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Verisign gets domain backorder patent

by — Expired Domains 5 Comments

Schematic from a Verisign patent related to backordering domains. It shows registering an encoding domain that gives the right to register a domain upon its expiration.

A schematic from Verisign’s patent.

Last year I wrote about an intriguing patent application from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the company that runs the .com namespace. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has now issued patent #10404650 (pdf).

The patent describes ways to change up the expired patent game.

One way would be to issue encoding domain names that give people the right to buy a domain upon its expiration. For example, if you wanted to get the domain example.com when it expired on March 28, 2020, you could register the domain dn–example-20200328.com.

The right to register the domain upon expiration could be transferred to someone else by transferring the encoding domain.

Additional embodiments include allowing priority to register domains from a pool of domain names.

Some of Verisign’s patent applications seem to be geared to changing how expired domains are captured, and this could be one piece of the puzzle.

When I wrote about the instant patent when it was merely an application, I noted:

I had another thought about Verisign’s overall patent strategy while reading through this patent application. In 2013, Verisign discussed monetizing its patent portfolio. It has dropped that discussion (at least publicly). It would be a huge risk for Verisign to go after other registries while it works to hold onto its .com contract.

But…once is clears the Cooperative Agreement with the NTIA, one option would be to sell its portfolio to a group that grants a license back to it. That way Verisign can continue operating, get a profit from selling the patents, and be arm’s-length from any actions the buyer takes.

Verisign has now amended the Cooperative Agreement with the NTIA but is still working with ICANN to try to incorporate the .com price increase. It obviously won’t do anything drastic until then. Once it gets its way with price increases, it will have to consider how bold it wants to be. Does it want to hold out on rocking the boat as it pushes for price caps to eventually be eliminated?

To be continued…

University wants to patent way to manage TLDs using Blockchain

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Peking University files patent for blockchain applied to DNS.

Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has filed a U.S. patent application (pdf) for “Systems and Methods for Managing Top-Level Domain Names Using Consortium Blockchain”.

The application admits that the current domain name system is efficient but argues that it has flaws. It states that root servers in Asia are shared by many more internet users than those in North America, leading to slower domain name resolution speed.

The present disclosure has the following beneficial effects: the present disclosure is different from the DNS in that the internet DNS at all levels are centrally managed; the present disclosure is a Top-level domain name management scheme based on blockchain technology. The present disclosure decentralizes in selecting top-level domain managers (TLD nodes) and Top-level domain registrations—none of the TLD nodes in a consortium or a small group can control the entire management process. The present disclosure separates the domain name system into two layers, each corresponding to a sub-domain name system, and how the sub-domain name system is designed is determined by the holder of the Top-level domain name. Therefore, the sub-domain name system can be designed as either centralized system or decentralized system according to the institutions’ wishes.

In addition, since the information on blockchain is public and immutable, trusted agencies and even individuals can access information on blockchain and build a corresponding seed file database to store the mapping relations between the top-level and sub-domain name system. This means that all regions can set up a corresponding number of domain name servers according to their actual need in order to ensure the speed of internet access without being limited by other institutions.

It seems that there are better ways to improve DNS than applying blockchain to it, but I’m certainly open to the concept.

Verisign patents “Methods and systems for creating new domains”

by — Services 0 Comments

Verisign patents aspects of its TLD creation and management system.

A diagram from Verisign’s patent for TLD management.

When companies started applying for new top level domain names, most of them reached out to existing registry services providers to handle the backend management of those domains. Companies like CentralNic, Neustar and Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) were eager to sign contracts with registries.

Managing lots of new top level domain names added to the complexity of existing systems, though. Registries built new management platforms or restructured their existing ones to accommodate the variety or rules these new TLDs came with..

Verisign, the .com registry, just got a patent (pdf) for certain aspects of its TLD management system.

Titled “Methods and systems for creating new domains”, U.S. Patent number 10,015,134 has 21 claims related to its domain management system. Here’s the abstract:

Systems and methods for creating a new domain, such as a top-level domain or a second-level domain, make use of a Domain Manager that enables a user to enter data that is necessary or optional to implement the creation of a new domain. Systems such as, for example, a Registry and one or more Registrars, may use the data defined by the Domain Manager to create a new domain.

Getting the patent has been a long road. It began with 30 claims back in 2011.

CIRA, the .ca domain name registry, has a pending patent for aspects of its TLD management system.

Verisign gets patent for applying DNS ideas to IoT

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

DNS can be applied to IoT, but it probably won’t boost second-level domain registrations.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted patent number 9,935,950 (pdf) to Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) for “Systems and methods for establishing ownership and delegation ownership of IOT devices using domain name system services”.

I have long searched for ways in which domain names can be used for connected devices, e.g. The Internet of Things. I have yet to find any good examples in which domain names are better than alternative technologies for accessing the devices. Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of the domain name system that could be applied to IoT.

Here’s the abstract to Verisign’s patent:

Provided is a method for establishing ownership of a component of an internet of things (“IoT”) device. The method comprises receiving, at a registration service, a request to register the component of the IoT device, the request comprising a public key of the component of the IoT device, an identifier of the component of the IoT device, and a public key of an owner of the component of the IoT device; determining a qualified name for the component of the IoT device based on a name associated with the owner of the component of the IoT device; generating one or more domain name system (“DNS”) records for the component of the IoT device, the one or more DNS records comprising an authentication file that identifies a chain of ownership of the component of the IoT device; and storing the one or more DNS records in a registry.

The patent includes one example of how domain names could be used:

For example, the IOT service 115 can establish a domain for IOT devices such as “.iotservice.com.” As the devices are registered with the IOT service 115, the IOT service assigns the domain name and creates the DNS records for the IOT devices. For example, if the IOT devices 105 are owned by “Company A,” the IOT service can create a domain “companyA.iotservice.com.” The IOT service 115 can assign a unique domain name to each of the IOT devices, for example, “iotdevice1.companyA.iotservice.com.” The domain and the domain names for each of the IOT devices allow consumers 140 to locate and communicate with the IOT devices 105.

Note that this example doesn’t include a new second-level domain registration for each device. That would be ill-advised for domain names that fall under ICANN’s regulations (cybersquatting, annual fees, etc.).

We have over 50 connected devices in our house. We access them with our voice, apps and routines/recipes, not domain names.

GoDaddy gets patent for text-based domain name renewal

by — Domain Registrars 3 Comments

System would make it easy for people to renew domains using a third-party texting service.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patent number 9,929,995 (pdf) to GoDaddy for “Third party messaging system for monitoring and managing domain names and websites.”

The patent is a continuation of an earlier one the company filed for allowing people to make changes to a website via text message.

This latest patent covers technology that would allow GoDaddy to communicate with customers via SMS, app or a third-party social network to help them renew their domain name or expand their webhosting package.

For example, if a customer’s domain is about to renew, GoDaddy could send a text message to the customer and ask if they want to renew it. They could respond ‘yes’ to renew the domain automatically, or ‘no’ if they want to let it expire.

On the hosting side, GoDaddy can send a message to the customer if they are about to exceed one of their quotas and give them the option to upgrade their hosting package.

This is somewhat like a chatbot. When an ad campaign on Facebook expires the company starts a Facebook Messenger chat with the advertiser that lets them get stats and extend their ad campaign by typing plain English words.

GoDaddy Chief Architect Arnold Blinn and former Sr. Director of Product Management Nitin Gupta are listed on the patent as inventors.

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