Domain Incubation Blog

DOMAIN NAME CLEARING COMPANY v. F.C.F. INCORPORATED

2008-09-02T21:51:00.000-06:00

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

DOMAIN NAME CLEARING COMPANY, LLC,

Plaintiff-Appellant, v. No. 00-2509

F.C.F. INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.

Claude M. Hilton, Chief District Judge.

(CA-00-1305)
Argued: June 5, 2001
Decided: July 12, 2001

Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge, and Irene M. KEELEY, Chief United States District Judge for the Northern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

COUNSEL

ARGUED: Jerry M. Phillips, PHILLIPS, BECKWITH, HALL & CHASE, Fairfax, Virginia; Chris M. Truax, San Diego, California, for Appellant. John Foster Anderson, RICHARDS, MCGETTIGAN, REILLY & WEST, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c).

OPINION PER CURIAM:

We must decide here whether the Domain Name Clearing Com- pany violated the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act by registering the domain name Clarins.com. Because the district court did not err in holding that the company violated the Act, we affirm.

I.

On March 16, 1997, Domain Name Clearing Company, LLC (DNCC) registered the domain name Clarins.com. "Clarins" is a fic- tional name developed in 1954 by Clarins S.A. to identify a particular product line. F.C.F. Inc. now holds the license for the Clarins trade- mark. When F.C.F. discovered that DNCC had registered Clarins.com, it requested DNCC to transfer the Clarins.com domain name to F.C.F. F.C.F. received no response. F.C.F. subsequently offered DNCC $1500 in return for the transfer.

On March 24, 1998, DNCC filed an action against F.C.F. in Cali- fornia federal court seeking a declaration that its ownership of the Clarins.com domain name did not infringe upon F.C.F.'s Clarins trademark rights. One month later, DNCC sent F.C.F. a letter requesting a payment of the amount "it would cost to run a full-page advertisement in one of the high-fashion magazines, such as Cosmopolitan or Vogue, in which, it appears, your client advertises." F.C.F. refused to pay this amount, estimated at approximately $60,000.

After the California district court dismissed DNCC's action on jurisdictional grounds and the subsequent appeal to the Ninth Circuit was dismissed at DNCC's request, F.C.F. commenced an administrative arbitration proceeding. After a hearing, the panel ordered DNCC to transfer Clarins.com to F.C.F. on April 5, 2000. On April 21, 2000, DNCC filed a Bill of Complaint against F.C.F. in Virginia state court. In the complaint, DNCC challenged the administrative decision and sought to prevent the transfer of Clarins.com. F.C.F. removed the action to federal district court on August 1, 2000.1 After removal, F.C.F. moved for partial summary judgment based on its counterclaim that the registration of Clarins.com was a violation, inter alia , of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d). Finding DNCC violated the ACPA, the district court granted summary judgment to F.C.F. DNCC now appeals.

II.

The ACPA was enacted in 1999 to combat the practice of cyber-squatting. See Virtual Works, Inc. v. Volkswagen of America , 238 F.3d 264, 267 (4th Cir. 2001). A violation of the ACPA occurs when someone "registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that...is identical or confusingly similar" to a "famous" or "distinctive" mark and "has a bad faith intent to profit from that mark." 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(A). The statute lists nine non-exclusive factors to determine bad faith.2 The determination of bad faith depends on the facts and circumstances of each case. See Virtual Works , 238 F.3d at 268; Sporty's Farm, L.L.C. v. Sportman's Market, Inc. , 202 F.3d 489, 499 (2d Cir. 2000).

The Act also contains a safe harbor which states that bad faith intent "shall not be found in any case in which the court determines that the person believed and had reasonable grounds to believe that the use of the domain name was a fair use or otherwise lawful." 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(B)(ii). The ACPA provides that, for violations of the act prior to 1999, the sole remedy is to transfer the domain name back to its rightful owner. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 106-113, § 3010, 113 Stat. 1501A-552 (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1117 note).

(V) the person's intent to divert consumers from the mark owner's online location to a site . . . that could harm the goodwill represented by the mark, either for commercial gain or with the intent to tarnish or disparage the mark . . .; (VI) the person's offer to transfer, sell, or otherwise assign the domain name to the mark owner or any third party for financial gain without having used . . . the domain name in the bona fide offering of any goods or services . . .; (VII) the person's provision of material and misleading false contact information when applying for the registration of the domain name . . .; (VIII) the person's registration or acquisition of multiple domain names which the person knows are identical or con- fusingly similar to marks of others . . .; and (IX) the extent to which the mark incorporated in the per- son's domain name registration is or is not distinctive and famous . . . .

15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(B)(i).

III.

A.
We first inquire whether DNCC acted with bad faith intent when it registered Clarins.com. There is substantial evidence that it did. First, DNCC did not own any trademark or intellectual property rights to the Clarins name; rather F.C.F. owns the Clarins trademark license. In fact, Clarins was a fictional name created by Clarins S.A. exclusively to identify its cosmetics line. Second, Clarins is not commonly used to identify DNCC. Nor did DNCC ever develop a website at Clarins.com or use the Clarins name in connection with the sale of goods or services. DNCC had nothing whatsoever to do with selling the Clarins product line. Indeed, there is no evidence that DNCC had any use planned for Clarins.com. Also DNCC attempted to sell Clarins.com for "the amount it would cost to run a full-page advertisement in one of the high-fashion magazines." This demand, estimated at $60,000, was reduced to $30,000 in subsequent negotiations.3

Finally, the evidence demonstrated that DNCC has registered more than seventy different domain names and has a primary business purpose of registering domain names. For instance, DNCC has registered belgianchocolate.com, britishmuseum.com, chianti.com, and toweroflondon.com among others. The fact that these domain names may not have infringed on other trademarks does not make DNCC's registration of them irrelevant. In fact, it shows an intent on the part of DNCC to register a variety of domain names, but not to use them. This is a key factor in the bad faith determination.

In response to the evidence demonstrating its bad faith, DNCC attempts to take refuge in ACPA's safe harbor. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(B)(ii) (providing a safe harbor for persons who reason- ably believe that "the use of the domain name is a fair use or other- wise lawful"). DNCC relies heavily on the fact that when it registered Clarins.com and many of the other domain names in 1997, the Inter- net was in its infancy and Congress had not yet passed the ACPA. With respect to the Clarins name, DNCC also argues it was not aware that Clarins was a registered trademark. But it did become aware of the trademark in 1997 and yet, it subsequently renewed its registration of Clarins.com. DNCC also did not offer any evidence of why it selected that name or what it intended to do with Clarins.com or any of its other domain names. The safe harbor will not be construed "so broadly as to undermine the rest of the statute." Virtual Works , 238 F.3d at 270. The evidence clearly shows that DNCC made a business out of registering domain names in order to sell them and "a defen- dant who acts even partially in bad faith in registering a domain name is not, as a matter of law, entitled to benefit from the Act's safe harbor provision." Virtual Works , 238 F.3d at 270.

A court may look at the totality of the circumstances in making bad faith determinations. See 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(B)(i); Virtual Works , 238 F.3d at 270. Viewed together, the evidence makes clear DNCC acted with bad faith when it registered Clarins.com, failed to use it, and then attempted to sell it for profit to the trademark holder. DNCC's actions are just the sort Congress acted to prevent with the passage of the ACPA.

B.
The ACPA also requires that the registered name be "identical or confusingly similar" to a "famous" or "distinctive" mark. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(1)(A). The domain name Clarins.com is identical to the Clarins mark. To determine whether a mark is distinctive and famous, courts look to the duration and extent of the use of the mark, the advertising and promotion of the mark, and the degree of public recognition of the mark. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(1). The Clarins name is fictional and has been used since 1954 to identify a cosmetics line. Clarins S.A., under the Clarins trademark, has marketed Clarins products in the United States for almost 20 years, spending over $4.5 mil- lion on advertising and generating over $100 million per year in sales in this country. F.C.F. obtained a United States Trademark registra- tion for Clarins in 1990 which was renewed in 2000. The name Clarins is distinctive and famous as required by the statute.

C.
DNCC also argues that there was evidence of a prior settlement agreement in which F.C.F. agreed to pay $30,000 for Clarins.com. DNCC claims that this makes F.C.F.'s counterclaims irrelevant since the dispute was settled and the domain name was to be transferred pursuant to the agreement. However, even viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to DNCC, there is no evidence of a settlement agreement signed by all parties. F.C.F., throughout the negotiations, insisted that any settlement be in writing and signed by all parties. As the district court noted, "[a]n attached exhibit of a draft of an alleged settlement agreement signed by the attorney of one party is not evi- dence of a settlement agreement entered into between the parties." DNCC simply failed to offer sufficient evidence to create a genuine factual dispute on this point.

IV.
The record is replete with evidence that DNCC had a bad faith intent to profit from another's mark in violation of the ACPA. The district court did not err in ordering DNCC to transfer Clarins.com to F.C.F., and we hereby affirm its judgment.

AFFIRMED
1 DNCC argues that the federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction because the amount in controversy is less than $75,000 as required by 28 U.S.C. § 1332. The district court determined that the domain name Clarins.com was the object of the litigation and worth more than $75,000. We find no error in this ruling.

2 The nine factors are as follows: (B)(i)In determining whether a person has a bad faith intent . . . a court may consider factors such as, but not limited to (I) the trademark or other intellectual property rights of the person, if any, in the domain name; (II) the extent to which the domain name consists of the legal name of the person or a name that is otherwise commonly used to identify that person; (III) the person's prior use, if any, of the domain name in connection with the bona fide offering of any goods or ser- vices; (IV) the person's bona fide noncommercial or fair use of the mark in a site accessible under the domain name;

3 DNCC argues that the evidence utilized by the district court to determine if DNCC attempted to sell the domain name Clarins.com was inadmissable under Rule 408 of the Federal Rule of Evidence because the documents were part of settlement negotiations. This evidence speaks directly to the bad faith determination. And DNCC admitted evidence of alleged settlement negotiations in the first place. In all events, we find no abuse of discretion in the admission of the disputed evidence.

RE: Regarding your domain name xxxxxxxxxxx.us

2008-08-30T11:37:00.000-06:00

Shawn Wilson,

I have warned you once before when you tried this scam on me in the past. Since you have not learned a lesson, I am going to warn everyone about what you are doing:

- You are finding .com domains that can be registered and where there are owners of domains with the same domain name but different extensions, like our .us version.

- You then contact the owners with the other TLDs and tell them that you own the .com version of the domain that you want to sell it.

There are three problems with what you are saying:

1) You are a liar, since you don't own the .com version of the domain you say you do. Every time you contact us I look and see that the .com version is NOT registered and I then register it for $7 if I am interested in it.

2) If someone does not know you are not the owner of the domain that you say you are, they may pay you over than 27 times what they would have to pay if they just registered it themselves. How would you feel if you found out someone over-charged you for something by 27 times?

3) You are a spammer. You are sending bulk commercial email messages that are always the same message except that the domain name changes. I have reported you in the past to your ISP, but it seems you are using a Chinese emailer that does not respond to spam reports. Perhaps I will have better luck reporting you to Gmail where you are looking for responses to your spam.

You could make this a good business if you just went about it differently. You have access to good information that offers a valuable service. I just don't understand why you choose to get people upset with you by being greedy and dishonest.

-----Original Message-----
From: shawnwilson53@googlemail.com
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 6:38 AM
Subject: Regarding your domain name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx .us

Hi,

I own the .COM version of your domain name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx .us and I want to sell it.

I was wondering if you would be interested in buying this domain for $195 seeing as though you own the same domain but in another extension ?

Let me know
Thanks
Shawn.

Domain Renewal Group = Domain Registry of America

2008-08-20T22:51:00.000-06:00

Domain Renewal Group = Domain Registry of America

Anytime you get a letter in the mail about a domain renewal, make sure you understand who it is from and what will happen if you agree to what they offer. You may pay 2-3 times for your domain registration or you could even lose ownership under some conditions. Your current domain registrar probably will NOT be sending you postal mail since they have your email address. Most of these postal letters that come in the mail are more or less SCAMS to get people to agree to what they think is a renewal, but is in fact a high-priced TRANSFER to a company that may not be trustworthy. The fees are ALWAYS higher than the average domain renewal fee of $10 US per year.

We just received a letter from Domain Renewal Group about renewing (and transferring) our domain for $30 a year. $30 is what Register.com and a few other clueless, greedy registrars charge, but there is NO WAY anyone should be paying that much just to renew their domain. I thought the letter looked familiar and sure enough, when I dug deep enough I discovered it's the same Domain Registry of America with a new domain and website, but same old rip-off pricing and marketing materials that are designed to fool those that don't read closely and realize that they are not just renewing their domain at a higher rate, but that they are also agreeing to transfer their domain to Domain Renewal Group where it will stay until they transfer it away at some point.

To their credit, it says on the web site that the fee includes hosting, but any hosting plan where you have to pay extra to get email really sucks, in my opinion. $30 a year for domain renewal and hosting is pretty cheap, but you can get the same deal somewhere else and deal with a 100% honest company.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to warn people away from this scam. These guys have been doing this for years and I'm sure they fool many, many people. I just want to get the word out.

Names listed include eNom, Inc., Wild West Domains, Inc., BRANDON GRAY INTERNET SERVICES INC. (dba "NameJuice.com"), and Domain Renewal Group

Domain Renewal Group
PO Box 4577
Markham, Ontario, L3R5M7
Canada

Domain Renewal Group
2316 Delaware Avenue, #266
Buffalo, New York
14216-2687
www.domainrenewalgroup.com

Main Phone      (866) 434-0212
Fax             (866) 434-0211
Customer Service        (866) 434-0212
Sales                   sales@droa.com
General Questions       int (1-905-479-2533) support

Domain Registry of America
2316 Delaware Avenue, #266
Buffalo, New York
14216-2687

Domain Registry of America
56 Gloucester Road #526
London, England SW74UB

Domain Registry of America
189 Queen Street #209
Melbourne, 3000 Australia

BRANDON GRAY INTERNET SERVICES INC. (dba "NameJuice.com")
7100 Warden Ave unit 8
Markham, ON
98007-3827, CA

We Are Selling The Domain Name...

2008-08-19T12:42:00.000-06:00

We just got a new variation of the SPAM marketing of domain names. There are a number of people that are either offering to sell a domain they own which is the .com version of one that you own, or they offer to get a domain that is expiring for you for a fee. I don't have a big problem with these kinds of services except for a few things:

1) I don't like SPAM in any shape or form. Often these message are not personalized in any real way and if you have many domains as we do, these jerks will send you tons of messages, often one to each contact email on your domains. For us that means we get 2-3 emails each time.

2) The fees they ask are EXCESSIVE. One guy that I talked to at itime marketing said that many people thank that and are happy to pay their fees. I don't doubt this, but will those people still be happy when they learn that the cost should only be about $10 and if they waited 5-6 days they generally can get the domain and only pay that much?

3) Some of these jokers are lying, which I really dislike. They may say they own the domain, but they are willing to sell it to you, for $300 or whatever. Most people don't know about using WHOIS to check the information about a domain's ownership. If they did, they may find that the domain is not owned by anyone, and all they have to do is register it themselves. Using WHOIS can also avoid any problems when someone is trying to sell a domain that is currently owned by someone else. This is rare except for domain brokers, but it could happen. You can't TRUST anyone on the Internet.

So we just got the following message about one of our domains:
==========================================
We are selling the domain name avandiadiabetes.com. Since you own the .net, if you would also like the more desirable .com we are making it available. The cost is $49.95. That includes a year of registration and transfer of ownership to you. To purchase or to learn more go to:

http://www.dcinchq.com/index.php?domain=avandiadiabetes.com

If you pass on this opportunity someone else could purchase this domain and it may not be available again.

For questions contact us or go to:

http://www.dcinchq.com/faq.html

All the best,

Warren Davis
Digital Caucus, Inc.
==========================================

This spammer gets points for not charging a huge fee. I think $50 is a reasonable amount to pay for a domain you want, given that the owner has gone to some bother to contact you and rather than putting the domain on the open market where you might never hear about it they are doing you a (possible) service. I consider this to be SPAM for the most part, but it's really kind of borderline. They are not sending this message to millions, but I'll bet they are also sending the email to the owners of the other main domain TLDs, in this case just use with .net and someone else with the .org.

But this spammer is also a liar. When I used DomainTools.com and checked the WHOIS record, I find that the domain is not even registered. It appears that it was last registered to itime marketing, and now they either have a follow-up service or some smart cookie is picking over their leftovers that they could not sell and have dropped and trying to offer them at a lower price.

Summary: If you are contacted about a domain your interested in, I recommend you do the following:

1 - Check the WHOIS record and see if it is available. If it is register it instantly.

2 - If it is registered and was registered within the past 5 days, and you can live without it, wait 5-6 days and see if you can then register it. Domaintools.com offers a free Domain Monitor you can use to get emails when the status of the domain changes. I have used this free service to register several domains.

3 - If the domain does not drop after 5 days, you can talk to the seller and see if you can get the price down to a more reasonable level. Adopt the attitude that the domain would be nice to have, but after all you already have an established site on the current domain you own. Hold out and you should get the domain for $20-$100 unless it has wide appeal. These guys only leverage is your interest in the domain, and they only pay less than $10 for them. If you can double their money, that should be incentive for them over not getting anything at all.

If the domain is really valuable the seller will market it elsewhere or put it up at auction, and you may be out of luck unless you are willing to pay what they ask. The bottom line is get some expert advice before you shell out big bucks for a domain unless you know all the facts.

Links related to this post:

A Tale of an Internet Scam Artist

Warren Davis used to scam people, now he is into spamming as well

Warren Davis, banned from dnforum.com

Optimize Your Domain Extension For Six Figures

2008-08-14T22:29:00.000-06:00

How New TLDs Could Impact Your SEO

by Andrew Hazen , Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced June 26 that it had given preliminary approval to a recommendation to introduce a whole range of new Internet domain names, which would pave the way for a seismic increase in online real estate.

Talk about the Internet being like the Wild, Wild West. Along with the extraordinary expansion of domain name choices and opportunities would come HUGE potential for search engine marketing.

Currently, there is a limited range of 21 top-level domains (TLDs) from which to choose, such as .com, .org, .info and .uk. According to ICANN, this decision will allow applicants for new names to select the most marketable domains, making them perfect for attracting their target customers.

So businesses will now be able to apply for generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere. ICANN even reports that there are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based TLDs like .nyc, .berlin and .paris.

At first glance, this seems to make perfect sense. But my hope is that it doesn't spiral out of control, becoming a field day for cybersquatters that register, traffic in or use domain names in bad faith, intending to profit from the goodwill of someone else's trademark.

That would create a huge nightmare for established brands like Amazon.com, which would need to procure a laundry list of domains -- everything from books.amazon and music.amazon to amazon.books and amazon.music -- to prevent cybersquatters from wrongfully registering and profiting from its name.

It should be noted, however, that ICANN will not be selling the new TLDs for some time. The recommendation must first receive final approval early next year, followed by a limited period in which any established entity can submit an application for evaluation.

Search Engines and the Domainrush If and when it does happen, look for an immediate impact on search engine marketing. Search engines love keyword-enriched domain names, since finding exact keywords in domains proves to be an extremely strong indicator of a Web site's relevance to a search query.

By combining a newly acquired generic domain name with a very good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, a small company could find itself ranking among extremely competitive search terms and among Fortune 1000 companies. Of course, Web sites need quality inbound links to rank high on Google, but a great domain name can go a long way.

Keyword-enriched domain names and URL paths (there is a difference) are usually what it takes to achieve a top-10 organic ranking. Take, for example, AllFreshSeafood.com (ranking No. 4 on Google for "fresh seafood"); BreakingNews.com (No. 6 on Yahoo for latest breaking news") and BagelBoss.com (No. 4 on Google for "bagels"). I'm sure you get the point.

Still, non-keyword-enriched domain names can be optimized by adding keyword-enriched page names. For example, StorageDeluxe.com sits atop Google for "Brooklyn storage" and the URL path is www.storagedeluxe.com/locations_brooklyn.asp; a Google search for "used Acura parts" returns www.uneedapart.com/used-acura-parts.php as No. 1; and a search on Yahoo for "cardio exercises" yields www.lucilleroberts.com/cardio-exercies on the first page of the search results.

Now that we've established that a keyword-enriched domain name can be extraordinarily valuable, just think about owing a domain like .insurance -- you could have auto.insurance, life.insurance, health.insurance, business.insurance, etc. Beyond the obvious and tremendous SEO benefit, imagine what this will do to build brands.

I am curious to see if those who register new generic TLDs will use them to dominate their niche or resell domains. Only time will tell.

ICANN reports that there will be a six-figure charge for registering these new domains. That is chump change for major domains -- and even those that want to be

Post your response to the public Online Publishing Insider blog.

See what others are saying on the Online Publishing Insider blog.
Andrew Hazen is founder and CEO of the search engine optimization firm PRIME Visibility, a rapidly growing SEO, Web 2.0 and social media marketing company.

Online Publishing Insider for Thursday, August 14, 2008:
http://blogs.mediapost.com/online_publishing_insider/?p=166

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No Cost For Domains

2008-08-06T16:04:00.000-06:00

There's No Cost For Domains, Emails, Hosting or Storage at dotWORLDS

Now you can get brand new domain names, spam-free email addresses, web hosting, website builders, backup storage and more - all in one place and all of it free.

London, UK - April 6 - dotWORLDS website www.dotworlds.net has just been upgraded and it's crammed with an even wider range of free products and services. At dotWORLDS, you can get your domain names, email addresses, hosting, website builders, backup and data storage all in one place and all at no cost.

dotWORLDS also provides free URL, IP and DNS forwarding and, if you're thinking of designing your own webspace, just try our free Templates too and you'll be able to build, publish and launch your very own website within minutes.

Plus...Need to send an email in a hurry? Don't waste your time remembering user names and passwords. Try the all new Instant Email. Simply type in what you want and press Send. There's no login, instead it's just One-Click. See it in action at www.dotworlds.net

Plus...New Blog Facilites - Coming soon.

Remember, for free domain names, free email addresses, free website builders, free backup and much, much more - it has to be www.dotworlds.net.

About dotWORLDS.

dotWORLDS Ltd specializes in providing the widest range of fully personalized Internet domain names, email addresses and hosting plans through its global infrastructure.

For further details, please see website www.dotworlds.net.

Press Contact: Press Office
Company Name: dotWORLDS
Phone: +44 (0) 870 749 4178
Website: www.dotworlds.net

Return of OpenSRS Announced: Was It Missing...?

2008-07-28T13:35:00.000-06:00

Tucows Announces Return of OpenSRS Where Friendly, Reliable Service Comes First

Unsurpassed support and reseller satisfaction as top priority sets

OpenSRS apart

TORONTO and CHICAGO, HostingCon 2008, July 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Tucows Inc., (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) a leading provider of Internet services to web hosting companies and ISPs worldwide, announced today the return of the OpenSRS name for its wholesale reseller services group. Through its network of web hosting companies and Internet service providers, OpenSRS provides web and email addresses for millions of people worldwide.

In 1999, Tucows became the first domain name wholesaler to be accredited by ICANN and chose the name OpenSRS for its domain name service. Today, OpenSRS remains one of the world's largest wholesale domain registrars, and has expanded its offerings to include hosted email and SSL certificates. Resellers' sustained loyalty to OpenSRS was one reason behind the decision to re-launch the brand, and key to that loyalty is the company's reputation as the most reseller-friendly among Internet services wholesalers.

"At OpenSRS, we really believe in supporting our resellers because they've been incredibly supportive of us. That means not only making it easy to sell, provision and support the highest quality Internet services, but it also means being true to our word," said Ken Schafer, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Tucows. "We've made a commitment to being reseller friendly, so much so that we've included it in our new logo."

Over the past nine years, OpenSRS has grown steadily each year and today boasts over 9,000 active resellers on six continents. Those resellers, in turn, have the potential to reach millions of end users. OpenSRS resellers are fiercely loyal, 78% of the resellers who joined in 1999 are still using OpenSRS to sell services today.

OpenSRS is known for its work on registrant rights within the registrar community as well as making things simple and reliable for its resellers. It also differentiates itself through a deep commitment to its identity as a wholesale business. This runs in sharp contrast to competitors that frequently end up competing with their own resellers for customers.

"We're a true Internet services wholesaler. You won't find our name or logo anywhere on our end-user interfaces and we don't talk to our reseller's customers, ever," said Schafer. "We stand by our promises and commitments and we work to earn our reseller's loyalty."

As part of the re-launch of OpenSRS, the company has established new brand marks and a logo consistent with a 1950s-era service company, aimed at recalling a time when service mattered most. An iconic character has also been created to embody OpenSRS' core values - service, friendliness, willingness to help, community service and reliability.

To celebrate the re-launch of the OpenSRS brand and mark a return to the bygone days of service with a smile, OpenSRS will be serving up treats from an old-fashioned soda fountain and ice cream stand in booth #626 at HostingCon 2008, at Navy Pier in Chicago from today through Wednesday.

About OpenSRS
OpenSRS is a global provider of wholesale Internet services to web hosting companies and ISPs. Wholly owned by Tucows, Inc., OpenSRS provides wholesale services for hosted email, domain name registration, Personal Names, and SSL certificates. For more information, please visit http://opensrs.com.

About Tucows

Tucows provides Internet services for web hosting companies and ISPs.Through our global network of over 9,000 service providers our OpenSRS group provides millions of email boxes and manages over eight million domains. Tucows is an accredited registrar with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). We hold a domain name portfolio of approximately 150,000 domain names that are available for sale, monetized through advertising and support our wholesale Personal Names Service. Our Retail division sells Tucows services to consumers and small business owners through Domain Direct, IYD (It's Your Domain) and NetIdentity. Tucows.com remains one of the most popular software download sites on the Internet. For more information please visit: http://tucowsinc.com.

If you are interested in becoming a domain reseller, check out OpenSRS, but start with their OpenSRS reseller pricing. It may save you from spending more time learning about their program only to realize you can get better pricing elsewhere. At first I thought maybe their non-refundable fee of $95 might not be to bad for a really nice domain reseller program, but when I saw that they add a "$3.00 OpenSRS Management fee" to most of the domains, I soon realized that their program was not for me...!

Make sure ResellerClub.com is on you list of places to check for reseller programs. Yes, you may not find them as easy as other programs, but the cost is lower.

Parked Domain Traffic Value

2008-07-25T11:11:00.000-06:00

Exploring The Value Of Parked Domain Traffic

by Janel Landis , Friday, July 25, 2008

I have been reading about the lawsuit recently filed against Google that alleges traffic received from parked domain sites was low quality. What is most interesting about this topic are the sharply conflicting viewpoints online marketers have concerning the value of traffic from these sites.

The first perspective is that of savvy search marketers, who have analyzed referring URL traffic and know that the majority of traffic from these sites is unqualified. What they have found is that the only instances of qualified traffic from parked domain sites occurs on domains that are typos of their own domain, their brand terms.

Have you ever accidentally typed your search query into the domain address bar instead of the search box? I am pretty sure everyone has done this before and often, simply out of habit, even followed the misplaced word with a ".com". In a presentation I gave at a conference a few months ago, I used the examples www.homesecurity.com and www.bookkeepping.com as visuals of sites that contain no original content, just ads. These are the types of sites that deliver the majority of parked domain traffic. How often are people actually making this mistake? According to Google's keyword tool, the keyword home security drove approximately 1 million searches on Google and its search network in June 2008.

Let's move on to the much smaller segment of parked domain sites that actually will drive qualified traffic: the domain typos. Unfortunately, many companies have not protected themselves by registering common misspellings of their domain -- so when returning customers mistype the URL in the address bar, they are delivered to parked domain sites. An example of this is www.lininsandthings.com: Notice that linen is misspelled in the URL. In this instance, the searcher was already going to Linens-N-Things, and in this way they would be a highly qualified click. However, Linens-N-Things would now have to pay for a click to get their customer, rather than connecting to them directly.

The second perspective is that of the domainers themselves. They claim that address-bar-driven traffic is highly qualified; however, the click revenue generated from these types of sites is the sole source of revenue available from them. Again, they contain no original content, no products and no value. The backbone of their argument lies in statistics that show direct navigation traffic is the most qualified traffic to a site; however, what they fail to interpret is that this statistic does not pertain to an indirect or unintentional visit.

As the industry has matured, the engines have provided marketers with better tools to exclude distribution of ads on these types of sites. Google allows advertisers to block parked domain sites altogether from their campaigns, and Yahoo allows advertisere to exclude sites individually. The most perplexing part of the recent lawsuit filing is that it only challenges Google, yet Yahoo's search network distribution is much more riddled with these types of sites than Google's. The www.homesecurity.com and www.bookkeepping.com examples I used above both serve Yahoo ads. If this is truly going to be a class action suit and it gains any traction, I anticipate it just may involve both companies.

Post your response to the public Search Insider blog.

See what others are saying on the Search Insider blog.

Janel Landis is senior director of search development and strategy at SendTec, Inc., a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based multichannel, integrated marketing firm specializing in search engine marketing, direct response television and lead generation.

Search Insider for Friday, July 25, 2008:
http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=839

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Property.com Unable to Resist Foreclosure

2008-07-24T15:54:00.000-06:00

Property.com SOLD to Foreclosure.com

FORECLOSURE.COM OWNER TO ACQUIRE PROPERTY.COM

Brad Geisen continues to build online real estate empire to expand opportunities for future homebuyers and investors nationwide
Boca Raton, Fla. - July 22, 2008 Foreclosure.com Founder, President and CEO, Brad Geisen, announced today that he has reached an agreement with "Domain King" Rick Schwartz to acquire the domain name "Property.com," paving the way for his entry into a new market.

With Property.com Geisen intends to create a one-of-a-kind - and convenient - one-stop online real estate marketplace that is easy-to-use and navigate. The Web site will serve as an easy-accessible national real estate classified that is going to be free to all visitors, providing sellers, buyers and investors with a whole new concept of marketing and finding homes on the Web.

According to Geisen, the acquisition of Property.com will allow him to focus his efforts on a different and potentially much larger segment of the real estate market. In fact, in Geisen's opinion, the niche foreclosure market, which is Foreclosure.com's market, represents just 2 percent of all available real estate inventory.

"I'm going after the 98 percent of the real estate market outside of the foreclosure business." said Geisen. "For the past several years, I've built and run one of, if not 'the,' most successful Internet foreclosure businesses, but the business was always exclusively distressed real estate. I've achieved in Foreclosure.com what I set out to accomplish and I am ready for a new challenge in a different market. I intend to shift my focus on developing my new ideas that will revolutionize how homes should be listed, viewed and purchased. I've developed the critical skills which I intend to apply to this new market," said Geisen.

Property.com will include all listing types, including those indexed the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), creating a database that could surpass more than 15 million homes, but not including distressed properties, which will remain the business of Foreclosure.com. The best part is that it will be totally free to search for potential buyers and visitors, and sellers will be able to upload and edit their own personal listings at no charge. It's a wide-open model that Geisen knows will create an invaluable resource for just about anyone interested in real estate.

"I'm raising the stakes and pushing all my chips to the center of the table," said Geisen. "Foreclosure.com and my related companies have been leaders in their spaces for nearly a decade. I've seen what's been wrong with the way things were done and I've developed the methods to fix them. I have the knowledge and resources to take this to a whole new level . and that's what I plan to do."

Geisen revealed the new Property.com will be unveiled sometime in 2009. The specific terms of the deal to acquire Property.com were not disclosed. However, Geisen indicated that the value of the deal is one of the largest URL purchases to date.
That's a deal that has the seller Rick Schwartz - who is known as the "Domain King" -- smiling from ear-to-ear. He purchased Property.com for $750,000 in 2005 and was recently introduced to Geisen through Kevin Leto of BigTicketDomains.com about a possible re-sale.

"My job is to acquire prime, industry specific domain names with large volumes of natural type in traffic and eventually develop them to their fullest potential by partnering with leading companies in their respective fields which I have been doing for more than a decade," said Schwartz," "Early on I saw the value in Property.com; however, I never had the resources to develop it so it could reach its maximum potential. Brad Geisen has the vision to truly get the most of Property.com for the benefit of so many people in every corner of the United States. I'm thrilled to be a part of this exciting new project with Brad."

Stay tuned for frequent updates and milestones for the new Property.com. Feel free to visit the Web site in its current form. However, as mentioned earlier, the complete re-launch will not be official until sometime in 2009.

About Brad Geisen and Foreclosure.com
Ten years ago, Brad Geisen founded Foreclosure.com and built it over time to a company with more than 1.8 million foreclosure, preforeclosure, bankruptcy, FSBO and tax lien listings in one place, Foreclosure.com delivers America's largest and most accurate searchable database of foreclosed homes and distressed property information to its customers and business partners. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Brad Geisen and Foreclosure.com work with hundreds of top lending institutions and government agencies to list diverse property types on its Web site, including Real Estate Owned (REO); Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); Fannie Mae; and other government agency and financial institution properties; as well as listings from an extensive network of corporate sellers. On the Web: www.foreclosure.com.

About eRealEsate.com.
Rick Schwartz, aka "Domain King" and "Webfather," is the CEO, President and Cofounder of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. found at TargetedTraffic.com-- the premiere domain conference for the domain industry. It is both the oldest and largest and attracts over 500 of the top professionals in the industry in a by invitation only event. As one of the early domain pioneers dating back to 1995, Rick has a knack for predicting big trends and getting it right. He may have been the first to recognize the value of "type in" traffic which is now commonly referred to as "direct navigation" -- the most potent and targeted traffic on the net. Rick has a prime portfolio of one and two word domains, and is considered by many to be among the leading experts on domain names, traffic, Web site flow and valuation. www.eRealestate.com

Media Contact
Thomas Myers
Foreclosure.com
tmyers@foreclosure.com
Tel: (561) 981-5337 ext. 381

Google Now Provides Search Query Numbers!

2008-07-10T10:16:00.001-06:00

Google Keyword Suggestion
I was checking some keywords with the keyword tool and was BLOWN AWAY to see actual numbers have replaced the green bar general indication of what the number of searches are. THIS IS AWESOME, since it gives us hard data on how many people are using any specific keyword phrase. This information is critical for web site optimization or blog optimization.

Rank Checking and Overture (Not Yahoo) Keyword Tool
Still tainted by people looking for rankings, this information may be as good or better than anything out there for keyword research. I loved Overture's keyword suggestion option and Yahoo was stupid to let it decline, in my opinion. WordTracker may be pretty good, but I never liked it and thought their fees were excessive. I think it's also over-kill for small business owners.

Global Search Query Data
What we really need is something that would take search query data from as many sources as possible, weight the results based on the probability that people are doing rank checking, and aggregate the data into something that would really represent global search query numbers. Now that would be cool! Just think about how much better your search engine optimization, SEO, and SEM would be with marketing data like that.

Can I Get A Little Privacy Please...?

2008-07-07T16:22:00.000-06:00

Google's Privacy Policy Link: Too Little, Too Late?

By Wendy Davis, Monday, July 7, 2008
Now that it's facing a genuine privacy crisis, Google has decided to quell a completely insignificant privacy dust-up. The search giant has finally placed a link to its privacy policy on the home page. Previously, users had to click on multiple links, or search on the terms "Google privacy policy," to reach the information.

This purely cosmetic change might placate some watchdogs, who argued that Google was violating California law by not including the link on its home page, but does nothing to solve the larger problem: Google stores too much information about its users.

Among other data, the company retains logs showing users' IP addresses and their search queries. Google contends that IP addresses don't usually reveal people's identities. But that assertion ignores the reality that examining all of a person's searches can in itself reveal identity. In other words, users' identities can be deduced whether the IP address is real or a made-up sequence of numbers -- as long as it's paired with all of the searches originating from a single computer.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Google to disclose to Viacom complete user logs for YouTube, including all users' IP addresses, screen names and which videos they watched. Google and Viacom have since tried to quell privacy concerns, with Google saying it will ask to "anonymize" IP addresses, even though that won't necessarily preserve users' privacy as long as all of their information is still paired with the same identifier. Viacom has also said it will handle all information confidentially.

As privacy advocates point out, Google wouldn't be facing this problem now if it hadn't compiled and stored these records in the first place.

Louis Stanton, the federal judge who issued the order in the YouTube lawsuit, wrote in his opinion that Google argues in its public policy blog that IP addresses aren't necessarily personally identifiable. "We have proposed broad global privacy standards, and are strong supporters of the idea that data protection laws should apply to any data that could identify you. The reality is though that in most cases, an IP address without additional information cannot," the blog states.

But, on other sections of its site, Google equates IP addresses with personally identifiable information. "Due to user privacy concerns, Google Analytics doesn't report on personally identifiable information, including a visitor's IP address," the company states on a site about Google's analytics tool.

In other words, even Google realizes that, for all practical purposes, IP addresses should be treated as personally identifiable information. Given the events of last week, the company should rethink the wisdom of retaining such data.

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From what I've seen the IP address can provide very specific information that can track people. This is especially true if a time and date stamp is included with the log informaiton, which it generally is. you may need a court order to get the information from the person's ISP, but that's not all that hard if you have a reason to request it. I think we need this. While tracking people can be as benign but annoying as showing you ads based on past activity, it can also be abused on a more serious level. On the other hand if everyone can mess around on the web with little or no chance of being identified or tracked..., well, we already have enough spammers, hackers, crackers, and Turkish script kiddies to keep us busy.

Perhaps Google should encrypt the IP address and some of the other information to keep it from being abused, well abused by anyone except them. Of course if we saw signs of abuse then we would know it was them, wouldn't we...?

Growing Interest In Search Engine Marketing Confused With SEO And PPC

2008-07-02T18:27:00.000-06:00

SEMPO Institute To Present "Generating Leads with Practical Search Engine Marketing" Session at Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston, TX

Session will provide strategy and best practices in SEO and PPC

WAKEFIELD, Mass.-- July 02, 2008 --Thousands of Microsoft partners attend the annual Worldwide Partner Conference to network and tap into the latest business-growth opportunities each year. One area of growing interest is search engine marketing, also known as SEO and PPC. Microsoft has invited SEMPO Institute to present a session on search engine marketing at this year's conference, which is being held in Houston, TX from July 7-10. Cindy Turrietta, a contributing author for two of SEMPO Institute's online courses, and Katie Donovan, SEMPO Institute's Business Development Manager, will highlight the current marketing environment that benefits small, medium and large companies with search engine marketing strategies. The session will blend strategy with best practices to ensure attendees have the ability to act on what they learn. "Generating Leads with Practical Search Engine Marketing" will be presented on Thursday July 10th from 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Central Time in Grand Ballroom B at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Over the past few months, SEMPO Institute and Microsoft Worldwide Partners have been working on new instructional tools for partners. This session is the first to be rolled out. "Search Engine Marketing is a critical business tool for our partners," states Jennifer Siddall, Microsoft Senior Marketing Manager Worldwide Partner Marketing. "We anticipate great business benefits for our partners as they further incorporate SEO and PPC into their marketing efforts."

About SEMPO Institute

SEMPO Institute is a non-profit, online career development organization, whose purpose is to educate and train professionals in the growing field of search engine marketing. Suppo rted by SEMPO, SEMPO Institute's courses are developed by experts in search marketing and then peer-reviewed for accuracy and best practices. Since its first course in January, 2007, SEMPO Institute has educated more than 800 individuals in search marketing. SEMPO Institute's courses are available to SEMPO members and the general public. For more information, please visit www.SEMPOInstitute.com or call +1 (781) 876-6214.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

SEMPO Institute
Katie Donovan, 781-876-6214
Business Development Manager
kdonovan@sempoinstitute.com

Really, It's Not You, It's ME!

2008-07-01T11:26:00.000-06:00

First-Come. First-Served Registration for .ME Coming Soon!

Web's Newest Domain Name Extension Set for Open Registration July 17

PODGORICA, Montenegro-- July 01, 2008 --The .ME Registry is about to open domain name registrations on a first-come, first-served basis, and if initial indicators are accurate, the .ME domain names will move quickly. Open Registration officially begins July 17.

The .ME Registry concluded its Landrush Period June 26. The 20-day time span was the first opportunity for the public to apply for .ME domain names. More than 80 different accredited registrars from 24 countries are offering the catchy domain extension.

"In the Landrush already, applicants from around the world will be receiving some excellent domain names such as Click-On.ME, ChatWith.ME and Optimize.ME - illustrating just a few of the catchy names being awarded," said Predrag Lesic, the registry's executive director. "This extension really does lend itself to creative and attractive names whether for business or personal use."

Right now, the official Quiet Period is in effect. During this Quiet Period, the .ME Registry will be making domain awards, and in cases where multiple applications for the same name were received, auctions will be held. To date, through Sunrise and Landrush, the .ME Registry has received more than 30,000 .ME applications.

"This has been one of the quickest, most efficient contract-to-market timelines for any domain name extension," said Lesic. "Open Registration is a prime time to secure your dotME."

Two-year minimums are required on all .ME domain names registered during the Landrush and initial Open Registration periods.

For more information, or to apply to be a .ME Registrar, visit: www.Domain.ME.

About the .ME Registry:

.ME Registry (the d.b.a. of doMEn, d.o.o.) was chosen by the government of Montenegro to operate the new .ME domain name extension. The domain extension will be available to the general public worldwide in mid-July. .ME Registry partners include ME-net, GoDaddy.com and Afilias Limited. Me-Net is located in Montenegro, and its principals have been leaders in the ICT sector in Montenegro, including the privatization of its largest ISP. GoDaddy.com is located in the USA and is the world's largest domain name registrar and the largest paid hostname provider in the world, according to Netcraft Ltd. Afilias Limited is headquartered in Ireland and is a leading registry services provider, supporting more than 13 million domains worldwide.

Contacts

.ME Registry
Telephone: 382.281.601.303
Info@Domain.me