P&G, TomTom among companies that sprung for big ticket domains last quarter.

Earlier today Marchex posted its top 20 domain sales for last quarter (sans price tags).

As with the company’s prior list of top 500 all time domain sales, the sales were to a mix of end users and domainers/lead gen types.

Here are some of the end user purchases last quarter:

Procter & Gamble bought Swash.com after being found guilty of trying reverse domain name hijacking to steal the domain.

Sunripe Enterprises bought Aprons.com. They appear to be affiliated (or a former name) of Chef Works, which sells chef uniforms. They’ve already put the domain to use as an e-commerce store.

IT and logistics company Simain Group bought ProLabs.com.

GPS company TomTom bought WebFleet.com. The company offers a program called WebFleet for fleet reporting.

Currency trader GID Associates, which seems to specialize in selling Iraqi Dinars, bought IraqiDinar.com.

Internet security company Awareness Technologies bought WebWatcher.com.

Hakka Cultural Industry Group bought Hakka.com. Learn more here.

P&G buys Swash.com after embarrassing legal approach.

Last month Procter & Gamble became one of the largest companies to be found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking after losing a domain dispute for Swash.com.

Among the company’s many sins in its UDRP filing was that it provided incorrect sales numbers for its ‘swash’ brand.

As it turns out, the company was looking to launch a brand new brand called Swash and wanted to get the domain name. It went about it the wrong way.

After losing the case, P&G paid up — literally.

Marchex, the company that owned the domain name, revealed today that it sold the domain name in March. It was the company’s biggest sale for the first quarter, too.

You can bet that Procter & Gamble paid a lot more for the domain after being found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking than if it would have taken the ethical road from the beginning.

An interesting tidbit: it looks like P&G used Marksmen to get the domain, as the whois changed to Marksmen briefly after the sale.

Company reports improved domain name sales compared to previous quarter.

Marchex’s Archeo, Inc. sold 50 domains in the first quarter of this year for a total of $1.4 million.

Archeo, Inc. is the domain name division of Marchex, which the company hopes to soon spin off into its own publicly traded company.

The results were much better than in Q4 2012, when the company sold 31 domains for $863,000. The average price per sale was about the same in both quarters, at roughly $27,000-$28,000.

The company also released a list of the top 20 sales it made during the quarter, although sans prices.

1. Swash.com
2. Aprons.com
3. ProLabs.com
4. Ideally.com
5. Colette.com
6. AffordableInsurance.com
7. ProTrader.com
8. WebFleet.com
9. GlobalJourney.com
10. DreamProducts.com
11. IraqiDinar.com
12. APNetwork.com
13. OnlyMoney.com
14. MovingDirectory.com
15. BusinessMan.com
16. CoolGift.com
17. WebWatcher.com
18. Hakka.com
19. Poliya.com
20. Diatomaceousearth.com

Notice the #1 sale? That’s an interesting one.

A look at Archeo’s revenue numbers.

Marchex just reported earnings for Q4 2012 and the full year.

It sold just $863,000 worth of domain names last quarter, which gave it $6.3 million in domain sales for the year.

Had it already been spun out, its Archeo domain name and directory business would have generated $5.5 million in revenue last quarter without domain sales, which was about the same as the prior quarter.

With domain sales it would have generated $6.4 million in revenue.

Marchex provided unaudited numbers from the would-be Archeo business going back to 2011, and it certainly hasn’t been heading in the right direction.

Revenue in Q4 2011 attributable to Archeo not including domain sales would have been $10.7 million, so it has dropped in half. Revenue with domain sales in 2011 was $54.4 million. In 2012 it was $32.7 million.

Of course, the idea behind spinning out the business is that it will receive the attention it needs and reverse the trend.

As a result of the spin-off, the company will take estimated pre-tax $16.7 million non-cash impairment charge.

UDRP panel finds pet transportation company guilty of reverse domain name hijacking.

Marchex, with the help of domain name attorney John Berryhill, has won a charge of reverse domain name hijacking.

The case was brought by Airpet Animal Transport, Inc for the domain name PetExpress.com.

What makes this case particularly interesting to the public is the volume of the two parties’ pleadings that are included in the decision.

The complainant clearly left out important facts in the dispute, and Berryhill takes the complainant to task. Maybe I’m a domain dork, but I think it makes for fun reading.

The panel writes:

It is certainly true Complainant was conclusory in its initial submission (and that is being charitable). Respondent rightly pointed out Complainant’s claims were not possible as stated because Complainant was not formed until 2005. While Complainant could have stated all of this in Complainant’s initial submission, it chose not to. The question is why not? It seems Complainant did this to improve its chances in this UDRP proceeding. Complainant applied for a trademark after knowing about Respondent’s domain name and did not disclose that fact to either the USPTO or the Panel. Once again, the question is why not? Presumably, Complainant wanted to improve its chances in registering its mark and this proceeding.

It’s a long decision, but worth reading.

The complainant, which was found guilty of a abusing the UDRP procedure, was represented by Mark W. Good of Terra Law LLP.