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.Kyoto top level domain in the works

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:20:58 +0000

.Kyoto may join .Tokyo as top level domain.

It appears that .kyoto may be one of the location specific top level domains that will hit the web in coming years.

The announcement is in Japanese and all translations I’ve seen are rather jumbled, but it appears that GMO Registry is behind the effort. [Update: I've heard that DOTKYOTO COMPANY LIMITED is behind the effort and has government approval. It is seeking a registry back end provider, and GMO is one of the candidates.]

The company is already planning a .tokyo top level domain and says it has the support of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for that effort.

It’s also aiming for the .shop top level domain.

Kyoto has a population of about 1.5 million. Although that’s smaller than most cities you’ll see get their own TLD, it’s part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan region of over 18 million people.

Any readers that know Japanese? Please chime in.

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115 Top level domain trademarks and their current status

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:41:38 +0000

I’ve made plenty of commotion about companies filing for trademarks on future top level domain names. It always seems that they’re successfully pulling a fast one on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

But after an exhaustive analysis of 115 trademark applications, I’ve actually found that the U.S.P.T.O. is mostly on top of things when it comes to this trademarking game.

In almost all cases, the trademark examiner has sent an office action to the applicant questioning if the use is for top level domain names.

There’s only one case where it looks like the examiner dropped the ball: .ping. Karsten Manufacturing (PING Golf) applied for this domain and said it was for registry services. Yet it’s proceeding to publication with no office action. [Update 1/27/12: the USPTO has just sent an office action to Karsten.]

Another brand is having more trouble. Schott AG wants to trademark .schott and is clear in its application that it’s for a top level domain. It was refused. Schott is drawing comparison to other trademarks, and the response to the company is a good explanation of exceptions:

The applicant argues that the applicant’s mark should be registered on the Principal Register because the marks DOTVEGAS and .NUDOMAIN were registered by the Office. However, the DOTVEGAS mark is not being used as a top-level domain name extension based on the specimen of record. With respect to the .NUDOMAIN mark, this mark was registered in February, 2005. The Office’s policy with respect to the registrability of top-level domain name extension has changed since 2005. Thus, the existence of this mark on the Principal Register is irrelevant with respect to the case at hand.

Below is a list of 115 trademark applications potentially related to new top level domains.

- The “status” column shows the current status of the application. Pending typically means it’s still undergoing initial review. Note that most responses have brought up the issue of not granting trademarks for top level domains.

- This probably isn’t an exhaustive list. Some of the trickier applications don’t mention “domains” at all in their class of service, as with a series of five applications from theDot Communications Network to trademark .music.

- If a mark is listed twice for the same applicant, that means the applicant filed twice under different classes of service.

- These are just U.S. trademarks. Some companies have been granted TLD trademarks by other countries.

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HostExploit says Oversee.net is improving, making a case study

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:18:15 +0000

HostExploit applauds Oversee.net for fixing problems that landed it at top spot at recent “Bad Hosts” list.

HostExploit, a group that compiles a list of what it calls “Bad Hosts”, no longer lists Oversee.net as the #1 bad host.

In its fourth quarter report, the group says Oversee.net is now ranked as the #12 bad host.

Why? It’s kind of hard to tell. Last quarter I reached out to both Oversee.net and HostExploit about the ranking. I heard back from neither so I guess I’m on my own to interpret the results.

But HostExploit applauds Oversee.net in its latest report, stating:

For a responsible host, the shock of finding they are ranked unusually high, or even worse in the #1 position, can be enough to prompt immediate remedial action.

Take, for example, the Q3 2011 #1 overall Bad Host (#1 for both Badware and Infected sites) AS33626 Oversee.net. This customer oriented reseller swiftly investigated the causes behind its undesired status. The introduction of a clean-up program and new procedures promptly reversed the trend. (More on this in a future case study.)

The clean-up for Oversee.net progresses with an added confidence that their high ranking will drop further and take them off the #1 spot for badware.

Indeed, Oversee.net is still ranked #1 for badware. But the report notes that it continues to work on negating false positives for badware on parked domains. (Oversee.net is parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor.)

Sedo is also on the overall “bad” list at #39. Google is ranked #43.

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Mail Boxes Etc. in Spain gets Mailboxes.org in dispute

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:51:15 +0000

UDRP panel hands over Mailboxes.org domain name.

MBE Spain 2000, S.L., which manages franchises of Mail Boxes Etc. in Spain, has been awarded the domain name Mailboxes.org by a World Intellectual Property Organization panel.

The domain name was owned by a franchisee of MBE Spain.

After the case was filed the franchisee forwarded the domain name to a new web site. The decision is in Spanish, so I can’t quite understand if the previous page it resolved to used the MBE trademarks.

But I don’t think it should matter. I think this is a case that should not have been handled by UDRP, or at least found in favor of the complainant.

How is Mailboxes.org not generic? Even if you are a franchise of Mailboxes Etc., what you do is sell mailbox rentals.

I also question if the MBE Spain should have been the complainant in this case instead of the main Mail Boxes Etc. This may have been because MBE Spain has the Spanish trademarks.

You can read a Google translate version of the decision here.

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SOPA.com goes up for sale for $50,000

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:11:47 +0000

SOPA.com domain name getting its 15 minutes of fame.

The domain name SOPA.com has been listed for sale at Latonas.com for $50,000.

There’s no hotter topic on the internet right now than the Stop Only Piracy Act (SOPA). In fact, earlier today I emailed the owner of the domain to ask him how much traffic he was getting. I heard back from the owner but not with traffic data. I’m sure interested parties can get the data from the sales venue. [Update: the owner showed me Google Analytics, which shows about 3,000 visits yesterday.]

Has this domain’s value peaked? Won’t talk about SOPA just fade away in coming months (even if the bill is passed)? Maybe, but Rick Latona has an answer for that:

What I like about this name is that it has a parachute of sorts. If the bill doesn’t pass through congress, the word “sopa” is also Spanish for “soup.” So here is a great opportunity to buy a name that has insane media attention but also has a backup plan if things don’t work out.

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For sale on eBay: list of 25M companies that haven’t registered .xxx

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:23:45 +0000

A good way to waste a lot of money and get sued.

eBay seller priccut88 wants to help you land in legal hot water — all for a one time payment of just $2,000.

The user is selling a list that apparently has 25 million companies that haven’t yet registered their domain in .xxx.

Here’s the seller’s description:

This is your opportunity to cash in on billion dollar companies that are scrambling to register their domain names that end in .xxx. A recent court ruling has allowed domains ending in .xxx to be valid. With that, corporations ranging from Facebook, Wal-Mart, Google, General Electric, Yahoo, Ebay, etc have all scrambled to purchase their names ending in .xxx. For example, Facebook.com purchased Facebook.xxx. One person has already cashed in by purchasing a corporation name ending in .xxx and the corporation paid $164,000 to get the rights to their name.

Oh really? What domain was that?

Let me give you some advice: the $2,000 you spend on this list is just the beginning of the cash you’ll shell out once you get hit with a lawsuit.

Here’s another smart way to throw money down the drain: register a trademark in .xxx and then list it on eBay for some ridiculous sum.

That’s what a Connecticut man did with FoxStudios.xxx.

After registering the domain in December he listed it on eBay for a $1.975 million.

When you see something like this it’s a pretty good bet the person doesn’t know much about domain name law.

Fortunately for this registrant his only penalty will be handing the domain over.

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Search spend to grow 15%-20% in 2012 but CPC down

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:27:36 +0000

Rise of mobile has big affect on CPCs.

I just reviewed Efficient Frontier’s Q4 report for online advertising, which includes predictions for 2012.

The good news? The company predicts search spend will increase 15%-20% in 2012. On the downside for domain parkers, CPC will decrease 4% on top of 5% Quarter-over-quarter that they reported in Q4.

To be fair, this isn’t an across the board drop in CPC. A lot of it is attributed to an increase in mobile ad clicks, which currently cost less.

Here’s some other interesting data.

Mobile ads are exploding. It’s 7%-8% of search spend right now, up from 2% a year ago. Efficient Frontier expects it to be a whopping 16-22% of all paid clicks by the end of 2012!

This includes tablets, which I think should be a separate category from mobile phone traffic.

Yahoo/Bing ROI tops Google. The combo continues to have a better return-on-click for advertisers, but needs to grow its base to attract advertisers.

Facebook is huge in online advertising. The company predicts it will account for 5% of all online ad spend by the end of the year. In Q4 it reached 2.7% of biddable online advertising spend.

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