John Berryhill to Receive 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award

Elliot Silver
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The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) has announced that the winner of the 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award is industry attorney John Berryhill. John is regarded as one of the absolute best domain industry attorneys, and I think he is deserving of the award. In fact, I am quite sure I was not alone when I nominated John to receive this award.

For many years, John has represented and advised domain name owners in UDRPs, litigation, legal disputes, and other matters involving domain names. John’s insight and intelligence is almost always accompanied by his humor and wit (except at 3:45am on day 2 of the Pan-Mass Challenge). In addition to the exemplary legal work he does on behalf of his clients, John has regularly shared his legal advice on domain forums, often to people who might otherwise not be able to afford his legal expertise.

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ICA Events at NamesCon

Elliot Silver
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The Internet Commerce Association will be hosting or participating in several events and panels during the upcoming NamesCon conference in Las Vegas. Most notably, the ICA will host its annual dinner at the House of Blues restaurant, the B Side lounge at Mandalay Place. Tickets to the dinner are still available to purchase via EventBrite.

Here is a list of public events the ICA is either hosting or participating in during the conference, with the notable exception being the member meeting on Monday:

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ICA to Host Annual Dinner at NamesCon

Elliot Silver
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The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) will be hosting its annual dinner during the NamesCon conference in Las Vegas. The ICA dinner will be held at the House of Blues restaurant, the B Side lounge at Mandalay Place on Monday, January 28th at 6pm.

The annual ICA dinner was started as a way for ICA members to meet and to get to know each other. I believe there will be one or two members of the ICA board who will briefly speak during the event to give an update on ICA initiatives. Some ICA members include Sedo, Escrow.com, GoDaddy, NameBright, and quite a few other companies that are in the domain investment business.

Dinner attendees do not need to be NamesCon conference attendees, so people are invited to purchase tickets for industry friends, significant others, or others who want to support the ICA. In addition

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ICA Fires Back at Verisign

Elliot Silver
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Verisign and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently reached a deal that will allow Verisign to raise the price on .com domain name registrations (and renewals). The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) which represents the interests of domain investors and domain industry companies, had previously organized a campaign in opposition of the price increase. The campaign included a Change.org petition, which achieved over 2,300 signatures of support.

Shortly after the agreement between Verisign and the NTIA was announced, Verisign published a concerning article, which, in my view, seemed to mischaracterize domain investors and domain investing. The blog post referred to domain speculation as “domain scalping.” The company seems to have called out industry leaders GoDaddy and HugeDomains in the article. The sentence I found most concerning was this one that called into question the business of domain investing:

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ICA Seeking Nominations for 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award

Elliot Silver
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Shortly after the unexpected passing of Lonnie Borck, the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) created a domain industry award in his memory. The inaugural award was presented to David Weslow ofWiley Rein, and this year’s award was given to Kathy Kleiman.

The ICA is currently seeking nominations for the 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award. Here’s a description of the Award:

“The Lonnie Borck Memorial Award is granted to an individual for indelible contribution to domain investor rights, and we invite you all to take part in the process and submit your suggestions for the nominees. The nomination process is open to the entire domain name community.”

Nominations will be accepted until November 1st. The ICA Board of Directors will review the nominations and vote on the winner. The Award will be presented during the NamesCon conference in January.

If you know of someone who has made a lasting contribution to protecting and enabling the rights of domain name investors, you should think about submitting a nomination. There are quite a few people that go above and beyond to help protect the rights of domain investors, and it is nice that we can honor them. I already know who I am going to nominate.

Not a week goes by that I don’t think about Lonnie. It’s nice to see this Award being given to someone deserving.

Complainants Winning More at WIPO Each Year, But…

Elliot Silver
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Earlier this morning, I published a poll asking readers about the results of UDRP proceedings to gauge if readers think outcomes have recently been shifting more in favor of domain investors when it comes to valuable (generic / acronym) domain names. So far, it looks like approximately 2/3 of readers who voted in the poll believe domain registrants are faring better now than they did in prior years.

I did some researching using DNDisputes.com, and I was able to find some facts about how UDRP results have changed over the years at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO is the largest UDRP provider, and DNDisputes.com primarily archives decisions from WIPO.

Using DNDisputes.com, I shared the percentage of complaints denied (meaning the domain registrant won) since 2008:

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