Aussie Giant Woolworths Wins WIPO Claim In .AU

According to WIPO, the domain wooliesonline.com.au “was registered on March 24, 2011. On July 5, 2011, the Domain Name resolved to a web page containing sponsored advertising links, including links to the Complainant and its competitor, Coles. Following a cease and desist letter from the Complainant, the web page was changed to remove the references to the Complainant.”

It’s interesting to note that “Prior to the cease and desist letter the Domain Name was parked showing certain advertisements outside the Respondents control.”  The Panel found that Woollies “is so well-known that it is inconceivable that the Domain Name could be used in a way that would not mislead Internet users.” More info: Woolworths Limited v. Save Cash Pty Ltd.

Comment

It’s good to see companies taking action against those that register and/or use domain names in bad faith.

Domain Thief Gets 5 Years Prison

It’s been reported this morning that Daniel Goncalves was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing the domain name P2P.com. The domain was reported as stolen from Marc Ostrofsky and sold on eBay.com for $121,000 to former NBA basketball player Mark Madsen.

This sets a major precedent as its believed to be the first time that an individual has been criminally prosecuted in the United States.

Sources: Sun Herald and Goldberg McDuffie Communications.

What’s Wrong With XXX ?

Over the past few days it has been open slather in the media about the ICANN approval of XXX.

With buzzwords like “digital red-light districts“, its parents and the general public who are both concerned and confused.

The Christian Post says it “creates more porn“.

The Obama Admininstration says “This decision goes against the global public interest, and it will open the door to more Internet blocking by governments and undermine the stability and security of the Internet.”

The Australian Sex Party says “it would be an easy thing for the Communications Minister to simply ask all ISP’s in Australian to filter the new domain and all adult material would be denied to adult Australians.”

So, what do you think?

1. What’s really wrong with the concept of XXX ? Nobody is forcing anyone to use it.

2. The .xxx TLD is not going to protect kids from porn, but was it supposed to be designed for that?

3. Is the adult industry boycotting the TLD because they don’t manage it themselves?

4. Is ICANN paying lip service to the Governmental Advisory Committee?

5. Do the anti XXX movement just need some luvin ?

Given there are more than 500,000 domains that have been pre-reserved, are you buying XXX ?

More Lies and Coverups

This is a great analysis of the Schwartz / Ruddell issue in which an employee allegedly accessed a Moniker customer’s account.

The article goes deep into the ethics and what you REALLY agree to when you register a domain name.

Federal Judge Rules On Contributory Cybersquatting

Instructing people to register a trademark-infringing domain name is just as unlawful as registering a domain name that infringes someone’s trademark, according to a ruling by U.S. Federal Judge Ricardo Martinez.

Check out the article and analysis on contributory cybersquatting at Kikabink News.

New Email Scam – Domain Recovery

The email below was sent to our whois contact for a particular .net domain that we own.

It states that the organisation has “secured” the “.com version of your domain”. In fact they have done no such thing. The .com is available for anyone to register at any registrar.

If you click on the link, it takes you to a page asking you for US$99 and to pay via Paypal. This is essentially 10 times the asking price of a .com domain name.

We are posting this here in the hope that people will find it and not fall victim to this misleading conduct.

————

Hi,

Recently, we contacted you to inform you of the upcoming availability of DOMAIN.com. We are happy to inform you that right now the .com version of your domain is secured by Simple Domain Recovery and is available for purchase at our page.

What we do is take different measures to help you promote your brand on the Internet. Little things’ effectiveness can compare to securing .com to a domain with any other extension. Everyone knows .com, a lot of users will intuitively seek you at .com extension so don’t give a chance to anyone else to use that advantage of yours.

There are third parties who may be interested in your domain. Many people out there reserve .coms to existing sites and domains in order to make profit of ‘em. We may sell the domain to any of these persons and businesses but this is you who decides whether or not we do so. Please choose one of the following:

Secure DOMAIN.com right now!
Let it go (unsubscribe).

Best regards,
<name omitted>
Simple Domain Recovery,
<email omitted>

Is Groupon Rewarding Bad Behaviour?

A couple of guys allegedly copy your business model in another country. They register the ccTLD version of your name, they register the company name in their country, then they try to register the trademark.

What do you do? Do you pay them to go away or take them to court?

This recent post on the Groupon Blog describes how the company “reluctantly” offered “Gabby and Hezi Leibovich about $286,000 for the Groupon.com.au domain and trademark”. In my view, this is rewarding bad behaviour.

Yes I understand the Mr Nice Guy approach of offering them something and having them go away quietly. Obviously “Plan B” was to “sick the members onto them” – with Groupon advising its customers to get on Facebook and:

“post a note for Hezi Leibovich, politely asking them to accept the $286,000 (which we are still willing to pay) so we can get on with business.”

Groupon – this naive “strategy” (if there was actually a strategy) has generated you negative publicity and set a clear precedent. Not good.

Speaking generally, the problem with this approach is that “copycats” are desperate, dishonest oxygen thieves. They are after a quick buck and wouldn’t have a clue about innovation. The Groupon approach (which is completely logical), incorrectly assumed that these people could be quietly bought out.

When you sit and think about it, we see this all the time in almost every marketplace. Think about the Internet Marketing industry. How many dodgy products are out there? What about the domain investment industry? Notice any dodgy copycat products pop-up lately? Do they look familiar to you?

The question is, do you support the “good guys” or do you back the dishonest ones? Make your mind up and accept it. Call it fate, karma, whatever you want. It’s your decision – you have to live with it.

If I was a Groupon customer, I’d be supporting them, not some copycat site.

Domainer Income Includes Trademark Checking

Over the past few months the team at Domainer Income has been testing out a new groundbreaking feature – automatic trademark checks!

That’s right. When you are viewing .au drops, all of those domains are now checked for trademarked keywords. This level of automation is something that is not offered anywhere else. It can:

1. Save you HOURS of time.

2. Potentially save you from a lawsuit.

3. Save you money, because you will be shown what auctions to avoid.

See the TM column? You can hover your mouse over it and get all the information on the trademark. Cool eh?

Why Trademarks?

Trademark infringement is one area that hurts domain investors and newcomers to the industry. It’s largely something that’s not widely talked about, so here are a few scenarios to be aware of:

Example #1

A newcomer to the industry gets sucked in by all the marketing hype around “buying aged domains”. They sign up to the latest and greatest auction site and start buying, only to find they get slapped with a lawsuit because the keywords in the domain name they just purchased were trademarked.

Example #2

Someone buys a domain at auction for $1,000 and a few days later receives a letter from the regulator that their domain infringes on someone elses trademark. The domain is taken off them, put into “Pending Delete” and the person loses their $1,000.

The Future

This will be the first in many new features that we are making available to our Professional Members. We have some VERY BIG surprises for 2011.

Thanks again to our customers who continue to support us and inspire our team to innovate.

Law Targets People Posing As Local Businesses

The phrase “local search” has been on the tongues of many web site developers, domainers and Internet marketers. Depending on who you talk to, it means different things to different people.

Unfortunately a small number of unethical people are trying to “scam the system” and are polluting local search results with fake businesses. This short term view isn’t sustainable and forces the hand of search engines and now governments to take action.

The Minnesota State Government has passed one such law, preventing out-of-state Internet marketers from posing as local small businesses by, for example, running search engine ads indicating that their business is based in Minnesota. For more information check out the full story in Kikabinks Internet Marketing blog.

Simon Johnson Appointed To auDA Names Policy Panel

A few minutes ago we received confirmation from auDA that Simon Johnson had been appointed to the Names Policy Panel.

The purpose of the panel is to:

1. Review the policy framework underlying the allocation and use of domain names in the .au domain space
2. Provide recommendations to the auDA board about what changes should be made to the policy framework.

The Panel is expected to commence work in September 2010. If you have any specifics that you would like Simon to raise, feel free to leave a comment on contact us directly. Please also note that there will be a public consultation in December 2010.