PALM BEACH, NY – In April 2011, a south Sweden based company called “Xcerion” changed the name of its cloud file hosting service to “CloudMe” and registered a U.S. federal trademark for the same moniker. The company had purchased the domain name “CloudMe.com” just three to four weeks earlier; the service had been previously known as “ICloud” and had been operating on the Internet domain “icloud.com” holding a corresponding registered trademark for the term “ICLOUD” … [Read more...]
NYT: “Dot-org Symbolizes Neither Quality Nor Trust; False Association with Credibility”
PALM BEACH, NY - Wow, the New York Times has taken a firm and unique approach to the news and industry buzz surrounding the sale of the .ORG registry to private equity firm, Ethos Capital. Bash the domain in a hitpiece to level the playing-field in what it calls the domains' opportunity to be used by a host of bad actors, all whom reap the benefits of dot-org’s "false association with credibility." In an opinion piece published yesterday by Sam Wineburg and Nadav Ziv, an … [Read more...]
Must Be Nice To Be “THE Sheriff” with “Sheriff.org”… URL Branded Vehicles
PALM BEACH, FL – Sometime back in 1996 someone had a pretty decent idea down in Florida; to register the Internet domain name “Sheriff.org” for the Broward County Sheriff's Office. I’m often reminded of this ‘solid decision’ as I live one county North and often see these URL branded police vehicles Wizz by me with “Sheriff.org” branded on the back bumper. I always think, there’s probably a lot of Sheriff’s offices around the entire country that wish they had that URL. … [Read more...]
How Google Grows Advertising Rev 20% a Year, While Global Economy Grows at 4%
PALM BEACH, FL - If you are in the Internet business, you're going to want to stop and read this one. It will educate you. It might explain a couple of things you have thought about when it comes to Google. It might even make you a little mad. But it is always best to know what is happening in your industry. Or you could stay in your little bubble where they say, ignorance is bliss. Google has the ability to provide the illusion of diversity while using sort of eye candy … [Read more...]
First Amendment Under Fire as SCOTUS Rules Defamation Claim Can Proceed…
PALM BEACH, FL – A defamation case against a conservative news publisher will move forward after several appeals from the defendant, NationalReview.com, have been rejected by both the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals as well as at least one local court, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Attorney’s for conservative news website the National Review sought for the case, brought by controversial climate scientist, Michael Mann, to be dismissed, citing several First … [Read more...]
“Cold Email,” Sold “Democracy.com” To Billionaire Owner of Mavericks, Mark Cuban
PALM BEACH, FL – Not that the name needed it, but when an auction for a web address is featured in the New York Times, you can rest assured that it is a pretty desirable name. That’s what happened last month when “Democracy.com” went up for sale in a “sealed auction” where none of the bidders would see the dollar amount of other participating bidders. The auction was originally to close on Oct. 25, 2019 but was then extended to November 7, 2019 based on what was said to … [Read more...]
U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Trademark Rights on Generic Internet Domain Names
PALM BEACH, FL - On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the addition of “.com” to a generic word or phrase can be trademarked when it reviews “United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V.” on Docket No. 19-46 with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The issue has reached the highest court in the country after lower courts reversed the decisions of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") and Trademark … [Read more...]
Biden Staff Sends Email Blast for Feedback on Debate… [Before Debate Takes Place]
PALM BEACH, FL - Former Vice President Joe Biden and his staff are no newbies when it comes to technical blunders, mispronounced domain names, and faulty web strategies - yesterday came more of the same. According to Politico, Biden sent out a fundraising email asking for feedback on his debate performance more than six hours before the debate even began. The email blast, which went out at approximately 3:00 PM was titled: “Did I make you proud?” Unfortunately, for … [Read more...]
Profiteering? ICANN’s “Terrible Blunder” Expected to Cost Non-Profits Dearly
PALM BEACH, FL – On November 13, 2019, news began circling that Public Interest Registry (PIR), the Reston, Virginia-based not-for-profit created to manage the “.org” top-level domain name had been acquired by a private equity management firm called Ethos Capital. Since then, the ICA, Internet Commerce Association, a non-profit organization representing domain owners, delivered a letter to ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, calling on the … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 11/11/2019 – 11/17/2019
PALM BEACH, FL – Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as GamesApp.com at $15,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Porn.co at 20,000 EUR ($22,154.90 US) and the top other as Dawn.org a at $50,000 USD [will be interesting to see what Dawn.org is used for]. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 11/11/2019 – … [Read more...]
How Do I Go About Selling Domain Names? Seattle Times News Story on Nov. 16, 2019
PALM BEACH, FL - How do I go about selling domain names? That was the question highlighted in a Seattle Times news story on Nov. 16, 2019 by author Patrick Marshall. While the article mentioned some popular online tools such as Namebio.com and Estibot.com (which help give a ball-park figure on potential value), the author seemed to leave out one of the best options for selling a domain; a domain name broker. The author probably should have mentioned a “domain broker” along … [Read more...]
Why Investigations Into Google’s Search, Ad & Android Businesses Will Go Nowhere
PALM BEACH, NY – It seems like every day there is a brand new, squeaky clean investigation (or at least some accusations) into our good-ole’ friends at Google Inc., and Alphabet Inc. Swirling stories of lawsuits and federal inquiries into a company that is so large, so big, it’s almost such that you could consider them, “too big to fail” – how familiar. Historically, investigations into good-ole’ GOOG have gone all but nowhere. For instance, in 2013 the Federal Trade … [Read more...]
Creative URL Marketing Similarities by “Gordon & Partners” & “Morgan & Morgan”
PALM BEACH, FL – Two law firms which I often get somewhat confused have marketing strategies which seem extremely similar. First is “Gordon & Partners, P.A.”, lawyers with four offices in South Florida which utilize the “For the Injured” trademark and have their site located at www.ForTheInjured.com. The second is “Morgan & Morgan”, a national personal injury firm which utilizes the “For the People” trademark with its website located at www.ForThePeople.com. … [Read more...]
With Price Caps Removed, Dot Org Domain Name Registry Acquired by Ethos Capital
PALM BEACH, FL – In a move that surprises few industry experts, Public Interest Registry (PIR), the Reston, Virginia-based not-for-profit created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the “.org” top-level domain name has been acquired by private equity management firm Ethos Capital. The acquisition comes shortly after ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, permitted the removal of price caps on “.org” domain name registrations on June 30, … [Read more...]
End User 4 Letter Double X .COM Beats Out 3 Letter .COMs in Sedo Weekly Sales List
PALM BEACH, FL – When Sedo released its weekly sales list yesterday, a list of public transactions above $2,000., the weeks highlights included saxx.com (purchased by www.saxxunderwear.com) sold for $65,000 USD as well as three, three letter .com domains: OLI.com at $50,000 USD, ZEQ.com at $44,030 USD and DYO.com at $35,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 11/04/2019 – 11/10/2019. Domain … [Read more...]