Registrant Retains Hims.com Domain Name

November 17, 2018

In October, I wrote about the UDRP filed against the Hims.com domain name. The UDRP was decided by a three member panel, and the domain registrant will be able to keep the domain name after the complaint was denied.

The primary reason the complaint was denied was because proving the domain name was registered in bad faith, which is necessary to prevail in a UDRP, was impossible. I mentioned that in the article I wrote about the UDRP filing, and the panel ruled in favor of the domain registrant because of that. Here’s the relevant discussion in the decision:

“Respondent contends that its renewal of the registration does not establish bad faith. When a respondent registers a domain name prior to a complainant establishing rights in a mark, Panels have overwhelmingly found that the respondent did not register a domain name in bad faith. See Telecom Italia S.p.A. v. NetGears LLC, FA 944807 (Forum May 16, 2007) (determining the respondent could not have registered or used the disputed domain name in bad faith where the respondent registered the disputed domain name before the complainant began using the mark); see also Arena Football League v. Armand F. Lange & Assocs., FA 128791 (Forum Dec. 26, 2002) (“[O]nce a Panel finds that a domain name was originally registered in good faith, any subsequent renewal [that] could qualify as having been done in bad faith is irrelevant: the relevant point of inquiry occurs at registration, not renewal of that registration.”). The Panel finds that Respondent’s registration of the domain name predates Complainant’s claimed rights in the HIMS mark by more than twenty years, and that its use of the domain name was legitimate both before and after renewal. Specifically, the Panel notes that Respondent is entitled to use the disputed domain name as he sees fit, regardless of the timing of discussions regarding Complainant’s desire to purchase the disputed domain name. “

Not surprisingly, the domain registrant asked the panel to consider a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). It looks like the registrant asked for this because of the impossibility of registering the domain name in bad faith so many years prior to the complainant’s existence. The panel declined

Why It’s Wise to Check Stats Regularly

Elliot Silver

November 16, 2018

I don’t make a ton of money from PPC. It’s in the three figures a month so it doesn’t move the needle but it pays for a handful of renewals. I probably check my earnings a few times a week just to see where things stand. Sometimes I see a nice little bump and other times it’s status quo.

Yesterday I noticed a big jump in traffic across one of my portfolios. I didn’t think much of it because these blips tend to happen every once in a while. Perhaps a company sent a newsletter with my url instead of theirs, or maybe an old news story that links to one of my parked domain names because of its prior usage got some social media traction. More often than not, this is a brief occurrence.

When I checked a parking account today, I noticed that traffic doubled across the board from yesterday. Today’s traffic figures (meaning the numbers from yesterday) are approximately 4x what I typically see on a daily basis. I am not talking about massive traffic but it is a substantial difference.

Even with the jump in traffic, the revenue

Wanted: GoDaddy Aftermarket Data Newsletter

Elliot Silver

November 16, 2018

Over the past few years, GoDaddy has built one of the top domain name portfolios. The company doesn’t report internal sales publicly, but I would imagine it sells a higher volume of domain names than almost any other portfolio owner. The company also sells domain names on behalf of domain investor clients via Afternic and GoDaddy Auctions.

Put simply, GoDaddy has the most and perhaps the best domain name sale data that could be helpful to others, including investors who sell via Afternic and GoDaddy. Reportedly because GoDaddy is a publicly traded entity, the company does not publicly share domain name sales data or information about its sales.

With that being said, I think it would be beneficial to domain investors and GoDaddy customers if the company would be willing to share some of its data, even if it does not reveal information that could be used to infer anything about earnings.

Here is some of the information I would find helpful and why:

Dave Evanson Brokers Sale of Kush.com for $500,000

Elliot Silver

November 15, 2018

Sedo broker Dave Evanson announced that he successfully brokered the sale of the Kush.com domain name for $500,000. Dave announced the sale this afternoon via Twitter:

Just sold Kush .com for $500,000 @sedo!! Congrats to buyer and seller!!

— dave evanson (@SedoDaveEvanson) November 15, 2018

According to Wikipedia, “Kush is a strain of Cannabis indica.” Kush is a popular term in the marijuana trade, and I think the sale price reflects that popularity.

I don’t always know what the asking price of a domain name was before it sells, but in this case I do: $3 million. An article in Merry Jane published in October of 2017 discussed the value of Kush.com. It appears that Dave reached out to the publication (or someone associated with the publication) and offered the domain name for sale. When he was asked the price, Dave reportedly responded,

GDPR Making It Harder to Research Inbound Offers

Elliot Silver

November 15, 2018

A couple of weeks ago, I closed a deal with a buyer who resides in the UK. The domain name I sold was not particularly valuable, but I still like to do some research on the buyer and prospective usage of the domain name before agreeing to a deal.

Shortly after the offer was submitted via my landing page, I could not find a whole lot of information about the buyer. I did several Google searches for the buyer’s name and the email address. Unfortunately, the name was fairly common and the email address did not yield much helpful information. I also searched similar domain names to see

The buyer and I ended up agreeing to a deal that was slightly below the listed asking price, so it worked out in the end because there was no commission involved. The deal closed and all was fine.

Yesterday afternoon, I was curious to see if the domain name was

Twice Sold for $22k, Undergraduate.com in “On Hold” Status

Elliot Silver

November 14, 2018

At the top of NameJet’s “The Drop” list of domain names that are pending delete is the Undergraduate.com domain name. It has been registered at Uniregistry, and it is currently in “On Hold” status until it deletes, at which point drop catching services will compete to grab it and re-register the domain name.

Undergraduate.com is quite valuable, and the domain name has been sold publicly at least twice before. NameBio shows two public sales records:

$22,000 via Sedo in May of 2011
$22,301 via NameJet in March of 2014

Once the domain name drops and is caught by a third party, the domain name creation date will reflect its 2018 registration.

At the present time, I can see that there

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