and that the respondent didn’t offer to sell the domain name until approached by the complainant.

*The complainant’s name doesn’t match that of the previous domain owner nor the owner of the PitRoad.com trademark, so I’m assuming the complainant is affiliated with the trademark owner.

Company touts Premium Listings ahead of Super Bowl commercials.

On Super Bowl Sunday traffic will flood to GoDaddy.com as millions of guys decide they want to get teased by possibly naked pictures of Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels.

Some of them will buy domain names, and that’s good news for you.

Today the company put out a press release touting its Premium Listings and suggesting that Super Bowl traffic will drive more premium listing sales.

I’m a fan of this service, which lets you offer your domains for sale at buy-now prices within the registration path at Go Daddy.

The press release touts two large domain sales enabled by Premium Listings — DNB.net for “more than” $18,000 and SelfEmployed401k.com for $12,000.

You can create Premium Listings for .com, .net, .org, and now .co domains. The latter might not be a bad idea given that one of Go Daddy’s commercials on Sunday will feature .co.

So far my top sale through Premium Listings is $4,000, but I’m not complaining.

Sedo sales feed reports a big sale.

Action.com sold for $230,000 at a live Moniker auction back in 2008, and it looks like it may have just sold for big bucks once again.

This morning Sedo’s domain sales feed shows a $270,000 sale for the domain name:

Sedo’s RSS sales feed is known for randomly throwing up sales from many years ago, but given the difference in price this one looks to be legit. (Plus, Sedo wasn’t the seller back in 2008). The whois on the domain is still protected by Moniker privacy and never went into Sedo’s brokerage account.

If the sale is legit then the owner didn’t make much of a profit. After commission it would have been around $13,000, assuming he paid the lower 10% commission.

Media behemoth buys Dealbook.com domain name after losing arbitration for the domain.

In November I wrote about how Frank Schilling defeated New York Times Company in a landmark UDRP ruling for the domain name Dealbook.com.

After losing the decision it appears New York Times ponied up and bought the domain name. The domain name has not yet been forwarded to the publication’s Dealbook site.

Schilling’s Name Administration owned the domain name through early January. It was transferred to New York Times Digital on or before January 20 according to whois records at DomainTools.

This is a good domain name for New York Times to own. But I bet they ended up paying more for the domain name that they otherwise would have because they started by taking the low road.

(hat tip: Ramiro Canales)

Founder of controversial WikiLeaks organization now owns Wikileaks.com domain name.

Last week I wrote about how the domain name wikileaks.com had expired.

The domain name was registered by Wikia, Inc, the group behind Wikipedia, for defensive reasons after the official WikiLeaks site Wikileaks.org launched.

Wikia was trying to hand the domain name over to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, but Assange failed to accept the transfer and the domain name expired on January 3, 2011.

Just today the domain name was renewed and is now registered to Julian Assange, according to whois information.

The DNS for the domain name has not been updated and it still points to a holding page.