Domain Name News

ICANN Tests Emergency Registry With Dead Dot-brand

ICANN is running a test of its Emergency Back-End Registry Operator program, using the dead dot-brand gTLD .doosan as its guinea pig. Doosan Group, a large Korean conglomerate, decided to kill off its gTLD, .doosan, last September. ICANN revealed the news in October. The dot-brand had never been put to productive use and really only…

Two New gTLD Registries Open Offices in China

Portfolio gTLD registries Famous Four Media and Minds + Machines have both announced that they’re formally entering the Chinese market. Both companies are establishing “wholly foreign-owned enterprises” (WFOEs), a form of company that does not require local investment, on the mainland. The moves are aimed at getting the registries’ respective gTLDs accredited by the Chinese…

.co Now Has 2 Million Registered Domain Names

Last week, the .CO registry announced that there are now more than 2 million registered .CO domain names. The .COmmunity has grown by over 7000% in just five short years. Check out the infographic below for a summary of the .CO…

UDRP Filed Against KQ.com

It looks like a UDRP was filed against KQ.com at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the complainant is listed as Kenya Airways Limited. The case is WIPO Case D2016-0153. The domain name appears to be owned by a registrant based in China. If you visit KQ.com, you will see a message in Chinese, and after a short while, the domain name forwards to wangxin.com. KQ.com has a registration date of February 26, 1996. I searched through my email history, and I see the domain name appears to have been listed for sale back in 2011, although I am ��’ Read More

The post UDRP Filed Against KQ.com appeared first on DomainInvesting.com.

Auction for .shop is Set for Tomorrow

An Auction will be facilitated by Power Auctions LLC on 27 January 2016 to resolve string contention for one new generic top-level domain (gTLD) contention set: SHOP. This set was previously identified as an indirect contention set consisting of both…

Fox Promises Dot-brand Will Be "The Next Big Thing"

Fox seems set to become an unexpectedly early adopter of its dot-brand gTLD, .fox. The only live .fox web site, nic.fox, is currently promising that the gTLD will become “the next big thing” in “Spring 2016”. On the site, a glossy, quick-cut show-reel of Fox media carries the text: Cue the lights. Roll the cameras…

Rightside Lays Off "Around 6% of It's Employees"

I received several reports over the weekend that Rightside (NAME) laid off some of its work staff late last week. I reached out to Taryn Naidu CEO of Rightside who had the following statement: “”In an effort to lower the overall cost structure and realign our resources on more strategic parts of our business, we made…
The post Rightside Lays Off “Around 6% of It’s Employees” appeared first on TheDomains.com.

Patent Troll Hits Registrars With $60m Shakedown

A patent troll that claims it invented email reminders has launched a shakedown campaign against registrars that could be worth as much as $62 million. WhitServe LLC, which beat Go Daddy in a patent lawsuit last year, is now demanding licenses from registrars that could add as much as $0.50 to the cost of a…

After 11 Years Victoria Beckham Gets Her Typo .com Domain: VictoriaBeckam.com

A UDRP panel just award the typo domain name VictoriaBeckam.com to the former Spice Girl and the wife of David Beckham whose website is Victoriabeckham.com The domain was first registered in 2004 so its been kicking around for quite a while making someone presumable some PPC money over the years Here is the highlights: “The…
The post After 11 years Victoria Beckham gets her Typo .Com Domain: VictoriaBeckam.com appeared first on TheDomains.com.

.net Prices Increasing February 1

Bari Meyerson-Kissel from Rightside shared an important reminder for people who own .net domain names. I also saw a reminder of the price increase on Namecheap’s blog: “VeriSign, the registry responsible for .net, is raising its annual costs for .net domain registrations, renewals and transfers.” On February 1, 2016, the wholesale price of .net domain names will be increasing by $.67/year. This likely means that domain registrars will be passing along the increase to their customers. Depending on the registrar and the registrar’s current pricing schedule, the price that customers pay may increase as well. I would imagine that different…