Rioja.com Subject of UDRP at WIPO (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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2

A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the Rioja.com domain name. This is WIPO Case D2018-0168.

According to Vivino.com, “Rioja is arguably Spain’s top wine region and is one of only two regions classified under the Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) system. Its two most important red grapes are Tempranillo and Garnacha.” The Rioja.com domain name was created in November of 1996, making the domain name more than 20 years old. The domain name is registered under Whois privacy and has been like that for more than 5 years, so I am unsure about who owns the domain name.

Rioja.com is parked with pay per click advertising links related to the region and some other unrelated links. There should not be

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Glory.com Decision is Good but Highlights Outbound Risk

Elliot Silver
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14

Earlier today, WIPO published the Glory.com UDRP decision. The complaint was denied and the domain owner (Microstrategy) will get to keep the Glory.com domain name. This is great because Glory.com is a high value domain name (they paid $115,000 in 2003 and it is worth substantially more today) that is generic in nature.

From my vantage point, the decision should have been pretty much a no brainer. Glory.com is a meaningful one word .com domain name that could be used by any number of companies called Glory. There are literally companies throughout the world known as Glory, and many of these would likely have a similar claim to the name as the complainant tried to prove. That being said, there was something a bit concerning in the UDRP decision that I look at as cautionary:

“This Panel’s finding is also supported by the fact that Respondent undisputedly never attempted itself to contact Complainant with the offer to sell the disputed domain name, but that Respondent quietly held the disputed domain name for 13 years. “

My interpretation is that had

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PDD .com Story is Eye Opening

Elliot Silver
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46

Someone shared a story on NamePros about the alleged purchase of PDD.com, and it is eye opening.​. From what I understand, it looks like the buyer agreed to buy PDD.com for $42,000, used Escrow.com to transact, had the domain name in his Network Solutions account for a brief period of time, instructed Escrow.com to release the funds, and then had the domain name removed from his Network Solutions account. It is eye opening and probably something every domain investor fears.

I quickly scanned the thread and took a look at the ownership history of PDD.com using the invaluable DomainTools Whois History Tool. For quite some time, it looks like the registrant email address was first initial last name @pdd.com. That is what the current Whois record shows as well. At some point in late October or early November, the Whois email address changed to an @gmail.com address. It looks like the other fields stayed the same. This is a red flag. A second red flag would be the alleged seller’s email address not matching the Whois email address.

This is really eye opening because even though there were two red flags that I could see, this is not necessarily a dealbreaker. I have bought names where the seller changed the email from @domainname in preparation for a sale. Someone who used

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UDRP Filed Against Booking.com’s DirectBooking.com Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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0


I noticed what seems like a bit of a peculiar UDRP filing at the World Intellectual Property Organization. A UDRP was filed against the DirectBooking.com domain name. The case is WIPO Case D2017-2577.

There are a couple of reasons I found this UDRP peculiar and notable. The “direct booking” keyword seems pretty generic to me. Of course, intellectual property can involve generic terms, but this one seems particularly generic.

The other aspect that jumped out at me is that the only “booking” brand I know about is Booking.com. The company has spent a ton of money on marketing, and it is the first and only company I think about when I think of the word booking. Interestingly, Booking.com is the

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AXA Files UDRP Against .org Domain Owned by Organization (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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0

I wanted to share an interesting UDRP filing I noticed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). AXA, a very large multinational insurance company, filed a UDRP against the exact match .org domain name, AXA.org. The case is WIPO Case D2017-2497.

Not only is this a relatively valuable three letter .org domain name, it looks like AXA.org is registered to an organization called Advocates Across America. AXA.org was originally created in August of 1997. My guess is that the current registrant was the original registrant of the domain name over twenty years ago.

At the present time, AXA.org resolves to a Network Solutions “under construction” landing page without any content. In looking at Archive.org, I can see that AXA.org had been used several years ago. On its homepage in August of 2009, the organization was appealing to “PLEASE HELP THE NATIONAL GUARD FAMILIES.” On the bottom of the homepage, there was a message about its status: “We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 1997 to help the needy.”

Although AXA.org does not match the exact branding of the domain name registrant, “X” is regularly used

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DME.com Subject of UDRP Filing (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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4

A UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) against the valuable DME.com three letter .com domain name. The  filing can be seen at UDRPSearch.com, and it is case #1759818.

DME.com was created in June of 2001, making the domain name 16 years old. The registrant of the domain name is listed as DME Online Services, Ltd., so it would make sense that it owns the matching DME.com domain name. Using DomainTools’ Whois history tool, I can see that the same registrant has owned DME.com since at least June of 2007 (over 10 years). When I visited DME.com this morning, I was forwarded to a landing page with pay per click advertising.

As a three letter .com (LLL.com) domain name, DME.com is quite valuable. DomainIQ pegs its value at

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