General Domain Information

It’s important to have a basic understanding of trademarks when it comes to domain investing. I have absolutely no legal background or expertise, but I have done my own research by following UDRP filings and various litigation involving domain names. Basically what I am saying here is that this should not be construed as legal advice because I have no legal expertise.

Over the weekend, I saw Theo’s article about a nice domain name that was sold at Sedo. A reader there commented about the number of trademarks for the term and how that makes it risky. I want to share one good aspect of a keyword .com domain name having many trademarks and one bad aspect of that – from my perspective as a domain name investor who buys one word .com domain names.

Rob Schutz, who goes by the enviable @Rob handle on Twitter, is a Co-Founder of Ro, an online health services company. Rob has also built a domain brokerage business called Snagged.com. I have never worked on a domain name deal with Rob, but I have seen his name mentioned before and have had conversations with him on Twitter.

On Sunday, Rob received a shoutout from Alexis Ohanian, the serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Reddit. Alexis was showing appreciation for Rob related to an undisclosed domain name acquisition:

Earlier today, Andrew Miller and Larry Fischer were joined on a video discussion with Jim Campbell, Founder of Honeymoons.com. I wrote about the success the company has been having following the acquisition of the Honeymoons.com domain name, and Andrew and Larry spent some time chatting with Jim.

If you were unable to watch their stream live, you can view it here:

I was chatting with an acquaintance on Tuesday, and out of the blue he told me a brief story. In short, he said he thought about me the other day when he mistyped a web address and landed on some sort of spammy/scammy landing page. I explained that isn’t the type of business I operate, but for all intents and purposes, it didn’t matter. He landed on what was likely a PPC monetized typo domain name and his first thought was of my business.

In the vast expanse of the digital domain,
Where dreams unfold, and fortunes reign.

A new year dawns, a canvas to explore,
With domain names in our portfolio, we seek success galore.

Some chase the .com, a classic endeavor,
In the realm of the web, an extension to savor.

Others set sail on the .AI, .CO, or .IO tides,
Innovation and tech, with them, they ride.

I think one of Lonnie Borck’s proudest domain investing moments was acquiring the Jewish.com domain name. Lonnie was proud to be the owner of such an important and meaningful domain name. Lonnie subsequently closed a deal with attorney Ari Goldberger, who is now the owner of this domain name.

Jewish.com is now being used in an effort to raise money to purchase ambulances for United Hatzalah, a Jewish volunteer emergency medical service organization. Lonnie was an EMT and leader in the Baltimore, Maryland chapter of Hatzalah. According to Jewish.com, the first ambulance purchased with donated funds will be donated in memory of Lonnie.