Lawsuit claims domain name registrar transferred domain name back to cybersquatter.

It’s not unusual to find a domain name registrar named in a cybersquatting lawsuit because an infringing domain is registered with them. But a case filed June 2 in U.S. District Court against eNom involves an alleged inappropriate transfer back to a cybersquatter. Here’s what happened, according to the lawsuit.

Financial services company First American won the domain name firstamerican.com from Pluto Domain Services in January of this year through UDRP. (Incidentally, First American lost a UDRP for the same domain name in 2000 against Ult Search.) First American alleges Pluto is associated with ICANN-accredited domain name registrar Lead Networks of India, where the domain name is registered. After losing the UDRP decision, Pluto sued First American in India to keep the domain name.

First American says it then settled with Pluto, agreeing to transfer the domain name to First American in return for money. Pluto transferred the domain name to eNom, where First American registers its domain names. But then Pluto and/or Lead Networks informed eNom that the transfer was a mistake, so eNom transferred it back.

First American blames eNom for transferring the domain name back, and says that eNom also should have known the domain name was infringing because it is the registrar for First American’s domain names. The suit claims eNom should pay $100,000 plus legal fees.

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. It’s possible First American brought eNom into the lawsuit because it helps prove that Washington (where eNom is based) is an appropriate jurisdiction.

You can read the lawsuit here (pdf).

Domain tasting operation picks up a domain and parks it with the “r” word.

[Updated: eNom is now forwarding the domain name to r-word.org and says it will transfer ownership to Special Olympics.] In many ways President Obama’s gaffe on The Tonight Show last night was the best thing to happen to the Special Olympics in a long time. (Obama, speaking about his lack of bowling skills, suggested his performance was like the Special Olympics). Not only can the organization be assured that Obama won’t cut government support anytime soon, but the organization was readying a new ad-campaign called “the r-word”. The Special Olympics is trying to compare the word retard to some other words that most people wouldn’t mutter or print, such as the n-word. It’s campaign is now in the limelight.

Special Olympics is using the domain name r-word.org for its campaign. Regretfully, a domain tasting operation owned by Demand Media — eNom467 Incorporated — snapped up r-word.com earlier this year and is parking it. (In November, eNom467 added 748 domain names and deleted 10,346). You can even buy the r-word.com domain name through another associated eNom company, AcquireThisName.

Oh, and here’s the parking page:

I suppose if you’re going to blindly test domains for traffic, you have to suffer the embarrassing consequences of occasionally picking up a domain name you’d rather not own.

RWord.org, without the dash, was registered just days after Special Olympics picked up r-word.org. Its parked page isn’t pleasant, either.

GoDaddy tops survey for fourth year in a row, eNom continues slide.

For four years running, GoDaddy has topped the list of domain name registrars in the annual Domain Name Wire Survey. GoDaddy took home top honors in this year’s survey with 43% of the vote. Below are the top 5 vote getters, followed by analysis:

1. GoDaddy 44%
2. Moniker 18%
3. Fabulous 10%
4. eNom 9%
5. 1&1 5%

GoDaddy is popular amongst all types of domain owners. This year it even came out on top for larger domainers owning over 1,000 domains (last year it was second).

I’ve noticed a couple trends in the four years of doing this survey.

The first is the rise of Moniker. In 2006, Moniker ranked fifth with just 8% of the vote. It jumped to second behind GoDaddy in 2007 and has retained that spot. Moniker is visible amongst the domain investor crowd, running live domain auctions and sponsoring shows.

The second is the fall of eNom. After ranking second in 2006 with 20% of the vote, it fell to third with 10% in 2007 and then slipped even further to fourth in this year’s survey.

The other companies on the list are there for different reasons. Fabulous offers low prices and caters to big domain portfolio owners; 1&1 is a cut-rate domain seller with a main business in web hosting.

See more survey results here.

Opinionated about domain registrars? Review them at Registrar Judge.

eWeek writer can’t get copycat whois record changed.

I’ve heard people complain about “whois identity theft” before. Essentially, this is when someone uses your name on their whois record. You can imagine how this could potentially be troubling for you, depending on the domain name. But in the case of eWeek writer Larry Seltzer, the “identity thief” went several steps further.

First, the domain that is being spoofed is LarrySeltzer.net. Second, the perpetrator used Seltzer’s phone number and address (although a different email) in whois. The registrant name is “Larry Seltzer Astroturfing LLC”. Then he used his LarrySeltzer.net email address to make posts to a mailing list and to try to get eWeek’s security team to send him login credentials. Ouch.

Seltzer tried to get it taken care of by filing an inaccurate whois complaint (twice, actually) and complaining to eNom (the domain is registered at an eNom reseller). Then he went directly to ICANN with his press credentials. It is still unresolved.

As Seltzer points out, the registrar probably contacts the domain owner via e-mail to verify ownership. The e-mail address is correct. The phone and mailing address is not.

ICANN has recently cracked down on a couple registrars that it felt were not responding to inaccurate whois complaints. But I can understand Seltzer’s frustration. And, from a registrar perspective, I bet that if this domain were at GoDaddy the problem would be resolved already. For all its faults, GoDaddy has stringent whois policies (and it doesn’t just delete domains with inaccurate whois anymore).

Registrar NameKing still biggest domain taster, but numbers declining.

Domain registrar NameKing.com is still the king of domain tasting.

NameKing, a subsidiary of Oversee.net, continues to drop nearly 1 million .com domains during the add grace period each month. As I predicted, ICANN’s budget measure to stem domain tasting curtailed the practice but did not eliminate it.

The graph below shows the number of .com domains NameKing dropped during the add grace period each month from April to September 2008 (the last month for which data is currently available from ICANN). As you can see, NameKing’s domain tasting has been reduced from about 2.5 million .com domains a month to 1 million domains. According to RegistrarStats, the company only has 737,197 active domain registrations.

In 2007 NameKing briefly suspended domain tasting after one of its customers was sued by Microsoft for trademark infringement and cybersquatting.

By April 2009, NameKing’s tasting appetite will be seriously crimped by a new ICANN policy that will not allow registrars to receive refunds for more than 10% of domains returned during the add grace period.

But the new policy won’t be the end of domain tasting. There are several ways companies can still make tasting profitable under the new policy, especially for registrars that have retail customers. Demand Media’s eNom, currently a big domain taster, may be able to continue its practice. In September, eNom’s dozens of registrars dropped over 100,000 .com domains during the add grace period, according to VeriSign reports submitted to ICANN. But the company registered about 150,000 new .coms during that period, meaning it can return up to 15,000 domains without penalty. It will have to reduce its domain tasting operations but not eliminate them.