Oct 19
It's getting more and more difficult to do any kind of domain research without running the risk of losing your domain ideas to unscrupulous domain tasters.
Back in February, we described the problem as follows:
- A perfect domain name pops into your mind.
- A quick check at your favorite domain registrar reveals that the domain is still available.
- For some reason, you put off the actual registration for a few days.
- And when you come back to finally register the domain, it's taken by someone else!
Back then, it took domain tasters "a few days" to intercept, analyze and register the domains that you came up with.
Now, it takes them less than 2 minutes.
Last week an associate of mine was bulk-checking 200+ generic typo domains through a software that shall remain unnamed for now. All of the domains were available. But less than 2 minutes later, more than 50 of the domains had been registered by a number of different offshore companies from the Bahamas.
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Oct 18
Paraguayan domainer Chris Chena is in the news again, this time for having acquired 80% of the popular Paraguayan TV channel Canal 13. It looks like he is putting the millions of dollars he made by selling some of his top domains to Marchex and Fox Latinoamerica to good use by laying the foundation for a future national media empire.
Chris remains in the domain business, with gems like viajes.com (trips), clasificados.com (classifieds), amistad.com (friendship), paraguay.com and animation.com still in his possession.
Here's a quick translation of the official announcement which was released earlier today (Oct 18):
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Oct 12
In a brilliant victory for domain name owners, a WIPO panel has declared that a Spanish company's attempt to appropriate the domain name FCC.com from its legitimate owner without just compensation constitutes a "Reverse Domain Name Hijacking" attempt.
The Spanish company, FCC Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, had alleged in a WIPO Complaint that the current owner of FCC.com had no legitimate rights in the domain name and was using it in bad faith.
FCC.com was represented by well known domain lawyer John Berryhill, who submitted a lucid masterpiece as his client's defense.
To obtain the rights to a domain name under ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), the complainant must prove the following three elements:
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