According to Verisign's DomainView Tool, nearly 4,000 .com and .net domain names have been registered with the Pokemon trademark in them during the past 7 days. This includes 421 .net domain names and 3,447 .com domain names. I am sure there have been hundreds or possibly thousands of other Pokemon-related domain names registered in ccTLDs and new gTLD domain names during the same time period.

Although some of these domain names may potentially be used legitimately, many of them are risky to own. I think Nintendo could file UDRP proceedings or potentially file a massive cybersquatting lawsuit if they wished. I have no idea what the company's tolerance level is for domain names with their trademarks, but I think it is very risky for people to buy domain names with trademarks like this. Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer of course.

I am always looking to buy domain names and have a (more…) → Read More

Whenever there is something viral or trending, it seems that people register a ton of domain names to try and capitalize on the trend or participate in it in a unique way.

If you've been watching the news for the last few days (or are into gaming), you've probably heard about Pokemon Go. If you haven't, CNN published an article about it yesterday.

As with other trends, it seems that people are trying (more…) → Read More

When Verisign released its list of  "Top 10 Trending Keywords in .Com & .Net Registrations in October," I was surprised to see that "Nike" was one of the trending keywords. This month, another popular and well known brand is on the list for .Net registrations.

Here's a tweet from Verisign announcing the monthly list, along with a blog post that shares more information about the monthly trend list:

New on the blog: November's top 10 trending keywords in .com & .net registrations https://t.co/pS4yhq2Jiu

— VERISIGN (@VERISIGN) December 8, 2015

In an unsurprising UDRP decision, the Bloomberg.Market domain name has been awarded to Bloomberg Finance. As you may recall, a website was set up on Bloomberg.Market to look like the actual Bloomberg website and an unfounded news report was published. The result was a giant temporary fluctuation in the price of Twitter stock.

The UDRP decision was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, and it can be found on the UDRPSearch.com website. There was one panelist presiding over this UDRP decision, and not surprisingly, the respondent did not issue a response to the complaint.

You can read the entire UDRP decision for yourself if you would like, but here are a couple of interesting tidbits I found: (more…) → Read More

I was looking through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) UDRP filings, and I saw that Bloomberg Finance, L.P. has filed a UDRP on the Bloomberg.News domain name. The UDRP is WIPO Case D2015-1378.

According to Whois information, the Bloomberg.News domain name is registered to someone with a Beijing address, and it was created on July 14, 2015. Interestingly, on the same day Bloomberg.News was registered, Bloomberg dealt with a fake Twitter corporate report that appeared on Bloomberg.Market, another gTLD domain name. Perhaps the registrant of Bloomberg.News was inspired by the Bloomberg.Market news.

I don't think Bloomberg will (more…) → Read More

While at the domain investor meetup in Chicago, I met someone whose company has an interesting business model that monetizes trademark domain names. While I think it is highly risky for people to own domain names that contain famous trademarks or are typos of famous marks, I thought Protected Parking's business model was interesting.

I understand that Protected Parking has deals with major branding owners that allow them to monetize domain names that likely would be considered cases of cybersquatting. It is also possible that keyword domain owners could use their services if their domain name is in a vertical that monetizes well with the company.

I asked Marlon Phillips, the company's Vice President of Sales, if he could share more information about his company, and here's what he told me: (more…) → Read More