J.P. King Auction – No Show For 2,600 Domains

An auction at the Fairmont on Nob Hill in San Francisco of over 2,600 Internet domain names almost took place on Thursday!

The names that were up for sale Thursday belong to Craig Harrison, an entrepreneur from Fort Collins, Colorado.  Many end in realestatelistings.com, representing states, cities and suburbs in the United States and overseas. Harrison thought the auction would attract upscale buyers, picking San Francisco for its proximity to Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Seattle. Unfortunately, the event at Fairmont did not go to plan.

“I had to have the courage to keep spending the money,” said Harrison, who remembers sitting at his computer for four days and using three or four credit cards. He spent about $35,000.

Perhaps the names weren’t as valuable as they seemed. “Had we had premium names, like toys.com, there would have been an auction,” J.P. King said as waiters in the Fairmont cleared trays piled with sandwiches from the empty room.

Source: SFGate.

Sonic Sues Over Domain Dispute

A federal lawsuit has apparently been brought about which claims that a California company established a website at mysonic.com and sends users to a Burger King home page. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S District court in Oklahoma City and may be worth $100,000.

The Bright Orange Software Inc. is accused of using an “identical” or “confusingly similar” name, because visitors are being redirected to the Burger King site. The competitor is accused of false advertising.

Sonic insists Bright Orange is guilty of “cyber-squatting” and according to vice president Nancy Robertson they are “prepared for the pending litigation to proceed unless the issue is resolved outside of the courtroom.”

Source: Newsok

France Goes After Champagne Domain Names

The Comite Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne (the semi-government authority of the Republic of France), is going after people who use champagne in their domain name.

A gift delivery business called “Champagne Messenger” has been forced to change their name after being pursued by our frog eating friends. The CIVC claims their intent is to protect the history and reputation of sparkling wines produced in the Champagne region of France.

After a seven day warning was issued to forfeit the name, or face federal court proceedings, the small business in the rural town of Coffs Harbor in Australia conceded.

Small business owners Stuart and Kyla Holley told the Coffs Coast Advocate:

“But we’re just a small business that is less than a year old, we can’t possibly afford to fight this in court… even though we feel we are being bullied.”

“It’s madness really. Will it get to the stage where you can’t buy champagne ham or enjoy a champagne breakfast any more, just because the French ‘own’ that word?”

Source: Coffs Coast Advocate

Bodog Back After Long Dispute

For the last two years, bodog.com has apparently been battling a legal issue which has kept them from operating under their original domain name and allowing gamers to gamble there. The good news is that a settlement been reached, resolving the patent pending litigation. The result is the return of Bododg.com.

CEO of Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, Alwyn Morris, stated “It felt akin to taking ownership of a piece of Bodog’s history.” The return of the domain is also thought to benefit all global licensees, as they will be redirected to the right licensee for their jurisdiction when going to Bodog.com. With these battles now behind them, Bodog.com will again be serving North American players.

Source: CalidaGaming and PokerListings.

Survey Says: New gTLDs Pointless, Complicate Matters & Not Improve The Web

According to Future Laboratory and Gandi.net, most (two thirds) of web users feel that a .anything domain will infiltrate the web with futile domain names such as .god.

Since ICANN made the announcement last October that would allow any organization in 2012 with $185,000 to apply for a generic domain—speculation has stirred the internet community.

The liberalization of domain names was suggested to encourage diversity but is clearly creating much apprehension instead. According to Tom Savigar of the Future Laboratory, the change is seen as being “a daunting change to the internet.”

The exact numbers indicate that of the 1,000 people who were polled:

• 65% believe the changes would cause pointless domain names to bombard the web
• 60% didn’t feel it would improve the web
• 46% feel it would complicate things

Some web users (18%) think ICANN should be responsible for leading the new look while another 18% think it should be left to the website hosting companies. Another 13% would give it to the UK government and 12% say leave it up to society.

Other opinions foresee future improvements. Joe White, Chief operating officer of Gandi.net claims “The current plans for liberalization reflect a great opportunity to get the domain space in order. ICANN now has the opportunity to set clear guidelines and enforce a higher standard of practice with new TLDs so they are not littered with spam and faulty extensions. This could be the beginning of the great clear-up of the future internet.”

As for the estimated two thirds of the population that is unaware, ignorance is bliss.

Source: The Guardian and London South East.

GoDaddy Success Benefits Charity

CEO and founder, Bob Parsons was recently quoted as saying that Godaddy is “committed to making a difference in the community.” A recent donation to the YMCA demonstrates this commitment. When approached with a request for a meager donation of $1,000, the company raised the bar with a more liberal offer–$50,000. Domaining companies take note!

Go Daddy has an estimated 6.6m customers and 35m domains to manage. The recently named “Best of the Best” business (by Ranking Arizona) also appears to be immune to the effects of the recession. With expansions including 345 people being hired this year, and an estimated 125 open positions—Go Daddy is bucking the trend.

Speaking of Godaddy, they just announced the support of .MX domains. “We realize many of our customers will want a dot-MX domain,” said Bob Parsons. “We plan to help them get it the same way we do everything at Go Daddy — easily and affordably.” This current pre-registration is set to end on July 31, though general registration starts Sept 1.

Source: WebhostDir

US Court of Appeals Reverses Verisign Motion – Lobbyists & Bloggers Paid To Attack?

An appeal from the US District Court was recently lodged in California. The Plaintiff is the Coalition for ICANN Transparency with the Defendant, Verisign, Inc.

Here is a small extract that I found interesting:

“CFIT alleged that in order to get ICANN to agree to the terms VeriSign desired, VeriSign paid lobbyists to support its position, “stacked” ICANN’s public meetings with VeriSign supporters, hired purportedly independent organizations and individuals to advocate VeriSign’s position, paid bloggers to attack ICANN’s reputation, planted news stories critical of ICANN in mainstream media, threatened ICANN with litigation, arbitration, and government investigation, and indeed eventually brought suit against ICANN in federal and state court.”

“CFIT alleged that ICANN and VeriSign conspired to set artificially high prices for VeriSign’s services and to ensure that VeriSign would receive successor contracts with ICANN without having to go through a competitive bidding process.”

Conclusion

“We REVERSE the district court’s grant of VeriSign’s motion to dismiss CFIT’s complaint for failure to state a claim, and REMAND to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

Here is the original court document for your viewing pleasure.

ICANN Allows 1 and 2 Character Biz Domain Names

ICANN has allowed .biz domain registry NeuStar to grant 1 and 2 character second-level .biz domain names. The domains will be available via an RFP process, with any ungranted domains available via auction.

For more details, check out this article in Kikabink News.

IQ Domain For Iraq?

The nation of Iraq may make a leap into the Internet community with the extension .iq. Iraqi chairman of The National Communications & Media Commission (Siyamend Othmend) said the domain name would allow Iraqis to “stake a virtual flag” in the world of the Web.

The chairman also stated in a letter to ICANN, “It is “an important tangible and symbolic milestone for this nation, as well as the freedom and hopes of the Iraqi people”.

A recent survey cited by the U.S.-led administration in Iraq found that about 6% of Iraqis say they have access to the Internet but fewer than 2% use it regularly.

Source: USA Today

Suspicion Over Air France Crash Domain Name

A mystery is unraveling concerning the fate of Air Flight 447 and the domain name that was registered two years prior —flight447.com.

The domain owner is apparently Kari Bian, an Iranian film producer and executive producer of a film who claims the connection is coincidental.  “It’s just an accident” he said. “I have nothing to do with anything. I feel really bad for that flight.” “I just put ‘flight’ in front of 1 through 1,000 and I register them,” he explained.

Source: Wired