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UFC KO’s Owner of TheUltimateFighter.com Domain Name by Filing Lawsuit

Elliot Silver
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According to Sherdog.com, a website devoted the UFC and Mixed Martial Arts news, results, and fighting, the parent company of the UFC and WEC went to court to take over the domain name, TheUltimateFighter.com. Zuffa, LLC claims the registrant did not have the rights to use their “Ultimate Fighter” trademarks, a number of which are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The domain name is currently listed for sale at Sedo, and according to the listing, it has received three offers. The UFC and Spike TV currently use a similar domain name, UltimateFighter.com to promote their Ultimate Fighter programming, which is known as The Ultimate Fighter.

Sherdog reported that the domain owner does not plan to dispute the lawsuit and intends to give the domain name to Zuffa, LLC. In my opinion, this is the smart move. The owner could have spent anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars (and quite possibly more) to defend his ownership rights, and the results are certainly not guaranteed. Even if he would prevail, I don’t know if that particular domain would be worth the price of defending it.   Certainly that would depend on the legal fees that would be incurred.

As Kenny Rogers once sung, “you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, know when to run.”

Thanks to Dan Cera for the tip.

Sun Sentinal Uses Rick Schwartz for DomainFest Publicity

Elliot Silver
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A friend of mine emailed me a Sun Sentinal article about today’s DomainFest one day power networking event, and the irony is that Rick Schwartz took center stage (Rick is the founder and principal of the competing Traffic conference). The article cites Rick’s sales of Candy.com ($3m) and iReport.com ($750k) and it discusses the DomainFest conference and upcoming auction that takes place this afternoon.

The article offers some good coverage of the domain industry, and it interviews Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky, DNJournal Publisher Ron Jackson, and “Domain King,” Rick Schwartz. Rick was very complementary about the Snapnames/Moniker auction, saying there is “a nice list of domains for grabs.”

After reviewing the domain names in the auction and hearing that Slots.com was sold for $5,500,000 this week at Snapnames (as reported by Rob Monster), I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two big deals completed during the auction or shortly thereafter. It’s clear that Moniker is working the phones in an effort to complete some large sales.

EverythingEverywhere.com Reportedly Sold for 1,900 GBP ($2,806 US Dollars)

Elliot Silver
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According to Sedo’s weekly domain sales report, the domain name EverythingEverywhere.com was reportedly sold to the new T-Mobile and Orange entity for 1,900 GBP, or roughly $2,806 US dollars.   As discussed here and elsewhere yesterday, some people thought the owner either left a lot of money on the table or was hosed by Sedo for some reason.

After seeing the sales price for the domain name, I think the owner got more than a fair price for it.   I don’t think many people would have valued it on its name merits only at more than the price that was paid. Of course the company that bought it may have had to pay more if necessary, but I think close to $3,000 US Dollars is damn good for a domain name like this.

Interestingly enough, the company also purchased EverythingEverywhere.net from Buy Domains for $788 back in March. Perhaps if the owner had looked at the other domain registration, he would have known to ask for more, although the registration appears to be private and doesn’t show as being registered to the actual company.

Incidentally, The Register news article mentioned that the domain sale was completed the day the news broke, so perhaps the company was waiting to finalize the sale prior to making the announcement. If that’s the case, it was a very smart move that probably saved them quite a sum of money, considering the fact that the former owner thought the 1,900 GBP price was “nominal.”

If You Had $1 Million Which Domain Would You Buy at DomainFest?

Elliot Silver
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The DomainFest Fort Lauderdale auction is one day away, and Moniker/Snapnames has come up with a pretty damn good list of domain names (I posted the list a few days ago).   I’ve chosen 10 of the most expensive names at auction and would like to know what domain name you would buy if you had $1,000,000 in cash to spend on one domain name in order to build a business. You can spend all or some of it on one good domain name at or below $1,000,000.

If I didn’t mention the domain name you would want to buy, feel free to choose “None” and write it in the comment section.

Which domain name would you try to buy for $1,000,000 or less?

Interesting New Domain Blog with Generic Domain Owner Interviews

Elliot Silver
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I check Domaining.com daily to see what some of my friends and colleagues are writing about, and it seems like every couple of weeks a new domain blog pops up. Although the space seems to be getting crowded since we’re in such a small industry, I do think it’s good to see different perspectives on various topics.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a new blog appear on Domaining.com (SullysBlog.com), and I’ve visited it several times recently because of the unique content. Mike Sullivan has been interviewing owners/operators of generic domain names including SexToys.com, HeadSet.com and Lobster.com, and I think it’s fun to read their stories.

One thing I learned early on is that there needs to be something unique about your blog that you can offer readers that they may not be able to get elsewhere.   I think its great to read these interviews with people who rely on generic domain names for their business rather than branded domain names.

I wasn’t asked or compensated to write this, and I’ve never met or done business with the blog’s author before. I hope he keeps up his interview series.

EverythingEverywhere.com Domain Sale Isn’t So Bad

Elliot Silver
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Earlier today, I wrote about the re-branding of T-Mobile and Orange into a new company called Everything Everywhere. I mentioned that the company also acquired the domain name EverythingEverywhere.com in private, and The Register had a story in which the domain owner revealed that the domain name was sold in private (for a “nominal sum”) via Sedo just before the news was announced.

Owen Frager had an article about the sale, laying the blame squarely on Sedo doorstep, “Sedo Throws Domainers Under the Bus,” and I don’t agree with this at all. Sedo doesn’t and shouldn’t personally interact with all buyers and sellers. In fact, I can’t remember one completed purchase or sale that I’ve been involved with that had a Sedo account representative involved during the negotiation process.

With hundreds of domain sales a month, it wouldn’t make sense for Sedo to monitor all domain negotiations. I could understand the anger if they misrepresented who the buyer was, but if an agent acted on behalf of the buyer, Sedo would have no reason to know if it was a huge conglomerate or a mom and pop shop. Likewise, if the buyer and seller negotiated using Sedo’s automated system, there would be no reason for a Sedo representative to be involved.

As badly as the former domain owner must feel about possibly leaving money on the table, I think he needs to take a step back and realize that he got the price he wanted. Someone else may have wanted more and possibly gotten it, but it is what it is.   The former owner probably bought it for registration fee, and if he sold it for a few hundred dollars, it’s more than he had before.

This reminds me of the ChatRoulette.com sale where people commented about the “poor guy” who sold the name to Adam Strong for under $1,500 only to see it sell for $151,000. At least in this case, there will be no further sale of the domain name, so the money left on the table is all imaginary and doesn’t exist.

Congrats to the former owner for thinking of and buying a great domain name. There are plenty of people in the advertising and marketing business who would love to know their idea for a big brand was used.

For the future, domain owners may want to consider checking other extensions to see what companies own those and may give an indication of who would want the .com.   Interestingly, EverythingEverywhere.net was owned by Buy Domains as late as March 23, 2010 before Melbourne IT bought it.

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