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Video: Identity Digital Becomes Back End Provider for .AI

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Earlier today, Identity Digital distributed a press release announcing its partnership with the government of Anguilla to manage its .AI ccTLD. Now at more than half a million domain registrations, I believe .AI must be one of the fastest growing ccTLD extensions ever. As I understand, the entire .AI namespace has been operated by a fairly small team led by Vince Cate.

Identity Digital serves as the back-end provider for hundreds of domain extensions. Some of the country code domain extensions operated by Identity Digital include .IO, .AU, and .PR. The company also serves as the back-end provider for .org and .info, along with hundreds of alternative extensions like .Bet, .Lawyer, .Run, and many more.

This afternoon, representatives from the Government of Anguilla and Identity Digital held a press conference to announce the deal and answer questions. I am sure domain investors who buy .AI domain names – or those who are interested in buying .AI domain names – may have additional questions. The video of the press conference is below:

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.

No Sponsors at Bodis

This weekend, in preparation for a scavenger hunt hike with our kids, I got a bit sidetracked and began looking up associated domain names. One domain name I came across stood out to me because of the landing page that was shown:

This was surprising to me because I know the longtime domain registrant, and I can see the domain name utilizes Bodis nameservers. Not only are there no PPC links like other domain names, the “for sale” inquiry banner and link are also missing from the landing page.

Liner Acquires Liner.com

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Liner is a AI-driven search engine for students and researchers. The company operates on the off-brand GetLiner.com domain name. Last week on X, the company announced a $29 million Series B funding round:

This morning, Ariyas noted the post about the funding round and wondered if Ammar Kubba had sold the brand matching Liner.com domain name. As of today, Liner.com forwards to a Notion website featuring the Liner logo.

Slice Acquires Slice.com After 8 Years

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Slice is a company that helps independent pizzerias with technology, marketing, and operations solutions. In fact, I have used Slice when ordering from our local pizza shop. Since 2016, the company has operated on the (less than ideal) SliceLife.Partners domain name. Slice.com was the ideal domain name that the company has coveted, but it was owned and used by a major corporation.

Within the last week or so, Slice acquired Slice.com. The domain name transferred from MarkMonitor to GoDaddy under Whois privacy. Slice.com now forwards to SliceLife.Partners.

Ilir Sela, Founder and CEO of Slice, wrote about the acquisition on LinkedIn yesterday afternoon. He also posted about it briefly on X:

Last night, I reached out to Ilir to see if he could share the acquisition price of Slice.com, but I did not hear back from him. In the meantime, I added Slice to the Embrace.com list of companies that upgraded its domain name.

Afternic: Pending Sync

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I hand registered 29 domain names at GoDaddy two days ago. I registered them in two swaths – 20 names and 9 names. Afternic is now the default nameservers I have set for my newly registered domain namesat GoDaddy, figuring my infrequent hand registered domain names will be priced under $2k from the get go.

Soon after registering these domain names, I added them to my Afternic account, where they are priced at $999 – $1,999/each. Shortly thereafter, I noticed a new heading in my Afternic account: “Pending Sync.”