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Dolphins.com UDRP Update

Elliot Silver
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10

Miami DolphinsAs reported last week, the Miami Dolphins filed a UDRP for the domain name, Dolphins.com. According to domain registrar and brand protection company, Mark Monitor, Dolphins.com is now owned by the National Football League (see screenshot below), although the DNS has not been changed nor the domain forwarded to the Miami Dolphins website.

A few days ago, I noticed that the status of the UDRP filing was listed as Suspended, and now the domain name has been transferred, despite the current PPC links. A Suspended proceeding generally means that the two sides either reached some sort of agreement about the UDRP proceeding or a lawsuit was filed to prevent a ruling.

Although I don’t have any details about what was worked out in private, perhaps it will be reported in a future public corporate filing.

Dolphins.com Whois

Miami Dolphins File UDRP for Dolphins.com

Elliot Silver
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44

Miami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins football team has filed a UDRP for the domain name Dolphins.com, which is parked and currently shows NFL football-related PPC advertisements, including an image of a football stadium. In addition to advertisements for “Miami Dolphins Tickets,” there are also ads for figurines and “Swimming with Dolphins Retreats.”

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing (2006 Annual Report) filed by Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), the publicly traded company owns Dolphins.com (as of 2006). Further, in the same filing, Marchex listed MDNH, Inc. as a subsidiary, and Dolphins.com is currently registered to dnsadmin@mdnhinc.com. MDNHINC.com is registered to MDNH, Inc.

This is a high value domain name, both because of its generic nature (animal domain names are always in demand) and because of the NFL team with the same name. This is going to be an interesting case to watch with these two heavyweights going at it, especially because of the potential impact of losing the domain name could be on Marchex’s bottom line. IMO, this is easily a six figure domain name.

Dolphins.com screenshot

Possible Namepros Phishing Attempt

Elliot Silver
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3

NameprosThis morning I received an email that appears to be a Namepros domain forum phishing attempt, which I posted below. There are a couple of things domain investors and developers can learn from this:

1) Have different user names and passwords for forums, blogs, registrar logins…etc.

2) Don’t click links in an email as they can be cloaked.

3) If you suspect that you have clicked to a phishing website, tell the webmaster and change your password on the real site

4) Protectively register similar domain names to prevent confusion – especially if your website allows people to sign up.

It appears this email refers to a site at wwwnamepros.com rather than www.namepros.com, and the phishing domain name is registered at Godaddy. The spoofed website has already been taken down. However, you should be aware of this now and for the future. It should also be noted that the Whois information on the domain name is not private.

Here’s the email:

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL!
***************************

Dear UserName,

You have received a new private message at NamePros.com from steelejones, entitled “Trader Rating Notification”.

To read the original version, respond to, or delete this message, you must log in here:
http://www.namepros.com/private.php

This is the message that was sent:
***************
You have received a new Positive rating or comment from steelejones.

Details about this transaction can be found *on your iTrader page* (http://wwwnamepros.com/itrader.php?u=88275).

Note: This is an automated message.
***************

Again, please do not reply to this email. You must go to the following page to reply to this private message:
http://www.namepros.com/private.php

All the best,
NamePros.com

Antitrust Lawsuit Against Verisign

Elliot Silver
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0

I read about this litigation briefly in a domain forum while I was away, but in reading the Wall Street Journal blog article, it looks like the impact on the prices of domain names could be quite large. The San Francisco Chronicle also has an article about the lawsuit, which can be read in full on the WSJ website.

According to the plaintiff’s lawyer, Bret Fausett, “There are companies that would like to bid against VeriSign and would charge half of what VeriSign is charging.”

This is a lawsuit domain investors will want to monitor, as there is bound to be additional fallout depending on how things shake out.

Circuit City Trademark & Domain Sale Approved

Elliot Silver
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0

According to an article published in this morning’s Boston Globe, Systemax will purchase Circuit City, its trademarks and domain names for $14 million, in a deal approved by the court overseeing the Circuit City bankruptcy. I presume this means that Systemax, a computer and electronics sales company, will begin to operate and re-open the Circuit City website.

Last year, this same company purchased the rights to CompUSA’s trademarks, some stores, and its domain names. Presently, CompUSA has a large web presence, including some consumer electronics not associated with computers (televisions, GPS…etc).

FMA to Launch Vanity Email Service

Elliot Silver
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6

In the UDRP decision for the domain name Miki.com, (which was defended by Kenyon & Kenyon and won by Future Media Architects), the company announced its plans to launch a vanity email service on some of its domain names. People will be able to choose email addresses from the portfolio of high value domain names owned by FMA, including Cool.com, Party.com, Falcons.com, Monsters.com, Jackass.com, and many other generic domain names in its portfolio.

Tucows’ NetIdentity portfolio of common surnames offers something similar, but FMA has a portfolio of hundreds of fun domain names that will surely be in high demand. The company is still working out the interface, but according to Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim, President of FMA, the company hopes to begin offering the service sometime in the near future.

This is another corporate attempt at wrestling a generic domain name from a legitimate domain owner. How many more victories will Thunayan and FMA need to have before outsiders see this as a losing cause?

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