Why I Think Groupon Needs Its Domain Names NOW

Elliot Silver
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6

GrouponYou may have read that Groupon is fighting to get its Australian ccTLD domain name. It had offered to pay over a quarter of a million dollars for the domain name and a similar trademark filing. It seems a bit odd that a company would seemingly reward an alleged cybersquatter for this much money, but Groupon needs this (and similar) domain names ASAP.

Groupon is a rapidly growing company in a vertical that has very few barriers to entry. Local companies with the manpower and desire to pound the pavement can work with local businesses and start their own entities. As businesses go, this one is not too difficult to duplicate, although it isn’t easy to scale.

Groupon is in the phase where they are quickly growing around the world, be it with acquisitions of large enough competitors that they can enter markets rapidly, or by entering the market and becoming the dominant presence. Groupon is fast becoming known throughout the world as THE company that offers group deals.

In addition to using a universal .com domain name (Groupon.com), the company is embracing local ccTLDs. The company operates sites like Groupon.ca, Groupon.de, Groupon.com.mx, Groupon.co.uk, Groupon.es, Groupon.fr, Groupon.co.il, Groupon.jp, Groupon.cn, and many others, which are highly targeted.

With its rapid growth, the company probably doesn’t have the time to wait for the settlement of lawsuits or determination of UDRPs to get the domain names it wants to operate. Instead, the money is less important to this well funded company than the time it will take to get the domain name via UDRP and/or lawsuit.

It’s interesting to watch Groupon seemingly reward others for grabbing Groupon ccTLDs, but domain investors should note that this is an isolated situation, and doing so with other trademarks can be very risky and expensive to defend.

Verizon iPhone Domain Name Suffers Same Fate as WikiLeaks.com at Go Daddy

Elliot Silver
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6

Page Not Available

As news spreads of a presumed iPhone announcement from Verizon Wireless tomorrow, commentators have been discussing some related domain names that are now owned by Verizon. For instance, iPhoneForVerizon.com now appears to be owned by Verizon. The company  fiercely  defends it’s trademarks, so this is no surprise to me.

Perhaps the best iPhone / Verizon domain name would be VerizoniPhone.com, which does not appear to be owned by either Apple or Verizon Wireless. Instead, it appears to be registered to a California resident and registered with Go Daddy.

According to a historical snapshot available on DomainTools, the domain name appears to have previously had a standard Godaddy landing page, which generally contains pay per click links.

However, the landing page seems to have suffered the same fate as that of the WikiLeaks.com domain name. Instead of a PPC-filed lander, there is a graphic that says, “Sorry! This site is not currently available.” I don’t know if there is a way to tell if Go Daddy intentionally isn’t monetizing it or if the customer changed the landing page, but it seems to be a smart move to avoid litigation for monetizing this domain name.

A big question I have though is if Go Daddy is responsible for removing the PPC landing page on this domain name, does it put the company at risk with other potential trademark names that are being monetized by them on their coming soon pages?

Could other trademark holders argue that if Go Daddy is willing and able to change the landing page for a name like VerizoniPhone.com, they should be doing it for all trademark names?  I have no legal expertise but think it’s interesting.

Oh… and I am very eager to hear the news… You can be sure my Blackberry will become a relic once the iPhone is available on the Verizon network.

Lorenzo International Limited Takes Aim at Tucows’ Lorenzo.com

Elliot Silver
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17

According to the  World Intellectual Property Organization’s website, it appears that Lorenzo International Limited has filed a UDRP for the generic, first-name domain name, Lorenzo.com, which is owned and operated by Tucows.

From the outset and without any specific information related to this case, I believee Lorenzo International Limited will have a difficult time proving it’s case.  At the present time, Lorenzo.com is being used by Tucows as a vanity email service, and the domain name appears to be a part of the company’s  NetIdentity suite of first and last name domain names. In fact, it wasregistered to NetIdentity prior to Tucows’ acquisition.

Tucows has already successfully defended a number of similar cases, including UDRP filings for:

Tucows has lost a few similar UDRP filings, perhaps giving hope to Lorenzo International Limited. In the  Aubert.com filing, there was a dissenting opinion. The  Ricard.com UDRP and the  Weidner.com UDRP were lost as well. The  Dunlap.com UDRP was terminated due to a lawsuit filed in Ontario.

In the Walls.com UDRP linked above, the company successfully defending its ownership while citing its use of the domain name in question, which to me, also seems to be applicable for Lorenzo.com:

“Since 1996, NetIdentity had been providing personalized e-mail blogging and web-hosting services through a collection of personal surname addresses.    NetIdentity had acquired thousands of surname domain names such as <smith.net> and including the disputed domain name <walls.com>.  Customers with hosted websites with NetIdentity are given third level domain names corresponding to their own first name and surname, e.g. <bill.smith.net>.    Netidentity had this secured over 70% of US surnames as domain names.”

Considering the similar circumstances between the Lorenzo.com domain name and the Walls.com domain name, I don’t see why the company shouldn’t retain the rights to Lorenzo.com.

In my opinion, it’s upsetting that a company can so easily try and claim rights to a generic domain name that is being used by another company for its business operations. Of course Tucows can easily afford the legal fees in such an instance, but it’s upsetting to me that Tucows needs to defend this domain name.

Alleged Domain Theft Involving 3 Letter Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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4

Someone posting under the handle “Toilet-Monster” posted a warning on DNForum this morning about a reported domain theft that allegedly occurred with his Godaddy account. The DNF member has a iTrader rating of 30 and has been a member of the domain forum since 2007.

According to Toilet-Monster (great name, BTW), the following 3 letter .com domain names were allegedly  pilfered  from his Godaddy account:

  • EOZ.com
  • GEQ.com
  • KPT.com
  • RIJ.com
  • UWU.com

In addition to these valuable domain names, a number of other names, including 4 letter domain names, were also taken. Visit DNForum for the list of domain names.

If someone approaches you to sell names quickly, for less than market value, or using a payment method that doesn’t seem right, you should be extra cautious. It’s also your responsibility to do due  diligence  on the domain names and the seller whenever you complete a deal. If you don’t, you could risk your money and the domain names.

What to Do If Someone Backs Out of a Domain Deal

Elliot Silver
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10

If you’ve been investing in domain names long enough, it’s likely that you’ve experienced one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a domain investor. You’ve agreed to buy a domain name and the owner decides to back out for some reason.

For some it’s just frustrating, but for others there are bigger issues. Perhaps you started building out the domain name before you were in possession of it, or maybe you contacted potential buyers hoping to quickly flip it. Whatever the case, it’s a disappointment to say the least.

You may have options of you have an agreement in place, even if you don’t have an “official” contract with the seller.

My first recommendation is to be in touch with the seller and let him know you are not satisfied with the situation, especially if there isn’t an error/mistake behind the deal breaking down. Discuss options for buying other domain names or work out some sort of agreeable financial settlement for your inconvenience.

If this can’t be worked out, let him know you plan to seek legal council to remedy the situation if necessary. I like to keep lawyers out these types of situations, but let the seller know that is an option and perhaps just that threat will get him to sell, especially if he was reluctant to sell due to a higher offer.

Let the person know you plan to blog/write about the situation on a domain forum. If the seller is wrong and doesn’t have a good excuse (ie he received a higher offer or just doesn’t want to sell anymore), others should be warned about this for the future. If you opt for this route, make sure you state the facts accurately because what is written can not be taken back.

If you’ve exhausted all efforts on your own, you should be in touch with a lawyer who has domain name and IP experience (see this list of  domain name lawyers). A lawyer may be expensive, but if this is a key acquisition, you’ll want to know your legal recourse to complete the sale.

Who is Lovells?

Elliot Silver
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28

A couple of months ago on Ycombinator, someone mentioned that he sold a domain name “to some woman claiming inexorably to want it for “just a personal homepage,'” but it turned out the company that acquired it appeared to be Facebook. The domain owner had sold the name for $1,500.

Although the information on the Whois record lists Facebook as the domain registrant, the email address on the record is globaladmin@lovellsnames.org. So who the heck is Lovells?

I did a bit of research, and it looks like the globaladmin@lovellsnames.org email address is connected to a number of very good domain names. Some of these names appear to include:

  • Play.com
  • Loco.com
  • Elegant.com
  • FB.me
  • Facebook.at
  • Bin.com

There were a number of other domain names, including some Facebook ccTLD domain names, but these are the most notable names I found during my cursory search.

I did notice a non-descriptive domain name that had the same registrant email address, and it might give a clue about Lovells. HoganLovells.com is registered to that same email address. Hogan Lovells is pretty huge law firm with over 40 offices around the world.

As Mike Berkens once wrote, the “1st Rule Of Dealing With Domain Offers Is: People Lie.“

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