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John Berryhill: What to Include in Outbound Email

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When I have a legal question regarding domain names, I usually discuss it with attorney John Berryhill. My feeling is that I would rather pay for John’s legal expertise than to wing it. The domain industry is fortunate that John regularly offers insights and wisdom on public venues like Namepros and X at no cost.

Yesterday morning, a Namepros member asked a question about sending outbound emails to sell a one word .io domain name. Doing outbound marketing to prospective buyers can be risky, particularly when there is limited usage for the term that makes up the domain name. Quite a few factors can make outbound marketing efforts more risky than others, and understanding the risks and how to mitigate them is important.

ICA and WIPO Collaborate on UDRP Review

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The UDRP is a mechanism that allows trademark and brand owners to secure infringing domain names more rapidly than through traditional litigation. Third party providers like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) administer and oversee UDRP filings and decisions.

This morning, WIPO published a news release announcing that it will conduct a collaborative review of the UDRP in coordination with the Internet Commerce Association (ICA). The ICA is an advocacy group working on behalf of domain name registrants and domain industry service providers. I am a member of the ICA, as are many domain investors. Participating in the review project are numerous intellectual property attorneys who are familiar with the business of domain investing.

QW.com UDRP Denied Due to “Fraudster”

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A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the valuable 2 letter QW.com domain name. The complaint was a bit confusing, pitting the Complainant, Quickware, Inc. / Williams Fred, against Quickware, represented by Fred Williams, as the Respondent.

The sole panelist, Scott Blackmer, ruled in favor of the domain registrant in this UDRP. The decision was published on the WIPO website this morning. Based on my reading of the decision, it appears that someone impersonated the domain registrant in an attempt to wrest control over this high value domain name using the fairly inexpensive UDRP:

Converse.CO UDRP Decision Turns on Price Inference

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In general, I thought UDRP panels have gotten past the issue of pricing as it relates to generic / descriptive one word domain names. A domain registrant who owns a one word .com – or alternative extension – domain name that is descriptive in nature should be able to make their own determination about the pricing based on their own expectations.

I am sure most of you have heard of the sportswear and shoe company called Converse. My daughter has a pair of the canvas Converse Chuck Taylor shoes, as do millions of others around the world. Converse is a well-known brand.

However, converse is also a dictionary term related to being engaged in conversation. With chat technology and chatbots in the news of late due to advancements in artificial intelligence, conversation related keywords are probably worth more now than ever before. In addition, I have been seeing startups and other businesses using non .com domain names quite a bit, and they seem to be selling for more. For instance, Doron Vermaat reported the $52,000 sale of Fire.CO just 3 days ago.

Nissan Going after Nissan.ai

Nissan is an automaker that uses NissanUSA.com for its website here in the US. The reason it uses an off-brand domain name is because it lost a very long legal battle to try and wrest control of Nissan.com. That domain name had long been owned by a man named Uzi Nissan, who had it for his business. You can read about the legal battle on Wikipedia. Mr. Nissan passed away in 2022.

It looks like Nissan is now trying to take control of another Nissan domain name. This time, the company has its sights set on Nissan.ai, and it is using the UDRP process. As you know, .AI is the ccTLD extension for the country of Anguilla, and it has become popular with the advancements in artificial intelligence and the venture funding devoted to AI-related companies.

Karen Bernstein Appointed as UDRP Panelist

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Karen Bernstein is an Intellectual Property lawyer who has considerable domain industry expertise. Karen has been involved in the domain space for quite some time, and she is a regular participant at domain industry events.

According to a LinkedIn post she shared yesterday, Karen has been appointed as a UDRP panelist at the National Arbitration Forum.

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