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BTSA.com: Cybersquatting or RDNH? You decide.

by — Policy & Law 5 Comments

WIPO panelist makes a questionable decision.

World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Warwick A. Rothnie has determined that the owner of BTSA.com is cybersquatting and that the domain should be transferred to BTSA Biotecnologias Aplicadas, S.L.

Rothnie’s decision is surprising. You can make a good argument that this was actually a case of attempted reverse domain name hijacking.

It’s a bit convoluted because the domain name is financed by Domain Capital. Rothnie decided that the financing company is the true owner of the domain, which it financed in 2014. But the fact is that the beneficial owner registered the domain in 2003.

Although the Complainant says it existed prior to that, it didn’t register a domain for its website until 2004.

The Complainant has a registered trademark for BTSA BIOTECNOLOGÍAS APLICADAS as a figurative mark. Rothnie found this confusingly similar to the BTSA.com domain name.

What’s quite clear from reading the decision is that the beneficial owner of the domain acquired the domain for its value as a four letter domain, and that is how Domain Capital likely financed it. The decision says the domain was parked but did not show ads related to the Complainant.

That’s not cybersquatting.

The Complainant says it first discovered the use of BTSA.com when it decided to set up a subsidiary in the United States. It tried to acquire the domain and that failed. It then filed the UDRP.

I’d make an argument that this is a case of Plan B reverse domain name hijacking, not cybersquatting.

If nothing else, it’s not a clear case of cybersquatting and I believe Rothnie made the wrong decision.

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Will Trump Administration give the green light to higher “tax-like” fees on domains?

by — Uncategorized 1 Comment

With the Cooperative Agreement expiring next month, U.S. businesses could face higher tax-like fees on .com domains.

The price consumers pay for .com domain names have been kept in check by an obscure agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce’s NTIA and Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the company that operates .com.

This so-called “Cooperative Agreement” expires at the end of next month and we still don’t know what’s going to happen. Will the NTIA extend the agreement? If it doesn’t, the only real check on the wholesale price of .com domains will go away. That almost certainly means price increases. And while the typical business only owns a handful of domain names, the cost to businesses overall would be high.

Internet Commerce Association (ICA), a group that advocates for domain name owners, sent a letter (pdf) to NTIA head David J. Redl yesterday explaining why it’s important to extend the group’s oversight of .com. It succinctly lays out the facts:

  • Letting the agreement expire will almost certainly lead to price increases, akin to a billion dollar+ tax on businesses and individuals over time
  • Domain name regulator ICANN can’t be relied upon to keep .com prices in check and has an incentive to let Verisign increase prices
  • Verisign’s financials and compensation already reflect a company with a monopoly contract on an important piece of the internet
  • Other companies would likely operate .com at less than half the price Verisign currently charges
  • .Com domains are still the gold standard and considered a necessity by most businesses

There’s one thing the letter doesn’t mention that a reader recently pointed out to me. Companies must now disclose their median pay, and Verisign’s is among the highest of all public companies. In 2017 it was $171,615.

ICA also has a website about the Cooperative Agreement with more details at StopThePriceIncreaseOf.Com.

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CrowdSignal is PollDaddy’s new name

by — Services 7 Comments

The CrowdSignal mystery is solved.

Automattic’s PollDaddy is being rebranded as CrowdSignal.

Last week I wrote about how Automattic, the company behind WordPress, was getting ready to launch a new polling/survey service called CrowdSignal.

That was sort of right. The company will indeed soon have a service called CrowdSignal but it turns out that it’s a rebranding of the company’s PollDaddy service.

The rebrand will occur on Monday. It doesn’t sound like there will be any major changes; just the rebranding and some small cosmetic changes.

Existing PollDaddy.com URLs will forward to CrowdSignal.com URLs, although some users might need to whitelist domains used with the service.

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11 end user domain name sales up to $250k

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

A Romanian Casino, a Space Engineering firm and a language app all bought domain names last week.

It was the week of “2” last week with the top sales at Sedo across all categories (.com, ccTLD and “other”) repeating this digit within their sales prices. And even more unusual was a .RO (Romania) ccTLD purchase beating out the other sales and taking top honors with its €220K ($250k USD) price tag.

Take a look at some of the end user sales at Sedo this past week, and you can view previous weeks’ lists here.

Casino.ro €220,000 – Given the price, you can expect this Romanian ccTLD to be developed by what would qualify as an end user.

Jobster.com $200,000 – Jobster was an online recruiting business that didn’t pan out. Someone is rebirthing it. The site says, “Jobster.com Soon to be unleashed again, The jobster.com team”.

Path.net $22,000 – The top sale for the “other” category was purchased by a technology firm offering internet analytics and uptime monitoring services.

Earth.co $15,000 – A travel media company called Earth is using this domain for a travel website.

Trope.com $10,000 – Forwards to TropeReader.com, a new publishing platform who will produce films, books & periodicals on a variety of subjects annually.

Capeesh.com $8,600 – A cleverly-branded company that offers language courses. I wonder if people know how to spell this word.

PoianaBrasov.ro $5,632 – Another .RO purchase – this time it’s for Poiana Brasov, the “largest and most famous mountain resort in Romania”, also voted the most accessible ski resort in Europe by telegraph.co.uk.

EliteSA.com $5,000 – The SA in this domain refers to “Surgical Associates”, a company out of Houston providing development and management services for surgery center operations.

EPay.me $5,000 – A payment processing company run by the Narula Institute of Technology, which is made up by a group of academic institutions.

Enspace.com €2,900 – Enspace has some rather complex terminology on its page…something about satellites and ion propulsion. I’m sure rocket scientists will understand what the company does.

Soar.tech $2,399 – A Scottish tech company specializing in Apps, Web Applications, and Enterprise Scale Software Systems bought this domain name. This name has good potential for an upcoming campaign or product launch, or for a client.

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Verisign files intriguing domain backorder patents

by — Policy & Law 4 Comments

Patent describes way to sell future rights to domain names through “encoding domains.”

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) has filed two patents related to buying future rights to domain names for if they become available. The process is rather unique and it makes me wonder what Verisign (which manages the .com registry) has up its sleeve.

Only one of the patent applications has been published so far. Application number 15/488984 for “Domain Name Registration Reservation Through the Use of Encoding Domain Names” was filed on April 17, 2017 and published today (pdf). The application notes that an application for “Domain Name Registration Reservation Through the Use of Encoding Domain Names for Pools” was filed at the same time, but it has not been published.

The published application describes a system for backordering domain names should they become available due to a certain event, such as their expiration on a certain date or the current domain owner relinquishing the domain registration. Click here to continue reading…

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