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Donuts acquires .Fan after registry fails

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Donuts, one of the original applicants for .fan, acquires it from failing registry.

The owner of .fan and .fans has failed, and Donuts was more than happy to pick up .fan–a domain name it originally applied for.

Donuts announced today that it has “re-acquired” the .fan top level domain name. Why the “re-acquired” language? Well, Donuts was one of two original applicants for the domain name. It entered into a private settlement with Asiamix Digital in which Asiamix won the contention set. Correction: Asiamix did not apply for .fan. Donuts won the domain and transferred it to Rightside (through a complicated deal) and Rightside later sold it to Asiamix.

.Fan is Donuts’ 241st top level domain under management.

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Hilton’s next hotel brand will be Motto

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Company registers domain names for Motto hotel brand.

In 2015 I scooped that Hilton (NYSE: HLT) was getting ready to launch a new hotel brand called Tru because of domain names it had registered. The company is now getting ready to launch a hotel brand called Motto.

Yesterday, Hilton registered these domain names:

HiltonMotto.com
hiltonmottohotels.com
mottobyhilton.com
mottochicago.com
mottodallas.com
mottohilton.com
mottohotelchicago.com
mottohoteldallas.com
mottohotelnewyork.com
mottohotelorlando.com
mottohotels.com
mottohotelsanfrancisco.com
mottonewyork.com
mottoorlando.com
mottosanfrancisco.com

While the domain names tip the company’s hand, a keen observer of trademark filings would have picked up on this earlier. In April, Hilton filed an intent-to-use trademark application for Motto for “Rental of temporary accommodation; reservations of temporary accommodations; hotel, motel, bar, café and restaurant services.”

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Supreme Court ruling leads to domain name bonanza

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Punters register domain names for sports betting.

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that effectively allows states to legalize sports betting. This is a huge economic opportunity, and some people see value in registering sports betting domain names.

According to .com domain name registry Verisign, these were the top ten “trending” keywords in .com registrations last month:

1. sports
2. bet
3. apple
4. bets
5. escort
6. gambling
7. betting
8. adverts
9. bookie
10. opportunity

At least six of the domains are directly related to sports betting.

Verisign calculates the trending keywords based on which terms had the highest percentage increase in registrations from one month to the next.

I haven’t noticed an uptick in domain sales related to sports betting yet, but I expect this will happen as more states legalize sports betting.

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.LLC and .INC domain names are on their way

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With .Inc acquisition, we’ll finally see two of the better corporate identifier domains this year.

It’s been a long wait, but two of the best “corporate identifier” top level domain names are coming to the market.

Afilias’ .LLC domain name is in the trademark sunrise period until July 5. A landrush will run from July 9-20, followed by general availability on July 23. Regular retail pricing is in the $30 range.

Another company, Intercap Holdings Inc, has acquired rights to run the .INC top level domain name. It plans to run a sunrise in October, a 7-day early access period in November and also enter general availability in November. .INC domain names will come with a hefty $2,000 suggested retail price.

Neither domain has registrant restrictions, but the price of .INC domains will limit the buyer pool.

A couple of lesser-known corporate identifier domain names have already come to market. .GMBH has about 20,000 names in the zone file and .LTDA has fewer than 1,000.

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Top Domain Name Stories from May

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A whole lot of GDPR.

Here’s a look at the top stories on Domain Name Wire last month, ranked by pageviews:

1. Google has already GDPR’d its Whois records – Google Registry began limiting the data in Whois records well before the May 25 deadline.

2. ICANN files legal action against Tucows registrar over GDPR – And it didn’t get the answer it wanted.

3. GoDaddy will continue publishing most domain owner data – In news welcomed by many people in the domain name ecosystem, GoDaddy decided to keep most Whois information public for people outside the EU.

4. Here’s why it’s going to be hard to sell your .App domain names – .App came out with a roar in May. But selling domains is going to be difficult because of a lack of public Whois (see story #1) and because you have to install an SSL certificate in order for a .app domain to resolve. Some services have come to the rescue.

5. Sahar Sarid arrested on charges related to Mugshots.com A domain investor connected to Mugshots.com got his own mugshot.

If you missed any podcasts, take some time this weekend to listen:

#187 – Drew Wash develops businesses on premium domains – Listen

#186 – Building an Ecommerce business on your domain name – Listen

#185 – Jen Sale of Evergreen – Listen

#184 – Jean-Noël Frydman discusses his France.com saga – Listen

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