[Video] Female Golfer Targetted By Cybersquatter

Casie Cathrea became the youngest Monday qualifier for an LPGA event at Blackhawk Country Club. Her official website is Cathrea.com.

Her father, Harry Cathrea tracked down Leonard Meng Lee who registered CasieCathrea.com; he threatened to sue Lee under the Federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

“It cost him two bucks and he wanted to charge me a thousand dollars”

“And he was also nice enough to say he accepts Paypal.”

Its been reported that Lee has registered more than 1,300 domain names of famous people, including Eldrickwoods.com.

In a statement to ABC7 Lee said “As far as I know, the name is not trademarked and I was legally in the right to register the domain”.

Microsoft JV Acquires News Domain Name

MSNBC (a Microsoft / NBC Universal joint venture) has announced the acquisition of BreakingNews.com, complementing its @BreakingNews alert service on Twitter.

Charles Tillinghast, president of the msnbc Digital Network, said in an interview:

“Our goal as a news organization is to provide the most relevant experiences to satisfy distinct needs. Hard and fast breaking news is currently an underserved market. With www.breakingnews.com we can now provide the optimal solution.”

Tillinghast said the acquisition was made in mid-December, but he declined to provide further details about the terms or the sellers.

Google Loses Domain Arbitration To Canadian Start-Up

Announced today, the National Arbitration Forum has dismissed Google’s complaint that it was entitled to the domain name, Groovle.com.

Young Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, launched the web site in 2007, to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page.

Jacob Fuller stated “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google.”

Russia Adds Domain Name To Olympic Emblem

This is the first time a domain name has been part of an Olympic host city’s emblem.

The word “sochi.ru” appears above the number “2014″ in an apparent reflection, symbolizing the southern city’s water-based location on the Black Sea.

“It’s very appealing. It’s very creative, innovative,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said at Tuesday’s unveiling. “I think it will appeal especially to the young population.”

It’s been reported that the IOC president then asked someone what a “domain name” was.

For those that believe there could be an opportunity – the .com, .net and .org is taken… as is the .ru.

National Center for Science Education Moves Away From .ORG

The US National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has moved away from .org to .com.

The move appeared to be facilitated by NameMedia who reportedly provided a substantial discount on the ncse.com domain.

About: The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a not-for-profit, membership organization providing information and resources for schools, parents and concerned citizens working to keep evolution in public school science education.

Melbourne IT Appointed To Manage Twitter’s Domain Name Portfolio

Melbourne IT (ASX: MLB), have announced that they have been selected to manage Twitter’s domain name portfolio.

“Melbourne IT could not disclose the contract value but has conceded the Twitter account is reasonably small. Compared to some other clients that hold in excess of 10,000 domains, the social networking company is relatively new and is starting off with only a handful of critical names.”

The two year contract is believed to be centered around Melbourne IT’s Corporate Domain Management solution and includes protection against infringement and malicious web attacks.

Source: Melbourne IT & ARN.

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

General Motors Buys Restructuring Domain Name

Given the state of the auto industry in the USA, are you surprised that GM has registered gmrestructuring.com? While the GM website is currently blank, Chryslers one at chryslerrestructuring.com is full of Chapter 11 bedtime reading.

I know what all you TM domainers are thinking: insert-acronym+restructuring.com. Evil people.

Could this be the start of a new TM niche?

Canadian Politician Forgets To Renew Domain – What Happens Next?

Canadian politician Rodger Cuzner appears to have forgotten to renew his domain name rodgercuzner.ca. It was renewed by someone else and is now showing dating links for Senior Friend Finder.

Cuzner told CBC News “Guys watch for these opportunities and they see the opportunity and then they come back and sell you back the domain site.”

Unfortunately for Rodger, he still hasn’t changed his Facebook page – its still showing “Website: http://www.rodgercuzner.ca” under Detailed Info. Good on you Rodger!

About Rodger

Born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, he is a current member of the Liberal Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Cape Breton—Canso. Cuzner is a former organizer of events. He was parliamentary secretary to former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from January 13, 2003 to December 11, 2003.

Name.Com Gives To Charity – Verizon Wins $33M

As an entrepreneur and someone who donates to a wide variety of charities, I can’t help but notice when companies do things that are right. In fact, I go out of my way to support such companies, which is why I’m posting this.

Name.com just had a promotion where $.50 from every .ORG registered until 12/31/08 was donated to Kiva.org.  On top of that, they were selling .orgs for a crazy $6.49 – which means you should buy them anyway. In case you didn’t know, Kiva lends money to entrepreneurs in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. It’s the “teach the man to fish” approach using micro-transactions.

Earlier today I came across another headline – Verizon Wins $33 Million in Suit Over Domain Names. Apparently, “the default judgment of $50,000 for each of 663 addresses registered by the Internet company, OnlineNic, was issued last Friday by United States District Judge Jeremy D. Fogel in San Jose, Calif. Judge Fogel froze OnlineNic’s assets and ordered the transfer to Verizon of all identical or confusingly similar addresses. Verizon sought as much as $66.3 million in damages over names that included myverizonwireless.com, iphoneverizonplans.com and verizon-cellular.com.”

So, it got me thinking. What about donating a large chunk of that to charity? Of course I don’t know how much of the $33M will go in legal expenses. The point is (assuming they get the money) that Verizon have scored $33M. What about doing something good with a % of that?