Recent Posts
- Nominet to take over .gov.uk
- ICANN picks Istanbul for 2024 meeting
- ICANN’s private Whois data request service goes live
- .au regs slide on 2LD anniversary
- ICANN accused of power grab over $271 million auction fund
- A registrar is getting blamed for an Israeli war propaganda site
- Two more dot-brands bite the dust
- Google sells five-figure AI domain and six-figure .ing hack
- .blackfriday is still a bit rubbish
- Internet Naming Co acquires five more gTLDs
- Domain universe grows despite .com drag
- Did somebody spend a million bucks on a Google domain hack?
- ICANN cans Freenom
- Call for ICANN to dump anti-Semitic partner
- GoDaddy domains revenue crosses half a billion
- Bosnian government to sue US domain firm that cut it off
- Freenom is “essentially finished as a company”
- Gap drops some dot-brands
- Group to seek .io TLD takeover after OECD human rights ruling
- Meta given 30 days to stop using Threads trademark
- Modest pay rises for ICANN top brass
- Nominet wins Microsoft’s dot-brand business from Verisign
- Looks like the fight for .hotel gTLD is over
- China has .com’s growth by the balls
- .web fight back in “court”
- Nominet takes over failed .desi
- Wright elected to Nominet board
- Identity Digital keeps .org back-end deal
- Freenom spanked for holding Olympics domain hostage
- Belgian MP registers Hamas domain, redirects to IDF
- Seven domain hacks already registered in Google’s .ing
- The first four new gTLDs have been unmitigated disasters
- Team Internet hires Nominet alum as domains CEO
- XYZ adds 35th gTLD to its stable
- Wood company scraps its dot-brand
- Freenom gets yet another ICANN breach notice
- Did Andrew Tate buy university.com for a “record-breaking” sum?
- After Verisign’s sluggish year, ICANN misses funding goal by $2 million
- Russia cuts off ICANN funding after pro-Ukraine stance
- Epik drops another 50,000 domains after scandal
- Palage’s epic rant as he asks ICANN to cancel Verisign’s .net contract
- Papac named interim ICANN Ombudsman
- Nominet takes over Bounty mutineers’ ccTLD
- .tube registry claims victory in linkification fight
- Ancient registrar gets ICANN breach notice over UDRP
- ICANN is starting to auto-renew new gTLD contracts
- Freenom hit by FIFTH ICANN action after litany of screw-ups
- Second DNSSEC screw-up takes down Aussie web sites
- Nominet adds handcuffs clause to proposed new Articles
- Single/plural gTLD combos to be UNBANNED
- ICANN rejects a whole bunch of new gTLD policy stuff
- Volkswagen ditches its dot-brand
- Radix looking for a back-end
- Is this why WhatsApp hates some TLDs but not others?
- Blockchain domain firm raises $2.5 million
- Verisign: 1.7 million domain industry growth in Q2
- Namecheap has given away 500,000 free .me domains
- Epik had another terrible month in May
- Blockchain startup gets $5 million to apply for gTLDs
- Buckridge to replace Shears on ICANN board
- CentralNic rebrands as Team Internet
- .ai sells 100,000 domains in a year
- Google to launch two fun new gTLDs next month
- Domainers not welcome as .music readies September launch
- Another six dot-brands self-terminate (two are very strange)
- Four more years for Identity Digital in Oz
- ICANN might be a director light after election stalemate
- ICANN turns down money from blockchain alt-root
- CentralNic chief calls on industry to tackle climate change
- London Domain Summit starts tomorrow
- Closed generics ban likely to remain after another policy group failure
- Ukrainian domains slide as war becomes the new normal
- Epik had worst month ever in April
- Go.Compare now redirecting to the .com
- Huge telco dumps gTLDs after rebrand
- Rejected former director threatens to sue Nominet
- April 2026 is the date for the next new gTLD round
- Doria leaving ICANN board a loss for new gTLD program
- A second new gTLD has FAILED and will be sold off
- .web hit by second ICANN complaint
- Registrar linked to defunct social network terminated
- Three candidates stand for Nominet board
- Next round of gTLDs could come much sooner than expected
- Registering .cv domains might become easier
- Musk prematurely announces Twitter is now X
- Nominet admits membership fees mistake
- Government to regulate UK-related domain names
- Domainer objects to Epik’s acquisition over Masterbucks collapse
- Freenom is losing another ccTLD after collecting military emails
- DENIC kicks out NCC as ICANN’s sole escrow agent
- ICANN takes over country’s ccTLD after Hall of Famer’s death
- ICANN Ombudsman quits
- ICA baffled by plan to outlaw domaining in India
- No $8 million discount for dot-brands, says ICANN
- Epik lost 125,000 domains in Q1
- Buckingham leaves Nominet’s board early
- Epik is off the ICANN naughty step
- Identity Digital is gobbling up Verisign’s back-end business
- o.com auction likely a damp squib after Overstock rebrand
- ICANN actually CHANGES Verisign’s .net contract after public comments
- GoDaddy takes over .health
- The looooong road to urgently hiring ICANN’s next CEO
- Rwanda picked for ICANN meeting
- Governments call for ban on gTLD auctions
- Red Cross gets takedown powers over .org domains
- Domain universe grew 1% in Q1
- Closed generics and IDNs debates are big drag on new gTLDs
- New gTLD registry gets second ICANN breach notice
- Epik lost another 22,000 domains to transfers in February
- Mystery buyer rescues Epik at end of crazy week
- Millions of domains to be deleted as Freenom loses its first TLD
- Everyone hates Verisign’s new .net deal
- UAE boasts rapid domain growth in 2022
- ICANN just put a date on the next new gTLD round
- Three more straggler new gTLDs coming soon
- Three more dot-brands realize the futility of existence
- woke.com among domains in NamesCon auction
- Domainer asks court to block Epik sell-off
- .web delay likely after Verisign rival files ICANN appeal
- CentralNic starts returning cash to shareholders as revenue grows
- Newly launched .zip already looks dodgy
- Progress made on next new gTLD round rules
- Brands ask for cheaper ICANN fees
- ICANN salary porn: 2022 edition
- Tucows and GoDaddy see weakness in big-ticket aftermarket sales
RapidShare chases cybersquatters
RapidShare, the popular German file-hosting site, has filed six cybersquatting claims against people with the word “rapidshare” in their domains.
The UDRP complaints are either a sign that RapidShare is cracking down on pirated content, or an example of balls-out intellectual property chutzpah.
My guess is it’s the latter, for two reasons.
First, a search reveals dozens of popular sites with “rapidshare” in the domain, all serving RapidShare links to copyrighted content, none of which have had UDRP claims filed against them.
Second, each of the six domains RapidShare has filed claims for seem to provide links only to files hosted by competing services such as Hotfile.com or Uploading.com.
RapidShare.com is currently the 35th most-popular site on the internet, more popular than Craigslist, according to Alexa.
A German court ruled two years ago that it had to start deleting pirate content, and it has been playing whack-a-mole with the bootleggers ever since.
Now, it wants the World Intellectual Property Organization to help it protect its trademark. There’s irony for you.
WIPO’s UDRP market share lead narrows
The number of UDRP cases filed with the National Arbitration Forum dipped slightly last year, according to NAF numbers released today.
The organization said it received 1,759 filings last year, compared to 1,770 in 2008. Only 1,333 of the cases were actually heard; the others were dropped or settled.
While that’s a decline for NAF, it’s not quite as steep as the almost 10% drop experienced by rival arbitrator WIPO over the same period.
That said, WIPO is still the primary choice of companies trying to enforce their trademarks in the domain name system, saying last month that it received 2,107 complaints in 2009.
It was also the year of big multi-domain cases for both outfits.
WIPO handed 1,542 domains to Inter-Continental Hotels in a single case, while NAF transferred a relatively modest 1,017 domains to ConsumerInfo.com.
Allstate cybersquatter gets away with it for a decade
Allstate Insurance Company, a US insurer with over $30 billion in revenues, has just won a UDRP claim over AllstateInsurance.com, almost 10 years after the domain was first registered.
The company has been using the Allstate trademark for almost 80 years, and is currently the second-largest insurance company in America.
AllstateInsurance.com, the exact match of its company name as well as a combination of its trademark and its primary line of business, was registered in November 2000.
It is currently registered to a Korean individual named Seung Bum; he fought the UDRP claim unsuccessfully.
After a brief period being used by an apparently genuine insurance firm, the domain has been parked with PPC ads for other insurance companies for the best part of the last decade.
The volume of type-in traffic over than period must have been substantial, and one can only speculate how much revenue was accumulated.
All of which begs the question: why on earth did Allstate wait 10 years to file a UDRP claim?
It seems that cybersquatting, at least in this case, pays.
UDRP claim pits .me against .me.uk
The owner of GuestList.me.uk has filed a UDRP claim against the registrant of GuestList.me.
As far as I can tell, this is the first UDRP case to directly pit a company built on a .me.uk brand against the registrant of the .me equivalent.
GuestList.me.uk is a London, UK-based nightclub promotions site that has been using its domain since 2003.
GuestList.me, which does not currently resolve, was registered through LCM.com’s privacy service on July 18, 2008, during the first 24 hours of .me general availability.
Given that LCM is a UK-based registrar, it seems plausible that GuestList.me’s registrant is also British.
It will be interesting to see which way this decision goes. There’s plenty of opportunity for precedent.
WIPO wants tougher cybersquatting rules on new gTLDs
The World Intellectual Property Organization reckons ICANN should toughen its stance against new gTLD registries that allow cybersquatting.
The “trademark post-delegation dispute resolution procedure” or Trademark PDDRP would let trademark holders try to suspend new TLDs and receive compensation when a registry allows cybersquatting.
WIPO wants the burden of proof on trademark holders relaxed, making it much easier to file complaints.
Currently, the draft process would require complainants to show registries’ “specific bad faith intent” to profit from cybersquatting.
WIPO thinks this should be broadened to include deliberate recklessness.
“In seeking to give meaning to ‘intent,’ the criteria should, without as such imposing or implying any sweeping registry policing duty, also encompass instances of willful blindness,” WIPO wrote.
The comments came in response to ICANN’s public comment period on the process, which closes on Thursday.
Cyber cop wants Whois privacy shake-up
Registrars should be made to police Whois so cops can take down illegal sites faster, even if domain name prices have to go up as a result, ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee has been told.
Speaking at the GAC hearing on new gTLDs in Nairobi this afternoon, Paul Hoare of the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency called for (continue reading)
Recent Comments