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Donuts files opening brief in .Web appeal

by — Policy & Law 8 Comments

Company believes covenant not to sue is invalid.

New top level domain name company Donuts, through its company Ruby Glen, LLC, filed its opening brief (pdf) last week in an appeal over the .web domain name.

Donuts was one of the applicants for the .web domain name. Nu Dot Co won the auction for $135 million after Verisign struck a deal with it to transfer the ICANN agreement for .web to it after the auction.

The runner up in the auction was Afilias, not Donuts, but Donuts was upset that Nu Dot Co wouldn’t participate in a private auction for the domain name. Instead, Nu Dot Co pushed it to an ICANN “auction of last resort”. Had the auction been private, Donuts would have received about a $22.5 million payoff for losing. Click to continue reading…

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Can .Web revive .Wed ?

by — Uncategorized 13 Comments

Jean Guillon argues that the similarity between .web and .wed might help the latter as companies register them defensively.

We’re talking about two Registries: one which is live and the other which should be live sometime soon.

Two Stories

The .WED and .WEB new gTLDs are two very similar TLDs with two complete very different stories:

The .WED domain is short for “wedding”. It launched years ago and only has – at the moment when this article is being written – 43 domain names created. It has a direct competitor which is the .WEDDING new gTLD with 9,219 domain names registered.

The .WEB new gTLD is thought by many to become the most successful new gTLD from the entire ICANN new program: short, meaningful (?), and a close competitor of the already popular .COM. Click here to continue reading…

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Donuts’ appeal means .Web is a long way off

by — Policy & Law 14 Comments

Court case for .web works its way through appeals court.

Question: When will .web domain names grace the internet?

Answer: no time soon.

In late November, Judge Percy Anderson of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, granted ICANN’s motion to dismiss Donuts’ lawsuit against the organization over the auction for the .web top level domain name.

Donuts was miffed that Verisign struck an agreement with one of the bidders to buy the .web domain name from it post-auction. Verisign provided the funding to Nu Dot Co to buy the domain. Nu Dot Co also declined to enter into a private auction for the domain in which the losers would have split the proceeds.

Nu Dot Co subsequently won the auction for $135 million.

Donuts claimed that the deal between Verisign and Nu Dot Co was not done legitimately and sued. The court dismissed the case because Donuts entered into an agreement not to sue when it applied for .web with ICANN.

After the court’s decision, Donuts co-founder Jon Nevett said: Click here to continue reading…

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#2 in 2016: .Web sells for $135 million but the saga continues

by — Uncategorized 2 Comments

.Web’s record-shattering auction was big news in the domain name industry.

The second most-read story on Domain Name Wire this year was about the .Web top level domain name selling for $135 million.

I broke the news about the final auction price, but the full story continues to play out today.

As it turns out, .com registry Verisign was backing Nu Dot Co’s winning bid in the auction, and many competitors cried foul. That includes runner-up Afilias, which has asked that it be awarded the domain name. It also includes Donuts, which is upset that Nu Dot Co forced an auction of last resort rather than a private auction in which the losers split the proceeds.

Donuts sued but a judge tossed out the suit. Donuts may try additional ways to slow down .web, such as an independent review.

I’m aware of one case in which a new TLD company paid another one to not continue with accountability mechanisms, but I doubt that will be the resolution between Verisign and Donuts.

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The tables are turned: now Donuts can delay Verisign

by — Uncategorized 4 Comments

Waiting for the .Web.

Many curse words were muttered about Verisign during the process of designing the new top level domain name program. Verisign spread plenty of FUD to delay the program.

Now, the biggest new TLD company gets to take a turn at delaying Verisign.

Verisign struck a deal to acquire rights to operate .web from Nu Dot Co prior to a $135 million auction for the top level domain. Donuts, Afilias and other applicants cried foul. Donuts subsequently sued but a judge tossed out the lawsuit. Donuts, however, says it “will continue to utilize the tools at its disposal to address this procedural failure.”

That might mean Donuts will file for an Independent Review, which would delay Verisign’s rollout of the .web domain.

This would be an expensive course of action for Donuts if delay is its only goal. It clearly wants a piece of the action, too. It’s miffed that the auction wasn’t private, which would have resulted in a $20 million + payday for Donuts had the final price been the same.

And it’s not like Verisign will be hurting while it waits to launch .web. It keeps printing money, whereas new TLD companies were hemorrhaging it while they waited for the program to launch. It’s also still unclear if Verisign’s goal in buying the domain name was to keep it out of others’ hands, or if it saw selling .web domains at a business opportunity.

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