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Top Level Domain Holdings releases annual report

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:45:06 +0000

Report details last years results including director remuneration.

Top Level Domain Holdings has released its annual report (pdf) for the year ending October 31, 2011.

The company owns 100% of new TLD applicant and consultancy Minds and Machines LLC, 65% of a group going after the .nyc top level domain, 25% of a group going after .eco, as well as the web sites TutorialBlog and AppCraver.

As would be expected of a company betting on new top level domains, it continues to lose money. It had total revenue last year of £54,000 with income of (£1,868,000).

Former ICANN Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate Thrush, who joined the company in July, received £36,000 in directors fees and £115,000 in consulting fees for his three and a half months of service. He also has 15 million options in the company at a strike price of 8 pence.

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Mothers Against Drunk Driving takes on MADDSEXY

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:11:19 +0000

Company files trademark lawsuit, demands lingerie company cease using domain name.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, known by its acronym MADD, is taking on lingerie company MADDSEXY in a trademark lawsuit (pdf).

Among MADD’s requests is that MADDSEXY cease using its domain name Maddsexy.com.

According to the advocacy group:

Defendants’ promotion of lingerie products, along with their highly sexualized portrayal of women in their promotion of their products, is likely to erode MADD’s credibility and damage MADD’s goodwill and valuable reputation by diluting the MADD Marks, including, but not limited to, the famous MADD mark.

Hmm. I “get it”, but I can also understand how the lingerie company chose to add two d’s to the end of its name for a number of reasons.

And I don’t know that I agree with this:

Defendants’ use of “MADDSEXY” in promoting women’s intimate products so resembles MADD’s distinctive marks used in connection with MADD’s goods and services, which are offered in the same channels of commerce to the same general public, as to be likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive.

I seriously doubt anyone who buys this lingerie thinks that a portion of the proceeds are going to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

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Hundreds of Whitney Houston domains registered after death

Andrew Allemann — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:55:07 +0000

Singer’s death prompts speculators to register Whitney Houston related domain names.

Speculators have registered a flurry of domain names related to Whitney Houston since the singer’s death yesterday.

According to domain registrar GoDaddy, 325 Whitney Houston related domain names were registered in fewer than 24 hours after her death.

You’ll find a lot of Houston domain names on eBay. And most of them are worthless.

You can pick up WhitneyHoustonDiedAt48.COM for $500.

Looking for something even more speculative than a domain to take advantage of her death? Try WhitneyHoustonHeartAttack.com for $21 million. My guess on this one is the seller just wants attention to the site they link to in their eBay listing.

For a starting bid of 99 cents you can have a shot at what the seller describes as an “Authentic Whitney Houston Domain”. What’s an authentic domain? I don’t know, but the seller is trying to offload Whitney-Houston-Legacy.com.

A search for “Whitney Houston Domain” returns 41 hits on eBay right now.

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GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domains last month including Go.Pro for $40k

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:34:35 +0000

A phenomenal .pro sale among domain sales on GoDaddy Auctions.

GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domain names last month, about 1,000 fewer than it sold in December.

That includes the eye popping sale of Go.Pro for $40,000.

That’s not a typo. The domain was purchased by a doctor in Maryland.

Other top sales for the month include:

diy.org $60,000
bestrecipes.com $45,000
uros.com $30,000
quod.com $30,000
10-4.com $16,000
eventguru.com $15,925
retireme.com $15,495
definedbenefitplan.com $15,000
gamebreak.com $12,650

About half of the domains were sold via auction and the other half via “buy now” listings.

The top word included in domains sold was “online”, followed by “best”, “blog”, and home. Other popular keywords include:

news
music
free
casino
business
insurance
design
home
video
shop
health
site
club
your
world
auto
life

“Online” is almost always the most often included keyword you’ll find in GoDaddy’s domain sales report. Domainers should take note.

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Top Level Domain Holdings raises $14.2 million

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:21:17 +0000

Company has more money to apply for top level domains.

Publicly traded Top Level Domain Holdings Limited has added £9,031,139 (US $14.2 million) to to its war chest to go after the top level domain market, the company announced today.

Top Level Domain Holdings owns Minds + Machines.

The placement will be used for working capital including slotting and application fees for applying for new top level domain names. The company is applying for top level domains for itself as well as on behalf of clients.

Top Level Domain Holdings is led by CEO Antony Van Couvering. Its chairman is former ICANN Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate Thrush, who joined the company shortly after leaving his post with ICANN.

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ICANN reaffirms second round of new gTLDs

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:53:54 +0000

Board instructs CEO to outline plan and steps for opening a second round.

ICANN’s board of directors has passed a resolution reaffirming that it plans to open another round of new top level domain applications as “expeditiously as possible”.

The resolution instructs the CEO to create a work plan that outlines the steps necessary to initiate a second round of applications. This includes addressing Governmental Advisory Committee concerns over trademark protection and root zone scaling.

The current version of the new top level domain applicant guidebook states that the goal is to open a second round within one year of the current application period ending. The current application window closes April 12, 2012.

However, it is improbable that this can occur given commitments ICANN has made to review how the first round goes before proceeding to a second round. Industry observers have suggested that 2015 is a likely date based on the existing plan.

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DOMAINfest attendance was down, but still strong

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:38:39 +0000

Fewer people turn out to this year’s event but it remains the industry’s biggest conference.

About 600 people attended last week’s DOMAINfest conference in Santa Monica. While down from previous years’ 700 attendees, it still makes it the largest conference in the domain name industry.

Here’s why I think attendance was down by about a hundred…

1. Still sick from last year.

Hey, the memories of last year’s sickness that afflicted 100+ people is still strong. Even though it could have happened at any event, I’m sure it left a sour taste in some people’s mouths.

Attendance effect: -20

2. Wait…no Playboy party?

Some people just can’t get enough of the Playboy Mansion. Although this year’s conference still had Playmates, it may not have been enough to make up for not getting to puke into a portable toilet at Hugh’s house.

Attendance effect: -25

3. Where’s Monte?

OK, I’ll bring it up because other people have. And because it certainly had some effect.

Attendance effect: -15

4. Domain parking still falling (despite some new faces here)

There are some new faces at the conference. In fact, a lot of them. But falling revenues certainly takes out a chunk of would-be attendees.

Attendance effect: -39

5. Some blogger from New York thought it would be OK to leave his 8-month-pregnant wife to go to DOMAINfest in California. He was mistaken.

Attendance affect: -1

OK, in all seriousness, the one observation I heard over and over at the conference was: man, there are a lot of new faces here. One person told me “while I usually don’t know about a third of the people at a domain conference, this year I don’t know 70% of them”.

This is a good thing. More people are being brought into the fold.

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