Company adds to its stack of pending patents.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has just published a handful of patent applications filed by GoDaddy.
Methods and Systems for Recommending Packages of Domain Names for Registration (application 14/500711) is a continuation of patents I wrote about earlier this month. It essentially describes a way to determining which domain names a user will want and presenting them as a package.
Two others are related to submitting an offer for a domain name when it is already registered: System for Communicating an Offer for a Domain Names (application 13/973823) and Method for Communicating an Offer for a Domain Name (application 13/973819). If the domain name you want is already registered, the registrar will ask if you want to submit an offer on the domain name.
The general crux of these two patent applications doesn’t seem novel (at least looking at what registrars have been doing for the past five years or so), but perhaps there are some claims within them that are unique.
another domainer says
I realize all large corporations play the patent game. However, Godaddy put a patent on every idea that comes up at GD, even if that idea has been used by other registrars or hosting companies for years.
In some industries, a company’s value is partially based on how many patents they have. If it was not for their patents, Blackberry would have been gone 2-3 yrs ago. I guess Godaddy is trying to cover all bases for Wall St.
If Godaddy was a small candy store that hand-made chocolate candies, they would apply for a patent if the candy maker made it with their right hand. And, another patent if they made the candy with their left hand. And, another one if their right foot was closer to the candy than the left foot. etc, etc.
DNPric.es says
What also counts (at prominent corporations at least) is the conversion rate. I.e., how many application are actually granted the patents. Many organisation burn the cash on those games.
John Berryhill says
Good points, a.d.. Another thing to bear in mind is the territorial scope of US patents. Very few people who draft patent claims involving Internet technology take into account that a method claim covers performance of the method in the US, and that manipulated data is not a product-by-process subject to the relevant definition of “importing” the product into the U.S..
In other words, not only are quite a few of these what patent attorneys call “red button” patents, in terms of their narrow limitations to specific avoidable features, but the way they are drafted, and the limits of the law, would not prevent a non-US-located registrar from doing exactly what these patents purport to cover.
Palm Beach says
Godaddy is submitting an offer for a domain name when it is already registered at Godaddy by me. Who is Godaddy representing the buyer or their client seller? As the seller, and a loyal GD customer, can I ask who the buyer is? Can I contact the buyer and do my own deal?
Max Menius says
RE: “The general crux of these two patent applications doesn’t seem novel …”
Ditto on this statement. If somehow they were awarded a patent, I can’t imagine that precluding other registrars from offering something so commonplace. There must be something uniquely proprietary about GoDaddy’s process.