Domain Diary

According to Global Intelectual Property News Agency:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced in a press release that it has signed an exchange of letters with United Kingdom country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) manager, Nominet.

This demonstrates a willingness to develop cooperation between ICANN and Nominet, the registry responsible for the United Kingdom ccTLD .uk. Nominet has become the seventh registry to formalize their relationship with ICANN in the past two months.

Nominet will also be joining ICANN’s country code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) to ensure that the .uk domain name space is represented in the global Internet arena. Nominet will be the largest registry to join the ccNSO since it was established.

Australian domain name scammer Bradley Norrish has declared himself bankrupt.
By John Leyden for The Register.

Bradley Norrish, along with business partner Chesley Rafferty, ran an outfit called UK Internet Registry, and three other firms, which sent 50,000 fake invoices to domain name holders in the UK during 2003. The information needed to mount the scam was obtained from a data mining attack on the .uk WHOIS database.

The scale of the attack was so severe that Nominet, the .uk internet domain name registry, was forced to suspend its WHOIS database, which allows people to check the registrants of domain names for nine hours to prevent further abuse.

Nominet linked the attack back to UK Internet Registry and sued the firm and its directors for breach of copyright and offences against Australian fair trade laws.

The European web hosting forum (http://www.webhosttalk.eu) Web HostTalk.eu announced today it unveiled a survey on .EU domain extensions.

It shows that most of the 3 or 4 letter .EU domain names have already been registered and those website owners who want to register a new name for their sites need to bargain for those extensions in the domain auctions web sites.

Most short .EU domains are still in “sunrise” pending period, or are not available for registration. Those who are in pending status is unlikely to be released for free registration.

Domain names such as sex.eu, cars.eu, fun.eu and etc. are capped or already lead to active web sites.

With 2 million dot-EU domains registered however there are only a small number of websites that are active under .EU extension and promote the extension under their own brand. The short and “nice looking” .EU domains that point attention to web hosting are already registered but most of them are not in use.

Taking a new approach, LoveTheName.com, an Internet Web-Address Company who is best known in the industry for leveling the playing field to allow smaller investors easier access into the lucrative domain, has gone the extra mile in the sale of “St domain name extensions. The domain name ‘Texas.st” has been made into a fully operating website so that entrepreneurs can see the value immediately of owning a site associated with an entire state.
Blaire Fanning, a marketing profession in Florida commented, “They are basically not only selling a cutting edge domain name, but having out the entire business plan> One glance at the site www.Texas.st” show that all anyone would have to do is contact any business, school, agency, event, anything, and just charge a nominal yearly fee to be listed – and they are up and running with a profitable a long term business.”

September 22 deadline provides trademark holders additional time to organize applications and register names.
dotMobi, the Internet address created for mobile phones, today announced it is extending the Trademark Sunrise Registration period to September 22.

Trademark Sunrise Registration provides owners of intellectual property (IP) an opportunity to register their trademarks as .mobi Top Level Domain names. The Trademark Sunrise period was launched on June 12 with hundreds of global brands registering .mobi domains. Trademark owners and brand managers around the world requested additional time, given summer holidays and third-quarter budget planning.

ICANN yesterday announced that over 750 delegates from 87 countries gathered in Marrakech, Morocco for ICANN’s 26th International Meeting.

During the week, a number of workshops and meetings were conducted in relation to IDNs. This meeting culminated with a Board resolution to extend the timeline for the Top Level Domain (TLD) registries working group to develop a best current practices document for submission during next ICANN meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil this December.

The Marrakech meeting also saw progress in relation to WHOIS, with the ICANN Board acknowledging that more time is needed by the Generic Names Support Organization (GNSO) and its WHOIS taskforce to make recommendations to the Board on this complex and controversial issue.

At its December 2005 meeting, the ICANN Board noted that the ICANN community could also ‘benefit from the advice of a group responsible for making observations and recommendations concerning strategic issues facing ICANN.’

In light of the above, the ICANN Board passed a resolution for the President to appoint a President’s Strategy Committee. The Committee plays an important role in providing observations and recommendations concerning strategic issues facing ICANN and contributing to ICANN’s strategic planning process, which occurs in consultation with the community.

As ICANN heads towards 30 September 2006 expiration of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States Government, members of the President’s Strategy Committee have had preliminary discussions about the path ahead. Out of these discussions the Committee has identified several themes where input from the community is needed.

According to ICANN, its mission is founded on two key concepts: 1) They are acting in the public trust, and developing decisions through a bottom up, consensus based process. ICANN is committed to a single, authoritative stable public root for the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) through the coordination and management of a unique identifier system. It is also committed to the management of that unique root in the public trust according to policies developed through participation and acceptance by the community; and 2) By offering users an easy-to-use and reliable means of unambiguously referring to web sites, e-mail servers, and the Internet’s many other services, the DNS is helping the Internet achieve its promise of a global communications medium for commerce, research, education, social and cultural and other expressive activities. Effectively ICANN operates as a steward for users who depend on the Internet’s naming resources. As a result ICANN needs to focus on participation and input to decision making regarding this global resource.

GOLDMAN SACHS, the US investment bank known for its fierce work ethic, is up in arms at suggestions that it has diversified into sex tourism.

The bank is trying to remove or change the name of a site called goldmansex.com, which provides business travellers with links to strip clubs and escort agencies around the world.

It is run by Rob Muller, a Dutch entrepreneur who claims that his nickname is Goldman because his friends had always regarded him as lucky. He also claims never to have heard of his near-namesake in the banking world until recently. Mr Muller is baffled why Goldmans should see any confusion between his site and the many variants of its name the bank has already registered.

Goldmans confirmed that it had submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum, which decides on disputes on internet names, arguing that there could be confusion and that the disputed site contained links to adult material. Asked if he knew what the site contained, a spokesman answered: “I don’t know. I’ve never looked at it.”

I just came by this list online… Couldn’t resist the urge to put it here. Enjoy! (just press ‘more…’)
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I think it was about the time to do this:

EURid, the non profit organisation operating the …

Dotster, Inc., an ICANN-accredited domain registration and web hosting company, yesterday announced its tenth virtual ‘Happy Hour’ event scheduled for Wednesday, July 26, 2006.
Beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern, …

Two emails…

From eNom:
Dear eNom Reseller,

We are excited to announce eNom, Inc., has completed the purchase of the business and operations of BulkRegister, LLC. The combined companies will surpass Network Solutions® to make eNom® the second-largest registrar in the world with over 6.8 million names under management.

Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho won back the rights to a website address including his name on Thursday, successfully tackling a serial cybersquatter. A United Nations agency ruled that ownership of the www.ronaldinho.com domain name must be handed to the FC Barcelona and Brazil player within 10 days.

The name Ronaldinho has not been registered as a trademark, but a World Intellectual Property Organization arbitration panel said it considered the player’s name a trademark because it identifies him and his professional activity.