Domain Name Wire » Search Results » register.com

GoDaddy’s patent portfolio still growing, but no offensive action yet

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:07:10 +0000

Domain registrar continues to apply for patents but hasn’t gone on the offensive yet.

Will GoDaddy’s patent strategy change now that it has taken an investment from three private equity giants?

It’s an important question for the domain name and web hosting industries because of the size of the company’s patent war chest.

A search with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows 65 issued patents for The Go Daddy Group and close to 200 pending.

These patents cover a broad range of technologies and business processes, ranging from whois privacy services to domain name suggestion spinning and domain hijack protection.

But to date the company hasn’t sued any competitors for patent infringement.

Karl Fazio, Associate General Counsel – Patents for Go Daddy told Domain Name Wire that might not change despite the new investment by KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures.

“We do have plenty of patents in our portfolio that are powerful and could be monetized if we chose to do that,” he explained, but added that he’s not aware of any plans to go on the offense.

“The new partnership [investment] doesn’t change the fundamental principles of why you have a robust patent portfolio,” he said.

The patent portfolio protects the company’s products and gives it “room to operate”. A strong patent portfolio also discourages other companies from suing it for patent infringement.

One company has tried. In 2006 Web.com sued Go Daddy for patent infringement. The settlement in 2009 included a cross-licensing agreement of the companies’ patent portfolios. The lawsuit was settled before Web.com acquired both Register.com and Network Solutions.

Although Fazio is not aware of any plans to go on the offense, you shouldn’t expect the company’s patent filing machine to slow down any time soon.

“As we are developing new products and services we intend to aggressively protect in the patent space our new technology,” said Fazio.

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Web.com Plans .Web Top Level Domain

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:54:14 +0000

Company plans to apply for .web and says no one else should be allowed to get the TLD.

Publicly traded Web.com plans to apply for the .web top level domain name and says no one else should be allowed to apply for the TLD due to its trademarks.

The company has a pre-reservation form up on its web site and just filed a trademark application for the name.

This is the first I’ve heard of the company’s plans, although its trademark application says it has been using .web in commerce since June.

I expect multiple applications for .web. A number of companies have proposed it over the years, and an unofficial version runs outside the official root.

Still, Web.com is making it clear it thinks no one else should be able to operate the .web top level domain name. On its terms and conditions page for .web it states:

In addition to the significant common law trademark rights and consumer goodwill acquired in its Web.com business name and trademark, Web.com also owns several U.S. and international trademark registrations with respect thereto. Web.com and its predecessors have used these trademarks or variations thereof since 1996 and in the process have developed a strong reputation and unquestionable goodwill in conjunction with them. Web.com spends considerable resources building and maintaining this valuable goodwill and consumer recognition associated with its brand and services and is committed to enforcing its significant intellectual property rights related thereto.

Since the “.WEB” TLD is obviously very similar to the Web.com trade name, trademarks, and the character string associated with the main Web.com web address, www.web.com, it is clear that Web.com should be the company to operate and administer the .WEB™ domain registry and this is a role that Web.com expects to assume and looks forward to doing so. Moreover, the issuance of .WEB™ to anyone other than Web.com would not only infringe on the trademark rights in Web.com, but the use of .WEB™ by anyone other than Web.com would mislead and confuse consumers into thinking that any website with the .web suffix was associated with or sponsored by Web.com. Therefore, Web.com has taken steps to secure the necessary approvals to operate and administer the .WEB™ domain name registry and remains committed to aggressively continue to pursue such approvals.

Web.com owns Register.com and is buying Network Solutions, so if it actually runs the registry this would be another example of a registrar wishing to take advantage of possible loosened registry/registrar co-ownerships restrictions.

This will be an interesting one to watch.

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Athens Plans .Athens Top Level Domain Name

Web.com to Cut More Network Solutions Employees

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:44:43 +0000

Company plans more pink slips at iconic domain registrar.

Web.com plans to fire more Network Solutions employees after it acquires the company than it previously thought.

The company, which also owns domain name registrar Register.com, originally thought it would save $30 million through efficiencies. Now it expects to save much more by “cutting senior manager posts, including Network Solutions’ chief executive, and consolidating data centres and applications”.

“There is significantly more overlap than we originally estimated, and so it’s likely going to be more headcount reduction,” CEO David Brown told Reuters.

It looks like those cuts will come from senior management and not lower level and customer service employees.

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Register.com Owner to Acquire Network Solutions

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:23:09 +0000

Register.com and Network Solutions to get married.

Two of the highest priced and oldest domain name registrars are getting married.

Web.com, which owns Register.com, will pay $405 million plus 18 million shares of Web.com stock as well as take on Network Solutions’ debt.

The cash portion of the deal will be funded with new debt: $600 million of First Lien Credit Facilities and $150 million of Second Lien Credit Facilities, as well as a $50 million revolver. The new debt will also pay off the remaining $84 million of debt from the Web.com acquisition of Register.com in 2010. After closing, the combined company will have $740 million of net debt.

Network Solutions is owned by a number of investors, primarily General Atlantic LLC.

The two domain name registrars have watched their market share suffer in favor of lower priced rivals such as Go Daddy, but have still managed to keep millions of domain names at higher prices. Typical registration prices at the registrars is about $35 per year. Their customers are less price-sensitive and often purchase full online presence packages.

The message from Web.com is clear: Register.com was a good acquisition for the company, so Network Solutions make sense as well.

I suspect we’ll see more consolidation in the registrar space over the next year.

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Stock Market Doesn’t React to New TLD Approval

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:18:36 +0000

Shares of domain name companies hardly budge.

In the grand scheme of things the introduction of new TLDs is trivial. But to domain name companies it’s a big deal.

Apparently investors in some of the companies that may be affected either don’t understand it or had already priced approval into the stock prices.

Shares of Top Level Domain Holding, a pure-play new TLD company, are down about 4% as of right now. Granted, the company had already told shareholders to expect the approval. Perhaps the timeline has shareholders miffed, or the volume is just too small to matter.

Shares of Web.com, which owns Register.com, are off over 1% shortly after opening this morning. Domain registries Neustar and VeriSign are basically flat, as is domain name registrar Tucows.

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PETA Moves Domains from Go Daddy to Register.com

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:54:23 +0000

Animal rights group moves domain names to competitor.

Making good on its promise, PETA has moved its domains (well at least peta.org) away from Go Daddy. The domain name is now registered at Register.com.

This whole elephant shooting video is obviously a hotly debated subject.

Some are arguing this is a different type of controversy than Go Daddy’s commercials.

I’m not so sure, and we’ll see how this plays out.

But I’m reminded of Bob Parsons’ keynote at DOMAINfest last month. I’m paraphrasing from memory here. Basically he said there are people who really like you or your business, a bunch who are ambivalent, and then a small minority who really hate you.

It’s those that really hate you that are your key to success. Keep them drummed up.

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From A.com to Z.com, Single Letter .Com Domains Have Been Gamed at the Trademark Office

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:44:56 +0000

The incredible game of duping the USPTO to get single letter .com trademarks.

Did you know Amazon.com has a registered trademark for A.com?

It’s true. A company filed for a trademark on A.com back in 2005, and submitted evidence of its use in commerce by showing a screenshot of a-dotcom.com. The company later assigned the trademark to Amazon.com.

This got me thinking — how many other companies have registered for single letter .com with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? I started compiling a list, then realized John Berryhill already did so in an excellent analysis a few years ago. (I had read his analysis a while back but forgot about it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have spent my time on it.) But I was most of the way through the list when I remembered this, so I completed it since John’s list is several years old.

John discovered that many of these applications were filed shortly after news got out that ICANN might distribute single letter .com domains, which were previously restricted. (Three .com’s were assigned before this restriction: q.com, x.com, and z.com.)

What I confirmed is an incredible game of trying to dupe the USPTO in an effort to get priority if single letter .com’s are ever allocated. In addition to small players, companies ranging from Major League Baseball to Overstock.com are all in the game. Here’s a summary of each letter of the alphabet.

a.com (registered) assigned to Amazon.com.

b.com (registered) NSDB Pty Ltd Austrailia filed an intent to use and then said it was using it in commerce as of 2010. They own Bangk.com, although nothing has ever been done with it. Proof of use of b.com? A password protected page on Bangk.com that shows “b.com”

c.com (denied) Several applications (including one by 4g service provider Clear) but all are dead.

d.com (registered) Joseph Carlucci, an individual, for online retail store. Specimen of use in commerce is an Amazon affiliate store…that obviously doesn’t exist (at least not at D.com).

e.com (canceled) registered in 1998 but canceled. Another applicant, The Everybody Network, filed in 2010 and the mark was published for opposition in January 2011.

f.com (registered) Proof it was used in commerce? A screenshot of fdotcom.com.

g.com (registered) Registered to G-dotcom LLC in 2006 for one field of use and GQXZP2, LLC in 2009 for another field of use. GQXZP2, LLC’s proof of use in commerce is a graphic on Overstock.com, that reads “G.com – Great Products and Great Prices”

h.com (applied – intent to use) applicant Major League Baseball’s MLB Advanced Media, L.P. I have no idea what their interest is in the domain.

i.com – (registered) registered by GQXZP2, LLC, the same company that has a g.com trademark. Shows another specimen from Overstock.com that reads “I.com For Everything You Need”.

j.com – (registered) Lost Reality Studios, Inc. Specimen is a page from “Online Times” that says J.com on it.

k.com (registered) Gregory Freeman (not the same guy at Domain Capital). Originally an intent to use application, he then submitted multiple specimens of use for each class of goods or services. These range from an online storefront that doesn’t mention k.com to a screenshot of discount-tickets.mobi and used-car-loans-online parked pages that don’t mention k.com. Then there’s a screenshot of “insurance-dept.com” that just shows “k.com” on the browser window.

l.com (registered) The Original Cast Lighting, Inc. and Lost Reality Studios, Inc, the same company that has j.com. Lost Reality Studios showed another print out from “Online Times” with L.com on it.

m.com (registered) by M-dotcom LLC – use in commerce was web page m-dotcom.com (seems to be same group behind one of the g.com registrations)

n.com – 6 dead registration filings

o.com – (registered) four registered by Overstock.com

p.com (registered) by P.COM, INC and assigned to THIRTY ONE SARL SOCIETE A RESPONSABILITE LIMITEE (SARL). Proof of use was a printout from p-com.us

q.com 5 dead applications

r.com (registered) Jeffrey Alan Ripley. His specimen was a printed brochure that said “r.com” on it and a business card with “r.com”. A second trademark was originally filed by another group that showed trademark-register.com/r/ with “Welcome to R.com. We look forward to assisting you with your trademark needs.” as proof of use. This second one was later assigned to Ripley.

s.com (registered) registered by S.com, Inc. and transferred to a UK company.

t.com (6 registered) registered to Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile (for a little while more)

u.com (registered) registered to U. Inc., who submitted a page from colleges.com that said “Welcome to U.com, The Online home of U. Magazine.”

v.com 4 dead applications

w.com (registered) W-dotcom LLC specimen was page from wdot-com.com

x.com (abandoned) PayPal, which actually owns the domain

y.com (pending) Yahoo, published for opposition in December 2010

z.com 3 dead applications

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