With one week to go, Demand Media shares hit fresh lows.

Next week ends a 180 day lock up period in which many Demand Media option holders can finally sell their shares in the company.

Unfortunately for them, shares are now trading at only $11. That’s well below its $17 opening price for its debut in January, when the share price promptly shot up to $23.50. The stock peaked at $27.38 before beginning its precipitous fall.

That doesn’t mean you need to feel bad for all Demand Media employees, however. VIP shareholders got to sell millions of shares during the IPO and a good number of employees have options priced in the single digits.

Still, it must be heart-wrenching for employees to watch the stock price fall during the lockup period. My guess is the current downward pressure on the stock has a lot to do with the expiration of the lock-up period.

We’ll see how many shares hit the market in coming weeks.

Say that three times fast.

The publishers of the Baby 411, Toddler 411, and Expecting 411 series of books have tried and failed to get the domain name Babies411.com through arbitration.

Alan and Denise Fields d/b/a Windsor Peak Press have sold over 300,000 copies of their popular Baby 411 book and maintain a web site at Baby411.com. The book was originally published in 2003.

In 2009 an Austin woman started a site at Babies411.com. Naturally, it was about baby information. Windsor Peak Press argued that Babies411.com infringed its common law trademark rights.

But the arbitration panelist disagreed. He stated that it’s not proven Babies411.com was registered in bad faith to take advantage of the Baby 411 books. After all, both “babies” and “411″ are common and generic terms.

Prospecting for off-market real estate is similar to prospecting for domain names.

I’ve been looking to buy our build a new house and have noticed striking similarities to the process of buying domain names.

The areas of town I’m interested in buying a lot have very little inventory. There are a few lot listings in the MLS, but most are “off market”.

The process of inquiring about these off market lots is similar to buying a domain name:

1. The owner of the lot, just like with a domain name, isn’t necessarily thinking about selling it.

2. There’s an online “whois” for the lot owners in the form of the county tax records database. Unfortunately for me it doesn’t include a phone number or email address, so to contact the owners I either have to knock on their door or send snail mail.

3. If someone is willing to sell, they’ll ask me to make an offer first to see if it’s worth their time. This is similar to domain names…the person wants to know they’re not dealing with someone who will low ball.

I’m finding that many of the lots I’m looking at were purchases to protect another lot’s view. These lots are generally a street behind the owner’s house at a slightly lower level. The owner bought the lot to make sure its view wouldn’t be blocked. I suppose there would be a parallel in domain names if the domain is somewhat related or clustered around the topic of one of the owner’s other domain names.

Judge sides with Verizon, settlement in doubt.

A federal district judge has dealt a blow to Above.com in a lawsuit brought against it by Verizon.

Chief United States District Judge Audrey Collins has denied Above.com’s motion to dismiss charges of contributory cybersquatting.

Above.com and the other defendants have accepted responsibility for registering and monetizing typos of Verizon’s brand names, but argued they shouldn’t be responsible for domain names owned by clients of Above.com who use its privacy services and monetization program.

The judge said that Above.com could be liable for actions of its customers if it should have been aware of their activities. Verizon argued that the company was aware of customer use of its services for cybersquatting based on receiving over 100 UDRP notices (pdf).

At one point it looked like the parties were close to settling, but it appears the fight over Above.com’s responsibility for customer domains remains and issue. The case will move forward.

Peter Dengate Thrush joins publicly traded company poised to profit from new top level domain names.

That was quick.

Less than a month after pushing through a vote approving the new top level domain name program at his last meeting as ICANN Chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush has joined a company applying for new top level domain names.

Dengate Thrush will join Top Level Domain Holdings (parent company of Minds + Machines) as Executive Chairman.

His compensation package will include options on 15 million shares at 8p per share.

This is certainly a big coup for Top Level Domain Holdings. But it also begs the question about why Dengate Thrush pushed through the vote in his last meeting as Chair. It’s highly likely that it was so it would be part of his legacy, but joining a new TLD applicant so quickly after the vote will certainly raise eyebrows.

It makes you wonder if ICANN staffers that remain with the non-profit during the new TLD gold rush are fools for doing so. Certainly there’s more money on the outside, at least during the application process.