Digital Brand Management: Domains Intellectual Property
Labels: cybersquatting, dbms, domain, domain name, markmonitor, registrar, squatters, squatting, verisign
Articles on Choosing A URL & TLD - Ideas & Discussion
Labels: cybersquatting, dbms, domain, domain name, markmonitor, registrar, squatters, squatting, verisign
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
Here are some more like that. Google has got dozens of blogs on just as many topics, all hosted by BlogSpot (which you can't go to directly, only to subdomains - Blogspot.com redirects to Blogger.com (Sheesh!). I've always wondered why. Why, when Google has plenty of resources and hires MarkMonitor to protect their trademark and intellectual property rights, do they not acually USE those domains they reserve - at least the ones that could be used?
It seems absolutely bizarre to me that ADSENSEBLOG.com for example doesn't actually resolve to Google's Adsense Blog. Instead, they host it at http://adsense.blogspot.com/. Why is that they do the same with their Adwords Blog rather than hosting it at http://www.adwordsblog.com/?
Google owns no fewer than 24 dot com (.com) domains which include various Google product names, combined with the word "blog." Yet they don't host their blogs on those blog domains in most cases (I don't have time right now to check them all.)
Here are a couple more: quickly:
Some Non-Blog domains that they own actually resolve to a site, like "Adsense.com actually works and redirects to the longer Google URL of https://www.google.com/adsense/ and Adwords.com actually works, again, redirecting to the longer Google URL of https://adwords.google.com/select/ What's up with that Google. You are an official domain registrar - yet you don't sell domain names yourself - but through partners, you own thousands and thousands of product related domains but don't use them but to redirect in a few cases - the rest don't resolve. We now know that the registrar data you can access is baked into your algorithm to assign ranking to domains of others. But why are you ashamed of your other domain names?
Labels: blog, blogger, blogs, blogspot .com, domain, domain name, google, markmonitor
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
The Android Community owner, an Android enthusiast and apparent iPhone fan and retailer of accessories, Vincent Nguyen, admitted to having reserved a bunch of Android names himself.
So in line with yesterdays post about Google-owned domain names related to Google products being protected by Markmonitor.com for Google. I took a look at the thirteen Android related domain names on the long list of those domains posted by Pingdom.com and discussed here yesterday, then did a bit of standard web searches to find the Android discussion forum post mentioned above in which Nguyen lists the 26 additional dot net and dot org domains reserved by Google and protected by MarkMonitor.com.
Currently this list of domains all fail to resolve to any server.
My question for Google and MarkMonitor is why these and not the literally thousands of others that will no doubt be reserved by typo-squatters, enthusiasts and haters of Google, the Android mobile phone operating system, and plain opportunists looking for a few advertising dollars or domain parking income.
What is that determines those domains worth protecting and those that go unprotected and eventually fall to creative and quick domainers? Is this based on Google or MarkMonitor algorithms that suggest the most commonly searched domains? What makes MarkMonitor protect over 125 dot come (probably 375 including the .org and .net tld) domain names related to the Google IPO and only 39 related to the Android SDK? There must be a formula based on the amount of the cost to fight squatters for ownership through their expensive IP and trademark attorneys or in some cases costly court battles.
Who
Labels: android, cell phone, domain, domain name, google, handset, markmonitor, mobile, parking, sdk, squatters, squatting, TLD
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
This past week, performance monitoring site Pingdom.com posted an interesting list of Google-owned domain names in a blog post. They also posted an excel spreadsheet of domain names that point to Google DNS servers. That's not really useful as those could include sites not owned by Google, but hosted in one way or another by Google, such as those who purchase domain names through Google Apps.
(Those domains are not sold by Google, but registered seamlessly through several partner registrars, including GoDaddy and eNom). That list contains some odd adult web addresses which are clearly not owned by Google and doing whois checks is recommended before making assumptions about who owns those names on that list. Over the next few posts, we'll take a look at some of those names which hold some interest for what Google might be up to in the domain name space.
Google has used Domain Name Management firm MarkMonitor for trademark protection and brand management and shows as the registered owner of all Google domain names.
Domain Name: google.com Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com Administrative Contact: DNS Admin (NIC-14290820) Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA 94043 US dns-admin@google.com +1.6506234000 Fax- +1.6506188571
Doing a whois lookup on any of those domain names on the list of over 2300 domain names Pingdom.com provided is a good idea to verify proper ownership. But one grouping of over 125 domains were clearly reserved prior to the August 2004 Google initial public offering to protect those from being registered by those hoping to profit by them. The really funny thing about that is that MarkMonitor.com obviously missed one - probably the one that got them to register the other 125 - and that domain name, www.google-ipo.com is a pretty good source of information on the IPO as can be seen from the screen shot below:
They went extreme on those they protected too, as one might guess with over 125 variations, it ranges from the obvious GoogleIPO.com to silly things that only LOOK like the word, but include number 1 for the L and zeros for one or both "O's" - like Go0g1e.com.
Enough of that - since the IPO is past and of little interest today, we'll move forward next time and look at some things that may have obvious meaning in Google's future.
Labels: domain, domain name, google, IPO, markmonitor, pagerank
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
Here are the top three rated registrars in the Domain Name Wire Annual survey results (PDF).
WebSite101 Domains is a proud reseller participating in the Wild West Domains reseller program, owned by GoDaddy and proudly lend our name as a reseller of their full line of great services.
Labels: domain, domain name, godaddy, reseller, wildwest
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
OK, so new and existing registrars will be allowed to propose new gTLD's (new domain extensions such as .com, .net etc.) and submit them to an approval process which essentially breaks down into the following rules:
First here's the existing list of domain names, plus reference to the 258 two letter country name TLD's.
Wow! I want to jump in there and offer up a few ideas and proposals of my own. Nevermind that I can't deliver, can't win the auction to sell my proposed names and all that. Wouldn't it be cool if we could just have our first name as a domain? So I'd reserve valentine.mike - You know Valentine (Dot) Mike - hey! Why not? That would really be delivering domain NAMES!
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
There are search engine visibility advantages to canadian domains for canada.com searches, Google.ca searches and http://ca.yahoo.com/ searches. While those latter two send plenty of US speaking Canadian visitors to .com domains - the added value of a home-grown perception for Canadians in visiting and frequenting those domains in their own .ca TLD can bring significant benefits to a business.
Canada is one example where one must reside in the country or have a legitimate office there to qualify to reserve a dot .ca domain name under the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) rules. So until your business expands to have a physical presence in Canada, you must remain content to watch the celebration of a million dot ca domains as an outsider. What follows is the CIRA press release and announcement of the celebratory "One Million Domains dot CA site.
April 15, 2008
CANADA HITS ONE MILLION DOT-CA (.CA) INTERNET ADDRESSES
OTTAWA, Ontario, April 15, 2008 – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) announced today that Canadian Internet users have registered one million dot-ca (.ca) Internet domain names. As one of the world’s most wired nations, Canadians continue to use the Internet for personal and business reasons in ever increasing numbers. Reaching the one million dot-ca domain name milestone demonstrates Canada’s strong Internet presence and the popularity of Canadian websites.
Brent Krause of Calgary, Alberta, registered the one-millionth dot-ca domain name, krauslaw.ca, and is using it for a website to promote his private law practice. “I’ve recommended dot-ca domains in the past and dot-ca was my first choice for my own legal practice,” says Krause who has over 10-years experience in intellectual property law.
The dot-ca domain name was established in 1987 by a group of volunteers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and transferred to CIRA in 2000. In 1988 the first dot-ca domain name, upei.ca, was registered by the University of Prince Edward Island. Since then dot-ca domain name usage has grown at over 20% per year. This growth is remarkable considering that dot-ca domains are reserved exclusively for Canadians. “Dot-ca represents Canada on the Internet. A dot-ca domain name, website, or email address means you can be confident that you are dealing with a Canadian or Canadian business online,” says Byron Holland, President and CEO of CIRA.
Dot-ca now ranks as the seventeenth largest Internet domain name registry when compared to generic domain names like dot-com and country specific domain names like dot-uk (United Kingdom). “The registration of over one million dot-ca domains is a testament to the great work being done by CIRA. On behalf of the entire ICANN community, congratulations,” said Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global organization that governs Internet domain names.
To thank Canadians for making a dot-ca their domain name of choice CIRA has launched a celebration website, www.onemilliondomains.ca to highlight dot-ca success stories. Dot-ca domain names are available through a network of over 140 Canadian domain name registrars who also provide a range of Internet solutions including website hosting, email service, and website design.
About CIRA
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the not-for-profit, member-driven organization that manages Canada's dot-ca (.ca) domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada's Internet community, and represents the dot-ca registry internationally. CIRA processes over 300 million requests per day to connect Internet users with over one million dot-ca Internet addresses.For more information or to schedule an interview:
Melisa Durak-Buljubasic
Public Relations and Communications Specialist
Phone: 613-237-5335 (ext. 294)
Cell: 613.219.5328
melisa.db@cira.ca
Labels: .ca, canada, canadian, CIRA, country tld, domain, domain name, dot ca, TLD, URL
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
From the company who bought the site on their own "About Us" page they state:
money.co.uk is owned and managed by Dot Zinc Limited. Our address is 16 Borough High Street, London. SE1 9QG. Dot Zinc Limited (reg. no. 4093922) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority to conduct the regulated business of introducing mortgages and insurance products. Dot Zinc Limited is entered in the Financial Services Authority (FSA) register under number 415689. See FSA Register.In a related note, the British Pound symbol is now represented in a Domain Name of £.com and backed up by the name poundsymbol.com for those without the character on their keyboards. A press release was posted with the announcement today of a planned June 26th auction for the one character domain:money.co.uk is a free, online comparison service allowing customers to compare a range of personal finance products and utilty services. Our objective is to present information in a simple format, enabling initial comparisons to be made 'at a glance' so that customers can make informed financial decisions.
For Over 400 Years the British Pound Symbol has Identified the UK's Unit of Currency, the Pound…Now the pound's online home is for sale. On the afternoon of 26th June 2008, Great Britain's symbol-based "pound domain" will, along with associated property, be offered for sale at public auction.
London, England. April 14 2008 -- Moneyedge Limited wish to announce the sale of it's historic domain name, representing the British pound.
Arguably the pound's "home on the net", this is one of a handful of symbol-based domain names in the world. Richard Haigh, Director of Moneyedge, had this to say about his company's offering:
"This domain name has never been promoted commercially yet has many users curiously typing the name in to their browser on a daily basis. I would say that 99.99% of internet users still do not know that symbol-based domains like this exist. This is understandable, however, as they are extremely rare (only 16 in '.com') and until recently could not be promoted".
"The sale includes other intellectual property, including poundsymbol.com, which will allow our symbol domain to pass the 'radio test' and be promoted in every media. This IP portfolio will probably be acquired by a company looking to create a wholly unique financial services identity on the internet".This unique web identity makes use of IDN (International Domain Name) technology and to access the domain directly visitors need to have a recent web browser like Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2 and be in one of the 18 countries that have the British pound symbol on their keyboards.
Further information on the sale may be obtained from our exclusive sales agent Ocean Tomo (www.oceantomo.com), the USA’s leading Intellectual Capital Merchant Banc ® firm.
About Moneyedge Limited
Established in 1999, we are a small UK company specialising in internet investments, particularly those with a strong marketing angle.
Labels: britain, british, co.uk, domain, domain name, money.co.uk, pound, poundsymbol, TLD
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
Ultimately that client lost his preferred domain name to someone with more decisiveness and I thought, "Wow, what an epic inner battle, over a simple purchase decision! - You'd think they'd die if they didn't make the right decision!" So I sat down and adapted the following Shakespearean soliloquy, spoken by Prince Hamlet while holding the skull of Yorick and ruminating on his own death.
adaptation by Mike Banks Valentine
with apologies to Shakespeare
To be, or not to be: that is Domain question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of slow, free hosting,
Or to take arms against a sea of wannabees,
And by opposing, end them. To search: to seek;
No more; and, by anonymity to say we end
The heartache of a million useless search results
That eBiz is heir to, 'tis a relevancy
Devoutly to be earn'd. To look; to seek;
To find? perchance to link! Ay, there's the URL;
For in search fatigue domain names may come,
When we've shuffl'd off this long URL,
Must give us pause. There's the address
That takes gigabytes for so long a name.
For who would bear the tilde and subdirectory,
The competitor's URL, the name so catchy
The pangs of taken domains, the listing delay,
The insolence of Yahoo, and the spurns
That patient merit of unworthy MySpace,
When he himself might his IPO make
Without Domain name? Who would Google bear,
To grunt through subdirectories and filenames,
But the dread of something after backslash,
The undiscovered Facebook pagefrom whose URL
No surfer returns, puzzles the will
And make us rather bear those URLs we have
Than buy the others that are already taken?
Thus creativity does make cowards of us all;
And thus rush'd to registration of a name
We worry o'er lowly cost of reserving,
And enterprises of great riches and power
With this regard our clients turn away,
And lose the name of action.com
Labels: domain, domain name, hamlet, shakespeare, soliloquy, TLD, URL
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
While Domain names have much to do with both Intellectual Property and Internet Protocol, the focus here is mostly the former. However, there is an issue raised in the book which definitely affects businesses hoping to capitalize on participation in sporting events hosted in a communist country where, due to their political history and cultural differences, they have little respect for Intellectual Property:
“Domain names are quick and easy to register, and so can often fall prey to cyber squatters who get in first.”
It's fascinating the interesting domain names advertisers can come up with for short duration promotions, based on event names, activities and product variants. This Olympics domain name melee will no doubt be full of what the book calls "Ambush Marketing".
"Ambush marketing creates an increased risk particularly by Chinese companies that use their relationships with authorities to target foreign brand owners’ sponsorship of events", the authors stateFortunately, the BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad), wants to encourage a strong Intellectual Property enforcement where China respects IP protection.
Reserve those domain names now - but don't research them at Network Solutions.
Labels: beijing, china, domain, domain name, intellectual property, IP, olympics
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
Register Domains in More Than 100 Native Languages at GoDaddy.com
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- trying to install a high-definition television using instructions printed in a language you neither speak nor read.
Now imagine how much easier it would be to get your message across by communicating in your target’s preferred, native language. GoDaddy.com is helping make the Web truly universal with Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs.
An IDN is a Web address expressed in a native language, and it's helping to revolutionize the Internet. In the past, it has been difficult to translate western character domain names to other languages because popular scripts, such as Arabic, Chinese or Cyrillic, contain characters that were not previously supported by Web browsers.
GoDaddy.com has made Internationalized Domain Names available in more than 100 native languages for .com and .net domain names. Go Daddy also plans to make Internationalized Domain Names available in select languages for .info later this month.
Registering an Internationalized Domain Name with GoDaddy.com gives consumers the chance to build a complete Web presence in most any language. That's because many of the GoDaddy.com products – including Go Daddy Web-based Email and Web hosting packages – support non-Western language-based characters.
GoDaddy.com is committed to making it easier for consumers all over the world to navigate domain names, GoDaddy.com CEO & Founder Bob Parsons said. “With Internationalized Domain Names, users can find what they need in theirown language.
GoDaddy.com Email offers virus protection, spam filtering, phishing fraud protection and 256-bit encryption at no additional charge.
GoDaddy.com is the worlds top paid host provider – all its packages feature unparalleled 24x7 Customer Support, world-class data centers and a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee.
Click herefor more information about Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs.
Visit GoDaddy.comfor more information about products and services to establish or enhance your Web presence.
About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration plans and Web site design and hosting packages, as well as a broad array of on-demand services. These include products such as SSL Certificates, Domains by Proxy private registration, ecommerce Web site hosting, blog templates and blog software, podcast packages and online photo hosting. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 28 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every second. GoDaddy.com is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also the largest paid hosting provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd. uring 2007, The Go Daddy Group registered more than one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .mobi.
- The Go Daddy Group -
Copyright© 2008 GoDaddy.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Labels: domain, domain name, godaddy, idn, internationalized
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
But I've stumbled upon the odd unexpected, and in some cases scandalous thefts when I mis-typed and hit ww.domain-name.com and found hijacked domains which were being stolen by hosts or registrars or hackers. Since they weren't mine, I laughed, or felt uncomfortable or got slightly outraged - and moved on. I can't police other domains for people.
But now Network Solutions is stealing from domain owners - again by simply setting up all unassigned subdomains to resolve to their parked pages with ads on them with the little "under construction" links on them - but full of paid ads which steal from the rightful domain name owner.
When you can blame hackers or forgetful hosts, it's one thing - but when your registrar burglarizes your good name for profit - it's unforgivable. This has to seriously piss off a lot of Network Solutions customers.
Labels: domain, domain name, network, solutions, subdomains, theft
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
Labels: 2.6 million, aftermarket, domain, domain name, pizza.com, sales
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||
Learning More About Expired Web Domain Expiry and Deletion Patterns
By John Khu
Just before a particular expired web domain expires and becomes available for open sale, it will undergo several passages of legal procedures. Here is a brief flowchart of the presumed lifecycle through which a typical expired web domain traverses its eventful passage:
An active web domain may become redundant, when the buyer of that domain somehow misses renewing the domain name for another term. An expired web domain is an open marketable commodity that is available and open for all internet surfers. Just before a web domain expires, the concerned authorities will place the said domain under a series of legal procedures. As an expired web domain entrepreneur, you may need to know these simple legal procedures.
Holding period: This is the first of the series of legal procedures through which a said expired web domain traverses through. Holding period is a specific stage that lies within the registrar’s exclusive control and hold.
Redemption Period: This is a grace period, when the registrar forwards a special favor by paying the renewal fees for the expired web domain in question. This facility is available for the first 45 days, soon after the non-receipt of renewal fees. The registrar will pay the fees in the real hope that the owner of the domain will pay the renewal charges.
The 2nd Stage of Redemption: Once the said expired web domain passes its 45 days of grace period, the registrar will soon announce about the non-payment of renewal fees. In essence, this is the end of the waiting period and the owner may soon loose the control over the expired web domain.
The Stage of Expiry: The final stages of expiry and deletion of an expired web domain lasts to about a month and at this stage the said domain comes back the registrar due to the non-payment of renewal fees.
The Stage of Deletion: This marks the end of the process and the web domain soon turns an expired web domain. This is the most critical stage, when the said expired web domain reverts back to the open market, when anyone can pay the fees and buy it.
Here are some more additional details about expired web domain registration and deletion:
Learning more on how a domain turns into an expired web domain is very critical and important. Additional information and details on this unique topic will help you enrich your skills and knowledge of acquiring expired web domains in an effective manner.
Reference Box:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.
Labels: domain, domain name, expiration, expired, grace period, redemption, renewal
Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly belowPricing starts at only $9.95 - The lowest price you'll find for single year registrations! We Beat Yahoo Domains - Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns a domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name from Yahoo Domains. | ||