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The problem with choosing a popular generic company name

by — Uncategorized 4 Comments

The brand Theorem is a crowded brand.

Picture of man looking at confusing array of documents on a wall with words Brand Confusion on it

A company called Theorem is suing (pdf) another company called Theorem for trademark infringement, and it brings up an important point about choosing a popular dictionary term for your business name.

The first sign that this is a crowded brand is that the defendant uses the domain name Theorem.co while another company uses Theorem.com—and the company that uses Theorem.com isn’t the plaintiff. The plaintiff uses the domain TheoremInc.net.

So, right off the bat, three companies are using the name Theorem. They are all in the tech space, too.

The defendant is a web development company that recently rebranded from CitrusByte to Theorem. The plaintiff if a digital marketing company. The company that uses Theorem.com provides CAD and visualization technologies.

If you google “theorem,” the plaintiff is #2. Neither Theorem.com nor Theorem.co is on the first page, but two other companies that use the name Theorem are. One is a cannabis company and the other is a marketplace lending technology company.

That’s a pretty crowded brand space.

The plaintiff says that a Fortune 500 company made a presentation to it and used the logo from the defendant in its presentation. Ouch.

Alibaba files blockchain domain name patent application

by — Services 0 Comments

Company is latest to propose domain name technology connected to blockchains.

Image with the word "Blockchain"

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has filed a U.S. patent application (pdf) for a domain name system connected to blockchain networks.

It’s a bit tricky to disect, but it seems that the idea is to give each blockchain instance a domain name. The abstract states:

Implementations of the present disclosure include obtaining, by a computing system, a unified blockchain domain name (a UBCDN) message of a blockchain instance, wherein the UBCDN message includes a UBCDN of the blockchain instance, a digital signature of an owner of the UBCDN of the blockchain instance (a UBCDN owner) on the UBCDN, and a domain certificate of the UBCDN; verifying whether the domain certificate of the UBCDN is issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA) using a public key of the CA; and verifying whether the UBCDN is issued by the UBCDN owner using a public key of the UBCDN owner. The UBCDN message includes a blockchain domain name and a chain identifier of the blockchain instance uniquely corresponding to the blockchain domain name.

Several companies are trying to marry blockchain technology with the concept of domain names. You can listen to one idea, run by Unstoppable Domains, on DNW Podcast #224.

Alibaba owns HiChina, a large domain name registrar.

Second edition of ‘Domain Name Arbitration’ published

by — Policy & Law 8 Comments

An updated guide on UDRP.

Book cover from Domain Name Arbitration by Gerald Levine

Domain Name Arbitration, Second Edition by Gerald Levine

Domain name attorney Gerald Levine has published Domain Name Arbitration, Second Edition.

Levine published the first edition in 2015. That means thousands of additional UDRP cases have been decided in the interim that he was able to draw upon to update the book.

In the forward to the book, Levine notes that, in the second edition, “I have rewritten many of the sections; and where I have not added I have tweaked and refined my thoughts about the jurisprudence to make the principles, factors and concepts of the law more accessible.”

He has also included an expansive index.

The book is not light reading. It is designed for lawyers and intellectual property professionals to understand the nitty-gritty of UDRP. Many panelists would benefit from reading it, too.

Levine is perhaps the best writer on the topic of UDRP and anyone needing an in-depth understanding of UDRP should read it.

The book is available on Amazon.com.

21 end user domain name sales

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

An event venue in Montreal, a Milwaukee apartments company, and ClassPass bought domain names this past week.

Photo of PY1 in Montreal

The creators of the PY1 venue in Montreal bought PY1.com. They use PY1.co for their website. Photo from PY1.co.

This week’s list of end user domain sales at Sedo doesn’t have any big-ticket domains, but it makes up for it in volume. Some companies bought matching ccTLDs while the creator of a pyramid-shaped venue in Montreal bought a .com to match its .co domain.

Here’s the list, and you can view previous lists like this here.

JGarrison.com $13,500 – It appears the buyer’s first and middle names are James Garrison. Seems like a lot for this domain, doesn’t it?

Horeka.com €9,910 – PT Kifa Citra Sejati is a company in Jakarta that sells food products. I’m not sure what this domain is for but it could be a brand.

PY1.com $9,899 – PY1 is a new venue in Canada developed by Lune Rouge. It uses the domain name PY1.co.

Adcada.com $9,500 – ADCADA, a trading, real estate, finance and marketing company, bought the .com to match its .de domain name.

TheGrandResort.com $5,799 – Avalon Holdings operates waste management services, golf courses and resorts.

Fluit.com €5,500 – German company DABEI GmbH. Fluit is Dutch for whistle, but I can’t figure this one out.

MetropolitanAssociates.com $5,250 – Metropolitan Associates is an apartment company in Milwaukee. It uses the domain name MetApts.com.

Relax.net €4,488 – Logictree, Inc is a software company. This might be for one of its new projects.

MABAG.com £4,500 – The domain forwards to OMSAG, a digital marketing company. Given that this domain ends in AG, it might be a related company name.

ABLbank.com $4,000 – The buyer operates ABL Aviation, an aircraft leasing company.

TwinSight.com $4,000 – Software company Bentley. The company filed a trademark application last week for the term.

Skinspire.com $3,750 – Philosophy Brands GmbH is a marketing company in Germany. This might be for a client.

Proximify.com $3,500 – Proximify provides web solutions to government and academic organizations.

BetonFabrik.de €3,080 – Suding makes precast concrete. The domain translates to “concrete factory” in German.

ClassPass.ch $2,888 – ClassPass, a popular program to visit exercise classes, forwards this domain to ClassPass.com.

NewEnglandTrader.com $2,500 – The buyer is setting up a financial template on Wix.

LighthouseWealth.com €2,150 – Lighthouse Wealth Management.

GreenAngels.co.uk €2,150 – Green Angels has a coming soon page and states that it’s “on a mission to fight global waste and environmental crisis by empowering people with innovative tools, knowledge and connections to help make positive lifestyle changes.”

HubGarage.com $2,060 – HubGarage is a site about automotive gear.

CharlotteTilbury.hk £2,000 – Makeup seller CharlotteTilbury forwards this domain to its .com.

PieperAutomation.com $2,000 – Pieper Electric is an electrical contractor in Wisconsin.

Who bought the top 20 sales at Uniregistry this week

by — Domain Sales 3 Comments

A Costa Rican e-commerce company, wound care certification organization, and smart home company bought domains at Uniregistry.

Graphic with the number 20 and words "Top Uniregistry Sales"

Uniregistry recently published its top 20 sales of July, and now it’s going to start publishing its top 20 weekly sales (well, those that it can make public).

It’s great to have this additional data available for the market. I’m not sure if it warrants a weekly end user report on Domain Name Wire because of the size of the list. It might need to be monthly. Or a combination with the Sedo report. But for now, let’s give it a shot.

Here’s what I dug up on the top 20 sales at Uniregistry this past week.

1. wearly.com $25,000 – It’s an end user price but it’s unclear who bought it. Whois shows it’s someone in Japan. Wear.ly is for sale at BrandBucket.

2. createme.com $18,000 – It’s under Whois privacy at GoDaddy but there are a lot of companies that would want to upgrade to this name.

3. unimart.com $13,000 – Unimart selling at Uniregistry? Yep. The buyer is Barulu S.A., an e-commerce company in Costa Rica.

4. vaha.com $12,000 – Just a coming soon page on this domain.

5. iapts.com $11,500 – iApts is short for iApartments. This company helps apartments become smart apartments with connected devices. It does not own iApartments, which is an apartment locator.

6. wcei.com $10,000 – Relias LLC runs the Wound Care Education Institute, or WCEI for short. The .com is an upgrade to its current WCEI.net domain.

7. linesheets.com $10,000 – A line sheet is like a mini catalog, and this site helps you create them easily.

8. etar.com $10,000 – All I can tell at this point is that the buyer is in Saudi Arabia.

9. winnerwinner.com $10,000 – The domain has GoDaddy Whois privacy and still resolves to a Uni lander.

10. satelle.com $7,600 – A buyer in the Netherlands.

11. psilocybinmushrooms.com $7,600 – Still under privacy at Uniregistry.

12. suvmarket.com $7,000 – Doesn’t resolve and no Whois info.

13. coolx.com $7,000 – The buyer is setting up a WordPress site.

14. bouts.com $5,580 – A company called Trichterheide nv bought the domain.

15. planetaryburger.com $5,175 – I don’t know who bought it but I can guess what they’ll do with it.

16. funguy.com $5,000 – Whois shows a buyer in Washington state.

17. walkerconstruction.com $5,000 – Walker Construction is a construction company in Kentucky, building bridges, highways and more.

18. plutocrat.com $5,000 – What do you think – end user or investor? A plutocrat is someone whose power derives from their wealth.

19. abcroofing.com $4,000 – There are a lot of ABC Roofing companies out there, and this one is in Georgia.

20. dealin.com $3,700 – ZeroBase is a web developer in Japan. It’s probably for a project or client.