Delaware’s secretary of state not in favor of any new corporate-themed new gTLDs
Delaware’s secretary of state, Jeff Bullock, has made it known that he opposes new corporate-themed gTLD applications, such as .inc, .corp and .ltd.
Bullock submitted his concerns to ICAAN this past Friday, following a previous suggestion that select applications may have adequate restrictions to make them suitable.
Bullock said:
“None of the applications contains a fully thought out, achievable, transparent and enforceable system for fully safeguarding that a firm remains legally registered with a company registry at all times.
…
None of the applications adequately safeguards consumers, legitimate businesses, the public at large, state regulators, and the internet itself from the risks that “company endings” are used for fraudulent or misleading purposes.
Therefore, at this stage of the gTLD process, I strongly believe that the public is best served if these company endings are not made available for use. There is no overriding public policy purpose or strong business case for making them available and the opportunity for fraud and abuse is very high.”
There are a currently about a couple dozen corporate-themed gTLD applications, including contests for: .inc, .corp, .llp, .ltd, .company and .gmbh.
In March of this year, prior to the publication of any of the applications, Bullock and other state secretaries said that corporate-themed gTLDs ought to be permitted only with “restrictions that would attempt to protect legitimate businesses and consumers from confusion or fraud.”
Bullock’s statement recommended that the DOT Registry’s plans would be sufficient, but now he’s obviously had a change of opinion after looking over the applications.
There is a high probability that objections will be filed in opposition to a number of or all of these applications, judging from the March letters.
Delaware is a state where many US-based companies file for registration, because of the state’s liberal company laws.
Ashley Furniture files cybersquatting suit against the owner of 123 domain names
Ashley Furniture is no stranger to filing aggressive UDRPs. The furniture has a track record of only filing suits in unmistakable cybersquatting cases, and the company argues that its latest cybersquatting dispute against a Maryland man is pretty clear cut.
Ashley Furniture filed a lawsuit against Jon Parks, who the furniture company claims registered 123 domain names that include the company’s marks, which is in violation of the Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act. The company says that Parks is a former employee of Horich Parks Lebow Advertising, the ad agency that handled the furniture company‘s marketing and advertisements.
Some of the domains in question are ashleybed.com, ashleychair.com, ashleyfurni.com, ashleyarizona.com, and ashleyfurnitureashleyfurniture.com.
The company alleges that after Parks received a demand letter, he tried to cancel the registration for the domains he registered that contained the name “Ashley” and select furniture terms. The registrant information for some of those domains is indeed gone.
However, the company claim that Parks failed to cancel the domain names that included the name “Ashley” and specific geographic locations, such as AshleyGeoriga.com
“Mr. Parks refuses to transfer the Infringing Domain Names that he continues to own to Ashley and disingenuously claims he intended to register domains corresponding with the female name, “Ashley” or a geographic location. Mr. Parks’ previous work in the advertising industry for furniture companies, including Ashley’s customers, combined with his registration of domains like ashleybed.com, ashleychair.com and ashleyfurnitureashleyfurniture.com clearly refute any innocent explanation for registering 123 domain names incorporating the ASHLEY trademark.”
The company is seeking up to $100,000 in damages per domain name.
SnapNames.com cancelled auction for Hobby.com after the domain reached a bid price of $26k with three days left before auction close
Following a posting on a popular domaining site about the stellar going rate for expired domain Hobby.com, SnapNames.com pulled the domain from the auction block. SnapNames.com claimed that the domain was entered into it’s auction system by mistake, but the domain’s Whois record tells a different story.
SnapNames.com claimed that the domain was set to expire on August 15, 2013, but the Whois record shows that the domain did indeed expire on August 15, 2012. Mistake or not, SnapNames.com left a trail of 172 two angry bidders who vied for a chance at the domain name in a closed auction.
Domain Bought In 2007 For $875 Sells For $67,000
It’s always nice to see domain investors receive a huge return-on-investment, and an Australian domain name investor is the latest success story. David Lye, the owner of Publishing Australia and registrar company NetFleet, sold the domain Hobart.com.au for $67,000 after investing $875 in the domain back in 2007. Lye claimed that the domain’s sale is actually quite the bargain, in regards to the difficulty associated with developing geographic domains. Web hosting company Barkhost, bought the domain.