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Wow: Judge orders UDRP transfers, including Apple typo, to be reversed

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:52:25 +0000

We do things differently in Texas.

District Judge Royal Furgeson has ordered (pdf) that World Intellectual Property Organization cases from as early as 2010 be overturned and ordered a number of domain names now owned by Apple and Public storage be transferred back to the typosquatter that previously owned them.

Yes, you read that correctly.

The case involves domain names that belonged to a company tied up in the courts when UDRP cases were filed against the obvious typos. The complainants in the cases won and four of the domains were transferred to their rightful owners:

publicstorge.com, pulicstorage.com, puplicstorage.com transferred to Public Storage
aplle.com transferred to Apple, Inc (it apparently has already been transferred back)

But the judge says the cases never should have gone forward because of the court challenges involving the respondent.

In other words, you can cybersquat all you want if you’re in legal limbo.

So now the judge wants domain name registrar Fabulous to undue the transfers. In other words, take a domain name that belongs to Apple away from Apple. He also wants them to halt the transfer of over a dozen other domains lost in UDRP that Fabulous never transferred like it was supposed to.

Oh, and Furgeson wants Fabulous, which is based in Australia, to tell the court within two days that it has complied with the order.

Furgeson also required ICANN to confirm that it has complied with the order, even though ICANN can do absolutely nothing at this point. Domain name transfers involve only a registrar and registry.

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Receiver asks for typo domains to be confiscated from Apple and others

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:46:26 +0000

Receiver wants ICANN to reverse domain transfers.

Remember that court case where the receiver, in charge of a number of domain names, said ICANN had the power to stay a UDRP decision?

It’s getting a little wonkier.

Now the receiver is asking ICANN to “undo” a handful of transfers that were completed under UDRP.

Those transfers include typo domain names now controlled by companies such as Apple and Public Storage.

The receiver asked the court to force ICANN to transfer back 22 domain names lost by the lawsuit defendant in UDRP cases.

But only five of the domain names were ever transferred to the complainant in the UDRP cases. For some reason the primary domain registrar, Fabulous, didn’t transfer most of the domain names.

So the receiver is asking for a bunch of domains to be “transferred back” that were never transferred away.

It gets better. Two of the domain names lost in UDRP have expired and are no longer registered. So the receiver could just go register them at any domain registrar if he wanted.

When it comes to the five domains that were transferred after being lost in UDRP, they are pretty clear typos of brand such as Apple and Public Storage. The receiver is basically asking a court to take the domain name Aplle.com away from Apple.

Obviously ICANN has no power to undo a UDRP or otherwise transfer a domain name.

But its reply to the court has not satisfied the receiver. The receiver instead focuses on how ICANN is threatening Fabulous for not transferring many of the domains as ordered under UDRP.

The receiver questions how ICANN can argue it can’t stay a UDRP proceeding but take action against Fabulous for not complying with a UDRP decision.

The receiver indicates that Fabulous shouldn’t have transferred the domains because of a stay in this lawsuit, but some of these transfers were ordered a long time ago.

I also find this line in the receiver’s filing rather perplexing:

In its response, ICANN confirmed that 4 of the 22 domain names (aplle.com, publicstorge.com, pulicstorage.com, and puplicstorage.com) are both profitable and have actually been transferred as a result of the illegal default decisions issued by WIPO

Really? ICANN confirmed the domains were profitable when parked?

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Australian Domain Market Sees Volume from Yield Media Sales

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:45:20 +0000

Some big ticket sales in .com.au.

The Australian domain name market is seeing some sales volume lately thanks to a 1,500 domain portfolio being put on the market.

The portfolio belonged to Yield Media, owned by the same company that owns domain name registrar Fabulous.

It’s being brokered by Ned O’Meara of DNTrade.com.au. Thanks to marketing on his forum he’s managed to sell 384 of the domain names over the past few weeks.

The top sale: MoneyBuddy.com.au at $AUD 95,000 plus 10% tax.

This is more of a web site sale than a domain sale. It used to be an operational comparison site for financial products. Two other former comparison sites — PhoneBuddy.com.au and Broadbandbuddy.com.au — sold as a package for $AUD19,500 plus 10% tax.

O’Meara also sold a package of 82 Geo / Tradesmen type domains for an undisclosed five figure price.

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Tucows Integrating Afternic DLS, Hover Offers Domain Name “Trade In” Program

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:47:46 +0000

Hover and Tucows/OpenSRS to start offering premium domain names.

Tucows is integrating Fabulous’ Domain Distribution Network as well as Afternic DLS into its Hover and OpenSRS platforms. As one of the top three domain name registrars by volume, this will significantly expand these programs’ reach.

Additionally, Hover customers can “trade in” their old domain names for a better one through a unique marketing program. Basically, Hover customers who find and buy a better premium domain through the new integrations can get a refund on any domain registration and renewal fees they paid for their existing domain. (They don’t actually have to return the existing domain.)

The Fabulous DDN integration is complete and the Afternic DLS integration is expected by next week.

This is also a major coup for Afternic, which has now lined up half of the top 10 registrars.

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Fabulous Inks Registrar Technology Deal with eNom

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:52:01 +0000

eNom to handle back end registrar technology for Fabulous.

Fabulous has signed a deal with eNom in which the Australian domain name registrar will outsource back end technology operations to eNom. Communication about this will be going out to Fabulous customers this evening.

This isn’t an acquisition; Fabulous will remain part of Dark Blue Sea.

As a reseller registrar eNom has a number of similar arrangements with large domain name registrars.

The front end account management for Fabulous customers will stay the same. In the back end the registrar will be powered by eNom technology.

This seems like a good move for Fabulous given Dark Blue Sea’s shrinking size and the recent buyout from Photon Group. Dark Blue Sea will no longer have to handle the technical aspects of running a registrar and can just focus on sales and support.

Fabulous customers may also get access to a wider range of top level domain names in the future thanks to the deal. Lack of TLD breadth has been a common complaint amongst Fabulous’ customers.

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Survey Picks Top Domain Name Registrars

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:39:52 +0000

Some familiar faces and a new one in registrar poll.

This is the sixth year of the Domain Name Wire survey. I’ve never pretended that it’s a scientific survey. It’s more of a vote. So I’ve taken small anomalies in stride.

But this year there were some problems with the voting for “best domain registrar”. Without getting into details, there was significant voting that looked like it might be gaming the system.

Thankfully I found a simple solution. I hesitate to mention it here as it could lead to a similar problem next year without the same footprint, but it’s also important to share what these 2011 results cover. The simple solution: remove anyone who said they own fewer than 50 domain names.

I know that’s not perfect. I’m not happy about it. But it removed all of the suspicious votes.

So if you want you can put an asterisk next to this post:

*Top domain name registrars according to people who own 50 or more domain names

OK, so drumroll please….

1. Go Daddy 28%
2. Gandi.net (first year on chart) 21%
3. Moniker 10%
4. Fabulous 9%
5. Name.com 4%

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Survey: GoDaddy, Moniker Still Top Domain Registrars

Woolworths Buys Hardware.com.au for $33,333 After Rival Lets it Expire

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:28:28 +0000

Big bucks for an expired domain — but an even more interesting story.

Australia’s Woolworths Limited got into the domain name drop catching game recently by picking up the domain name Hardware.com.au for $33,000 AUS.

What makes this story more interesting, according to the Herald Sun, is that one of Woolworths’ rivals let the domain name expire.

Bunnings Building Supplies Pty Ltd owned the domain name but may not have received the renewal notice due to an outdated email address, reports the newspaper. Woolworths entered the hardware market in competition with Bunnings last year.

The company picked up the domain name from drop.com.au, an expired domain name service recently acquired by Fabulous.

(Hat tip: Sean)

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