Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News

Domain Name Industry News

Featured Domains

register.to

Top 5 domain name stories in May

by — Uncategorized 0 Comments

Here’s a look back at the top stories on Domain Name Wire last month, ranked by views.

The words "Top 5" written on a purple background

1. Frank Schilling new TLD auction grosses more than $40 million – Schilling’s UNR sold 23 top level domains to 10 different buyers.

2. Lawsuit: Bird.com and Fish.com domain buyer failed to pay – Right of the Dot’s February domain name auction wasn’t nearly as successful as it first appeared. A bidder who appeared to win three domains for $4.85 million didn’t pay.

3. China wants to patent a decentralized blockchain DNS – CNNIC applied for a U.S. patent covering what it says is a better domain name system.

4. ICANN to terminate Pheenix domain registrar – After many consumer complaints and late bills, ICANN finally pulled the plug on a domain name registrar that was big in the drop catching game.

5. What’s next for .Web – An Independent Review Panel found against ICANN but not really for Afilias, setting up a few different scenarios for what happens to .web.

Podcasts:

#340 – Great domain investing insights

#339 – How cryptocurrency drives the domain aftermarket

#338 – Wacky domain acquisition stories

#337 – Buying and selling online businesses

#336 – Brandable domain investor success story

What’s next for .Web

by — Policy & Law 13 Comments

The word .web on an ivory block background, with a picture of a laptop and screen

This week, ICANN published an Independent Review Panel (IRP) decision in a long-running dispute about .web. You can read the background and the result of the decision here.

So, what’s next for .web? It depends.

Afilias was the runner-up in the auction for .web. It argues that had Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) not secretly bankrolled a rival bidder, it would have won the auction for about $70 million.

The IRP ruled that ICANN must decide if Verisign’s deal with another bidder was allowed under the program. It admonished ICANN for not previously making a decision in the matter.

There’s a wrinkle in the case, however. Afilias sold its registry business to Donuts at the end of last year. It did not sell the “rights” to .web, though. It retained its .web position, along with a registrar and some mobile technology, in a business it is calling Altanovo.

I suspect there were two reasons that whatever rights Afilias might get to .web weren’t included in the Donuts deal. First, it’s a legal fight Donuts probably doesn’t want to hassle with. Donuts was also an applicant for .web and sued after the auction, but let the matter rest after that suit was dismissed. Second, Donuts’ current CEO, Akram Atallah, led ICANN’s Global Domains Division at the time of the .web auction and had some responsibility for ICANN’s (lack of) response. The optics wouldn’t be good.

So, does Altanovo care about .web anymore? It issued a press release suggesting that it does.

If it were to secure .web, it could likely sell it to Donuts. Or it could run it on its own with a backend partner.

But here’s a question: is .web really worth $70 million? I find it hard to believe that a registry could justify that price tag for this domain, knowing what we do about the success of top level domains. You can rightly argue that .web is the “best” new TLD, but $70 million still seems like a tough number to generate an ROI.

It seems like the best scenario for Altanovo is for Verisign to pay it to drop the fight. ICANN asked the parties to try to work it out, and the only foreseeable way it could be worked out is a payoff. But I doubt that will happen.

Barring a settlement, ICANN will have to make a decision on whether Verisign’s deal was allowed under the applicant guidebook. ICANN will be deciding between a behemoth that can take it to court (and that agreed to pay ICANN $20 million as part of a deal to raise .com prices) and a shell of a company in Altanovo.

So, what do you think ICANN will decide?

 

Panel faults ICANN and tells it to make a decision on .web

by — Policy & Law 14 Comments

Panel determines that ICANN violated its bylaws by failing to make a decision about Verisign’s deal for .web.

Picture of a laptop computer, a cup of coffee and a plant on a desk with the word .web in white letters on a green background.

“…[ICANN] has violated its commitment to make decisions by applying documented policies objectively and fairly.”

This is the big takeaway from an Independent Review Panel (IRP) decision regarding a long-running dispute over the .web top level domain name. ICANN consistently avoids making decisions to the detriment of its contracted parties and the internet community, and the battle over .web is a prime example.

Now, it’s being asked to show up and make a decision.

The dispute stems from the auction for the rights to the .web top level domain name.

Nu Dot Co, a business founded by .Co Internet’s founders, applied for the .web top level domain. After the application period closed, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) decided it wanted to own .web and worked out a deal with Nu Dot Co in which Nu Dot Co would bid in the auction and Verisign would then buy the top level domain from it.

Nu Dot Co (NDC) won the auction for $135 million, which was the amount of the second-highest bid, placed by applicant Afilias.

Other applicants were upset. Not only did their rival Verisign win the auction, but Nu Dot Co decided to use an ICANN auction of last resort rather than a private auction in which the losing applicants stood to earn tens of millions of dollars each.

Donuts, another applicant, subsequently sued, but the judge dismissed the case.

After Donuts exhausted its options, Afilias picked up the baton and filed for cooperative engagement with ICANN. Then it escalated to the Independent Review Process.

Yesterday, ICANN published the IRP decision. The IRP determined that ICANN:

has violated its Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, as
approved by the ICANN Board on 9 August 2016, and filed on 3 October 2016 (Articles), and its Bylaws for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, as amended on 18 June 2018 (Bylaws)…

…by failing to make a decision.

The panel wrote:

It may be fair to say, as averred in the [ICANN’s] Response, that “ICANN has been caught in the middle of this dispute between powerful and well-funded businesses”. However, in the Panel’s view, it is not open to [ICANN] to add, as it does in the same sentence of its Response, “[and ICANN] has not taken sides”, as if [ICANN] had no responsibility in bringing about a resolution of the dispute by itself taking a position as to the propriety of NDC’s arrangements with Verisign.

In the opinion of the Panel, there is an inherent contradiction between proceeding with the delegation of .WEB to NDC, as [ICANN] was prepared to do in June 2018, and recognizing that issues raised in connection with NDC’s arrangements with Verisign are serious, deserving of [ICANN] consideration, and remain to be addressed by [ICANN] and its Board, as was determined by the Board in November 2016. A necessary implication of [ICANN’s] decision to proceed with the delegation of .WEB to NDC in June 2018 was some implicit finding that NDC was not in breach of the New gTLD Program Rules and, by way of consequence, the implicit rejection of the [Afilias’] allegations of non-compliance with the Guidebook and Auction Rules. This is difficult to reconcile with the submission that “ICANN has taken no position on whether NDC violated the Guidebook”.

Essentially, ICANN should have made a decision on whether the deal between Nu Dot Co and Verisign complied with the New gTLD Program Rules or not. Instead, it seems to have hoped that either the competing bidders would drop the matter or some outside group would make this decision for it.

The IRP determined that it did not have authority to decide that Afilias, the runner-up in the auction, should get the domain. It merely decided that ICANN has to do its duty: make a decision! At the same time, the IRP ordered ICANN to pay the majority of Afilias’ expenses and fees for the IRP.

So what does ICANN have to say about this? It still hopes to avoid making a decision. In a post on its website, it states:

The ICANN Board will consider the Final Declaration as soon as feasible, within the timeframe prescribed in the Bylaws, and remains hopeful that the relevant .WEB applicants will continue to seek alternatives to resolve the dispute between them raised during the IRP. (emphasis added)

Verisign issued a statement today urging ICANN’s board to proceed with contracting the domain.

ICANN responds to Afilias’ .Web emergency stay request

by — Policy & Law 3 Comments

Non-profit domain overseer argues that an emergency stay isn’t required.

ICANN logoICANN has responded to a request by Afilias to stay any ICANN actions that would further the delegation of the .Web top level domain while the International Centre for Dispute Resolution considers a complaint that Afilias filed. (Here’s the backstory.)

In its opposition to the emergency stay, ICANN points out that Afilias has participated in similar behavior to what Afilias is complaining about: buying and selling new TLDs. Afilias has acquired other TLDs and is trying to acquire more, and ICANN posits that the deal between Nu Dot Co and Verisign is essentially the same thing. I’m sure Afilias would argue that doing a deal before an auction is different, but it didn’t register any complaints when Automattic did something similar for .blog.

ICANN also points out that Afilias waited two years before lodging it formal complaint and asking for an emergency stay, which belittles the idea that there’s an emergency.

Also, if ICANN delegates .Web to Nu Dot Co, its contracts will allow it to cancel the agreement should the IRP be found in Afilias’ favor and ICANN’s board agrees.

The full response is here (pdf).

Verisign jumps in on .Web dispute, here’s what it could mean

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Actions suggest Verisign is ready to bring .web to market, not to bury it.

Shortly after domain name registry Afilias filed for Independent Review over the .Web top level domain, Verisign filed an amicus brief asking for an end to the shenanigans.

Domain Incite has a great summary of the filing, so I won’t rehash it. But I will discuss what Verisign’s goals might be.

For the uninitiated, here’s the background:

Nu Dot Co, a business founded by .Co’s founders, applied for the .web top level domain. In 2015, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) decided it wanted to own .web and worked out a deal with Nu Dot Co in which Nu Dot Co would bid in the auction and Verisign would then buy the top level domain from it.

Nu Dot Co won the auction for $135 million, which was the amount of the second highest bid placed by Afilias.

Donuts subsequently sued, upset that Nu Dot Co pushed for an ICANN auction-of-last-resort in which the losers didn’t get to split the proceeds. Donuts lost its battle.

After Donuts exhausted its options, Afilias picked up the baton and filed for cooperative engagement with ICANN. Now it has escalated to the Independent Review Process.

During this time, U.S. antitrust forces investigated Verisign’s deal, ostensibly to see if its goal in getting .web was to quash competition. It decided to not take action, which suggests that it didn’t find any evidence that this was Verisign’s goal.

Fast forward to Verisign’s amicus brief. This is the first time Verisign has explained its side of the argument. It wants the matter resolved and wants to get control of .web.

What does this mean? Here are some reasons Verisign might now be pushing for speedy resolution:

1. It wants to bring .web to market. I tend to think that Verisign really wants to make money with .web. It doesn’t want to damage its bread-and-butter .com, but given how new TLDs have gone so far I think it would be very hard for .web to harm .com.

2. Its contract with Nu Dot Co could contain a clause that requires the company to wrap up the assignment soon.

3. It could be weighing in just to make sure it doesn’t lose the deal.

Regardless of Verisign’s thinking (and sometimes I have trouble understanding what the heck it is thinking), it’s fair to suggest that it’s the new top level domain companies, not Afilias, that have delayed the launch of .web. As Verisign points out in its brief

Afilias took no steps for over two years following its letters to ICANN to initiate an IRP or pursue any other ICANN accountability mechanism. Instead, Afilias sat on its supposed rights, relying on Donut’s CEP for a temporary stay of delegation, thereby scheming, along with Donuts, to delay the delegation of .web for as long as it could.

It’s possible that Afilias was free-loading on Donuts’ legal activity with the hope that it would be resolved in its mutual favor, but it certainly looks like it is trying to delay .web for as long as possible. It certainly could have made its own filings concurrent with Donuts’ activities.

Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News