A UDRP was filed against the SteveJobs.com domain name at the NAF. The complainant in this UDRP is Steve Jobs Archive, LLC, which is described in the complaint as “the lawful owner of the Steve Jobs publicity rights and the trademark rights in the STEVE JOBS name.” The UDRP decision was published yesterday evening, and the complainant won the proceeding and will get the SteveJobs.com domain name unless a lawsuit is filed to overturn the decision.
Mercury, a banking company “built for startups,” has operated on the Mercury.CO domain name since its inception. Earlier this week, Jamie Zoch reported that the brand match .com domain name, Mercury.com, had moved into Escrow.com’s escrow account and might have been sold:
Wowser! Mercury(.)com moves into escrow via Escrow(.)com! The domain has been registered since 1990 and was owned by Micro Focus Software Inc. (Novell, Inc.) This was a former HPE owned domain until late 2017 when Novell took ownership. Buyers are currently unknown.
— Jamie Zoch (@DotWeekly) December 9, 2019
When a domain broker represents a domain owner by selling a domain name, the broker receives a previously negotiated percentage of the sale as compensation for a successful deal. When a broker is working on behalf of a buyer, the compensation structure can not be set up in the same way, as that would pit the broker’s interest against the interest of the client:
I don’t discuss my proprietary compensation model publicly (it was developed in consultation with my clients) but you are on the right track. What I suggest, in general, is that the broker’s compensation model ALWAYS be aligned with the client’s objectives.
— Bill Sweetman (@BillSweetman) December 11, 2019
In 2015, Pharmaceuticals.com was reportedly sold for $50,000 via Flippa. The sale was reported by TheDomains.com and other domain investment publications. Despite being acquired for $50,000, the Pharmaceuticals.com domain name is in expiry status at GoDaddy, and it is currently up for auction at GoDaddy Auctions. With just under two days remaining in the auction, there have been 102 bids from 24 different bidders, and the high bid stands at $19,250.
A little over ten years ago, Sean Stafford launched Domain Graduate, an educational resource to help people learn about the business of domain investing. I recall it being filled with good information that would be helpful to newcomers to learn about buying, monetizing, and selling domain names. It had a lot of good information to help people flatten the domain investing learning curve.
Up until recently, I don’t think Domain Graduate was regularly updated. I am sure the many of the topics were still relevant today, but much has changed in the business of domain investing since the book was first published. Some strategies that worked ten years ago wouldn’t make sense today, there are many new companies in the business and quite a few that have departed, and the overall business of domain investing has changed quite a bit.
Nearly one year ago, Charlotte Gilbert (known as Charlie to her friends and family), passed away after a long battle with Pulmonary Hypertension. Charlie had a double transplant (heart and lungs) and bravely fought for her life with her husband Brian by her side. Sadly, she was taken far too soon. I learned of Charlie’s passing earlier this year as I was getting ready to head home from NamesCon.
