Keep Your Whois Info Updated!

Elliot Silver
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I just received an email from a domain broker who appears to be trying to work out a deal on behalf of a client to acquire a domain name. Unfortunately for this broker, I do not own the domain name that was emailed to me.

I looked into why I received the email, and I assumed that the owner’s email address is similar to mine and the broker made an error.  I was incorrect. Strangely enough, the Whois contact is an email address @ a domain name that I own, which I picked up earlier this year or last year at NameJet. The owner likely isn’t receiving notifications for his domain name, and he isn’t receiving offers like this either.

Someone else might try to take possession of the domain name that is linked to the account. That is of course illegal and not something I would do. However, it seems like it would be easy to do should the name I own have been bought by someone else.

People are often critical of using free email services like Gmail and Hotmail. I think it beats managing your own email in many cases, and this is one example of why.

Perhaps the broker will pick up the phone and call the registrant to let him know about the offer and that the email address isn’t connected. Maybe she’ll be able to close two deals!

Domain Investor for Congress?

Elliot Silver
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I received a Google Alert about an article in a publication called Mother Jones, and it seems like a domain investor may be running for US Congress in the state of Florida. Trey Radel is a Republican candidate running for office in Florida’s 19th Congressional District.

According to reports, he is or was a domain investor, and the reason this seems to have made news is that some of the domain names allegedly owned by his company are adult in nature. Here’s what the News Press had to say about the situation:

“Congressional candidate Trey Radel faces another round of web-related controversy following disclosure that a now-defunct company he owned purchased several sexually explicit website domain names.

The domain names, mostly in Spanish, included “casadelasputas.com” (whorehouse), “cojoble.com”, a slang term defined as a woman who does not look good but is good enough to sleep with, and “mamadita.com” (hot babe), according to documents from a historical search service provided via the website Domain Tools.“

Nobody is accusing Mr. Radel of posting adult content. However, people seem to be coming out against him for allegedly owning adult themed domain names. If owning adult related domain names can be problematic for someone running for office, I guess you can rule out almost all professional domain investors, myself included.

Pretty crappy to rule out an Internet entrepreneur because his company may have purchased adult-related domain names.

You can learn more about Mr. Radel on his campaign’s website. Of course, he smartly owns TreyRadel.com.

Could Grantland Interview Lead to UDRP for CharlotteBobcats.com

Elliot Silver
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The Charlotte Bobcats are a relatively new NBA franchise, having been established in 2004 as an expansion franchise after the Hornets moved to New Orleans. You can find information about the team at Bobcats.com, which was purchased for $50,000 in September of 2007.

If you visit CharlotteBobcats.com, you will not find any information about the NBA basketball team because it is not owned by the team. This afternoon on Grantland (founded by one of my all time favorite sports writers, Bill Simmons), there’s an article about the history of the CharlotteBobcats.com domain name.

As you might expect, the Bobcats reportedly attempted to purchase the domain name, offering incentives that ranged from season tickets to just under $100,000 cash. The owners of the domain name rejected all offers, and they have not heard back in several years.

The article is well worth a read, although I am wondering if the article could possibly lead to a UDRP filing against the owners of the domain name.

To win a UDRP, a complainant must provide evidence that meets three tenets:

1) The domain name is confusingly similar to a trademark
2) Owner lacks rights in the domain name
3) Domain name was registered and used in bad faith

In the article, the owner of the domain name admitted that the name was registered based on three potential team names for the Charlotte franchise. Further, the article mentioned that the owners receive quite a bit of emails intended for the Bobcats, so apparently some people are confusing their domain name with the team.

UDRP panels have been inconsistent when it comes to rulings, so this certainly wouldn’t be a cut and dry filing. However, if the Bobcats were willing to offer close to $100,000 to buy this domain name, an article like this might irritate them enough to file a UDRP.

It wouldn’t be the first time a NBA team used a UDRP to get a domain name it wanted. In fact, it seems that the NBA is proficient with its UDRP filings.

The NBA did lose a UDRP for Knicks.com back in 2000, but since Knicks.com now forwards to the Knicks website, it looks like they were able to strike a deal eventually.

If I owned a domain name like CharlotteBobcats.com, I would feel very fortunate to have received offers to buy the domain name instead of legal threats. You have to wonder if the article will grab the attention of the NBA and/or the Bobcats and lead to a UDRP.

Your Favorite Account Manager In The Domain Industry Is…

Elliot Silver
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Last week, I asked you to nominate your favorite account manager / account representative in the domain industry. I was very happy to see that nearly 30 dedicated individuals from more than 15 companies were nominated by happy clients. Several account managers were nominated by more than one person.

Over 1,000 votes were cast in the poll, and I am happy to announce that the winner of the $500 cash prize is Brian Kleiner from Afternic, who was first nominated by Mike “Zappy” Zapolin. There were three people who nominated Brian, and his clients were very supportive of him in this vote.

Neil Kavanaugh, Vice President of Sales and Customer Service at Afternic, had great things to say about Brian:

“Brian eats, sleeps and breathes the domain business. It comes as no surprise to me that he has been recognized by his customers and colleagues for his outstanding efforts. Brian came to AfternicDLS with a tremendous background in web and lead-gen businesses, and he’s been able to leverage that experience to help his loyal customer base identify great domain opportunities. He has also been a great role model to his peers on the AfternicDLS sales team who have learned from his unique skill set and dedication to his customers.“

There are a two large companies I also want to commend. NameMedia, whose Afternic, Buy Domains, and SmartName business units had a total of seven nominees (Aaron Visaggio, Christina Forker, Dave Helgeson, Molly Reimer, Patrick Calvoni, and Rich Green. Go Daddy also had seven nominees (Brad Larson, Tess Diaz, George Eblacker, Marc Gawith, Brett Meyers, Pete Davis, and Russ Dailey).

It was great to see so many nominees and so many companies represented in this poll. Keep up the good work and great client service. Congratulations to Brian!

Daily Morning Email Newsletters

Elliot Silver
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I want to share a list of the morning email newsletters related to the domain industry I receive on a daily basis. Some of these may come at different times for you depending on your time zone, but they arrive in the morning for me for the most part.

If you subscribe to a list or newsletter that I should be getting but don’t please let me know so I can add it.

  • NameJet saved searches (wish they came as one email)
  • NameJet – 100 Most Active Pre-Release Backorders
  • NameJet – 50 Most Active Pending Delete Backorders
  • Media Options brokerage newsletter
  • TobyClements.com brokerage newsletter.com
  • Domaining.com Headlines
  • WIPO UDRP Decisions
  • National Arbitration Forum UDRP Decisions
  • Elliot’s Blog Articles from Yesterday

What other newsletters or lists do you receive in the morning that help you with your domain business?

Dow Jones Industrial Average Companies That Own Stock Symbol Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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There are many publicly traded companies that own the .com domain name that match their stock symbol. One example, of course, is Facebook, which acquired FB.com last year and now trades under the FB symbol on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

I thought it would be interesting to do an analysis of the 30 companies that are  components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Listed below are the companies, the stock symbol, and a Yes or No for whether the company owns the stock symbol .com domain name.

  • 3M Co – MMM – Yes
  • Alcoa Inc – AA – No
  • American Express – AXP – No
  • AT&T Inc – T – No
  • Bank of America Corp – BAC  – Yes
  • Boeing Co – BA – No
  • Caterpillar Inc – CAT – Yes
  • Chevron Corp – CVX – No
  • Cisco Systems Inc – CSCO – No
  • E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co – DD – No
  • Exxon Mobil Corp – XOM – Yes
  • General Electric Co – GE – Yes
  • Hewlett-Packard Co – HPQ – Yes
  • Home Depot Inc – HD – No
  • Intel Corp – INTC – Yes
  • International Business Machines Co – IBM – Yes
  • Johnson & Johnson – JNJ – Yes
  • JPMorgan Chase and Co – JPM – Yes
  • Kraft Foods Inc – KFT – No
  • McDonald’s Corp – MCD – Yes
  • Merck & Co Inc – MRK – No
  • Microsoft Corp – MSFT – No
  • Pfizer Inc – PFE – No
  • Procter & Gamble Co – PG – Yes
  • The Coca-Cola Co – KO – Yes
  • Travelers Companies Inc – TRV – No
  • United Technologies Corp – UTX – No
  • Verizon Communications Inc – VZ – No
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc – WMT – No
  • Walt Disney Co – DIS – No

Somewhat surprisingly, 13 of the 30 DJIA components own their stock symbol domain name. It appears that some don’t even use their domain names though. MCD.com and HPQ.com don’t resolve for me, which is a bit silly since they could easily be forwarded if development isn’t warranted.

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