Earlier this afternoon, the Internet Commerce Association announced a new benefit for members of its trade organization. ICA members will receive a 15% discount on legal work performed by five participating domain industry attorneys. In addition to this discount, new ICA members also receive a $200 subsidy on the first $1,000 of legal work performed by one of these five attorneys.
The five attorneys who are currently participating in this special offer are as follows:
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is seeking nominations from within the domain name investment community for the 2021 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award. The award, which is named in memory of Lonnie Borck, is given “to honor those whose contributions have fostered a sense of community within the domain name industry.” This will be the fifth year the Lonnie Borck Memorial Award has been given.
The winner of the 2020 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award was Ron Jackson, Publisher of DNJournal. Previous recipients of the award are John Berryhill, Kathy Kleiman, and David Weslow.
On occasion, I receive emails from domain registrants who have either received a UDRP notice from WIPO or NAF or have been threatened with a UDRP filing. I know a fair amount of information about the UDRP, but I do not have the legal expertise necessary to offer actionable advice about responding to a UDRP or a legal threat.
When I am asked for advice, I typically suggest that the person reach out to a domain name attorney who can offer professional advice on the threat or legal filing. There are a handful of attorneys who I have sought out advice from over the years, including John Berryhill, Jason Schaeffer, Zak Muscovitch, Stevan Lieberman, and Brett Lewis (apologies to anyone I have forgotten), depending on the circumstances.
Jeff Gabriel, founder of Saw.com, posted a video to discuss why he thinks domain investors should join the Internet Commerce Association (ICA). The ICA recently announced a lower membership tier, which costs $300/year. Saw.com is a Bronze-level member of the ICA.
In the video, Jeff discussed some of the ICA’s recent activities. I did not hear Jeff discuss this, but I still think one of the biggest wins for the ICA was its successful advocacy to discredit the retroactive bad faith theory many complainants referenced in UDRP proceedings.
Here’s Jeff’s appeal to domain investors:
In an effort to expand its membership base to include a wider group of domain investors and registrants, the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) announced a new, lower cost membership tier. The ICA Board of Directors voted to add a Basic level membership at a cost of $25/month or an annual membership fee of $300. The ICA is an organization that advocates for the rights and interests of domain name registrants.
All ICA membership levels include access to ICA email alerts, webinars, and other important updates from ICA leadership. Basic members of the ICA will be included in the ICA member directory (with name only) and will have weighted voting for ICA Board elections with half the voting weight of an Individual member. You can see all membership tiers on the ICA’s membership sign-up page.
Inspired by Roxane Gay’s tweet about helping people in economic need during the coronavirus pandemic, the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) has started a social media initiative to enable domain investors to assist people in need:
ICA is the domain industry’s trade association. We recognize many are finding it difficult to pay their bills now. If you’re really struggling, reply to our thread with #DomainAssist & way to receive payment. Following the example of @rgay, some of our members would like to help
— Internet Commerce (@ICADomains) March 19, 2020
