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What to expect at NamesCon 2020 – DNW Podcast #261

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Soeren von Varchmin talks about the domain investing community’s big conference in January.

dnw-podcast I spent last week in Montreal at the ICANN meeting. While there, I sat down with NamesCon CEO Soeren von Varchmin to talk about January’s conference. After many years in Las Vegas, NamesCon is moving to Austin. Soeren explains why it’s moving and why you should attend. He also explains how running a conference for the domain business is different than for the hosting business.

Also: Tucows sells its domain portfolio, ICANN’s expected decision, True Detective, Sixth Street, Jimmy Wales, MarkMonitor and more.

See also: How to go to NamesCon for cheap

Sponsor: Name.market

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NHL.com isn’t the only three letter domain the hockey league owns

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It owns a three-letter .com for its French audience, too.

Picture of LNH.com advertisement on the boards at a hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins

Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. That’s LNH.com, not NHL.com.

Last week in Montreal, I went to the Canadiens vs. Bruins game with other people attending the ICANN meeting. Something caught my eye during the second period (see picture).

While most people visit the National Hockey League’s website at NHL.com, the league also owns LNH.com. LNH brings you to a French version of the NHL’s website at NHL.com/fr.

LNH stands for Ligue Nationale de Hockey.

The league appears to have acquired LNH.com in 2006. I can’t find a public price for the purchase.

Interestingly, the NHL still keeps its primary domains at Moniker rather than a brand protection registrar. The other three major North American sports leagues (MLB, NBA and NFL) use corporate brand registrars.

How to go to NamesCon for cheap

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Here are ways to save money on your trip to Austin.

Landscape of Austin, Texas with NamesCon logo over it

NamesCon is not an expensive conference to attend. However, two things give people pause before booking their travel.

First, NamesCon set the bar so low on prices in the past by going to The Tropicana that people are having sticker shock at traveling to Austin. The Trop is a crappy hotel with a commensurate price; it was about $120 or so a night with the “resort fee” before taxes. The Omni is a good hotel that costs about $100 more per night.

Second, as NamesCon CEO Soeren von Varchmin points out on the DNW Podcast airing Monday, many people who go to NamesCon go on their own dime. A company isn’t paying for them to attend, so they need to carefully consider the cost of going and what they get out of it.

Here are some ways you can save money on your accommodations.

As far as event tickets are concerned, there are lots of 30% off coupons out there. The ticket price will be much less than the hotel cost.

So if you’re looking to save money, here are five options for cheaper accommodations.

1. Share a room. That cuts your bill in half. You can even share a two-bedroom apartment.

2. Try The Guild. This Austin, Texas-based company rents apartments by the night. Not only can you “live like a local,” but there are lots of rooms available during the conference for less than $200.

3. Go to another downtown Austin hotel. The savings won’t be significant, but The Wyndham and Hamilton Inn & Suites are less than $200. (The Hamilton is nicer than expected for the brand.)

4. Stay further away from the venue. I don’t love this idea, but if the price is a deciding factor, there are options within a 20-minute drive that cost about $100. Also, take a look at the Extended Stay America just south of Lady Bird Lake. It’s very cheap and walkable to the hotel, although a bit on the far side.

5. Airbnb/HomeAway. You’ll find many options just to the east and south of downtown at low prices.

 

HBO wins TrueDetective.com domain name in cybersquatting fight

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HBO gets domain name for popular series.

Promotional picture for True Detective TV show featuring detective in backgroundIt didn’t take gritty police work to solve a case over the domain name TrueDetective.com.

HBO has won a cybersquatting dispute over the domain name for its popular True Detective show.

The company filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, arguing that the owner of the domain was cybersquatting.

A National Arbitration Forum panelist came to an easy decision in favor of HBO. A parked page at TrueDetective.com includes ad links for “HBO True Detective” and “HBOGO”. The owner of the domain didn’t bother to respond to the allegations, either.

True Detective has aired for three seasons and featured stars including Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Colin Farrell, and Vince Vaughn.

Fabricio Vayra of Perkins Coie LLP represented HBO.

Company tries to hijack SixthStreet.com domain name

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Finance company filed reverse domain name hijacking case to get SixthStreet.com.

A picture of Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, with the Omni Hotel in the background.

The owner of SixthStreet.com named his business after the entertainment district in Austin. Note in this picture of 6th street the Omni Hotel, which is the location of January’s NamesCon conference. Photo from BigStock.

When I first saw that the domain name SixthStreet.com was in a cybersquatting dispute, I wondered if it was a couple of bar owners on the famed Sixth Street in Austin that were duking it out.

That wasn’t the case, but the domain owner did pick the name because of the famous entertainment district in Austin.

TPG Sixth Street Partners, LLC, an investment firm headquartered in Dallas, filed a cybersquatting complaint against David Frieze, who runs a real estate company called Sixth Street Properties, LLC.

Frieze acquired the domain in 2016 for his company, which is named after the street in Austin. He hasn’t set up a website but uses it for email.

According to the UDRP decision from World Intellectual Property Organization, Frieze registered and began using the disputed domain name with an email address for his real estate business more than a year before the Complainant first applied to register its TPG SIXTH STREET PARTNERS marks, two and a half years prior to the Complainant first use of the marks in commerce, and three years prior to the USPTO’s registration of the Complainant’s marks.

Panelist William R. Towns noted that this would have been obvious to anyone who looked at the Whois record. He said that the case was groundless and filed in abuse of the policy, which is called reverse domain name hijacking.