Suit claims registrar parked trademarked domain names for the period between expiration and deletion.
Verizon has a filed a lawsuit (pdf) against domain name registrar DirectNIC and related companies, alleging that the defendants parked expired domain names infringing on Verizon’s trademarks in the period between expiration and deletion.
The lawsuit also names directors of DirectNIC and related companies as defendants, and uses a gripe site and UDRP decisions as part of the basis for linking together the company with a number of other entities, which the suit calls “shell companies”.
Verizon claims that the defendants have registered 288 domain names that infringe on its marks. But the crux of its argument is that DirectNIC became, in effect, the registrant of these domain names for the period between when the domain names expired and were deleted. The Verizon lawsuit also claims that the defendants then transferred some of these expired domains to other entities for a fee prior to deletion.
Most major registrars replace the whois information for expired domain names with their own information or domain privacy, and often times display some sort of message about the domain being expired. During this period, the registrar places a parked page on the domain name. The domains are later auctioned off or transferred to other entities.
For example, Network Solutions places a notice and parked page on expired domain names. It then sends the domain name to an auction on NameJet. If there’s a buyer, the domain is then transferred to the new owner. Some domain registrars also have deals with buyers to sell domains to them outside of the auction process.
It’s not clear why Verizon sued DirectNIC and related other companies rather than a competitor. Verizon makes a lot of allegations in the lawsuit linking the defendants together, even though the point of the lawsuit doesn’t seem to address these linked entities and instead goes after the practice of parking expired domain names.
Depending on the outcome, this suit could have ramifications for most major domain name registrars and their expired domain parking practices, let alone “coming soon” placeholder pages.
Cost to register premium .tv domains just dropped — including renewal fees.
Since its beginning, .TV’s commercialization was anything but a hit with domain investors. With steep, registry-set prices for premium domain names, the potential for investment returns was essentially wiped out by the registry. Not to mention that you had to renew at premium prices each year.
I just received an email from eNom — a partner of VeriSign’s with regards to .tv — saying that prices on premium .tv domains have been reduced:
Sshhh… we wanted to let you in on a little known secret!
Today, all Premium .tv domains were re-launched with a drastically reduced pricing structure and offered to a broader audience. A savvy audience looking to invest in prime internet real estate dedicated to interactive, new media such as video, streaming media, interactive games, and more!
What does this mean for you? This is a perfect opportunity for you to secure your premium .tv name before it’s too late!
Additionally, any premium .tv domain name registered on or after March 19 will renew at standard prices rather than premium.
Some of these domains at the lower prices seem like they might be good development opportunities. However, the lower registry prices may put a damper on existing .tv portfolios, and the timing could lower expectations for Sedo’s upcoming .tv auction. Additionally, those that registered premium .tv domains prior to now and still have to pay premium renewal fees might protest.
Companies claim Sex.com owner in debt over $10 million.
Three creditors filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Sex.com owner Escom, LLC today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.
The petition, obtained by Domain Name Wire (pdf), lists three creditors, all of which appear to have investor and BuyDomains founder Mike Mann as the chairman. All three entities have the same address in Potamac, Maryland:
Washington Technology Associates, claiming $6,607,803.66
iEntertainment, Inc. claiming $3,476,515.02
AccountingMatters.com, LLC $7,800.00
The total claims are $10,092,118.68
This should mean that Thursday’s planned auction of Sex.com will be postponed.
In earlier comments to Domain Name Wire, Mann said “I am merely an investor who got completely railroaded by other investors with big guns, bad practices, and bad attitudes.”
Mann had said he was going to take legal action to prevent the auction, but this was certainly last minute.
As the case moves forward, more details about what went wrong will likely become public.
iPad-friendly sites are a reminder of mobile-friendly web sites.
In January I wrote about how the iPad could be bad for domainers because it will change the way some people navigate the web. Today news of a different sort regarding the iPad and web sites has surfaced: NPR and The Wall Street Journal will show different versions of their web sites to iPad users.
At issue here is the iPad’s lack of support for flash, which both NPR and WSJ apparently use heavily on their sites.
When mobile web browsing picked up, the web split in two as sites were made for mobile or desktop browsing. Hence the idea of .mobi, a top level domain name that would only contain web content optimized for small screens. Web enthusiasts screamed that the idea fragments the web, and instead the focus should be on creating web sites that work well on both small and large screens.
Many years later its apparent that .mobi wasn’t needed because of device and browser recognition. If I visit an optimized site with my phone, it will serve up a mobile version of the site. I don’t need .mobi.
That’s the approach NPR and WSJ are taking. Do we need a .ipad domain? Of course not. Web sites can just serve a different page to someone visiting from an iPad.
It’s still not ideal — web designers shouldn’t need to optimize for several devices. And ‘app’ on the iPad will be like creating new web site for a different platform. Yet the hindsight of what happened with .mobi and the mobile web helps us see the path forward.
Since I live in Austin, I often take for granted the size and scope of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference. There are essentially three conferences in one: Interactive (tech), Film, and Music. Starting last Friday, there will be tens of thousands of techies, film buffs, and music fans cycling through town. Heck, there will be close to 2,000 musical acts taking the stage over just a half of a week.
Here are a few of my observations, having been in Austin during SXSW for about 15 years.
1. The personality of the Interactive attendees is looking more and more like music attendees. Seriously, I feel kind of like a misfit with my lack of tattoos and no thick-framed glasses. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference between techies and musicians.
2. Most interaction takes place on the mobile phone. With the advent of Twitter and Facebook, mobile phones are becoming more of a social crutch. When I walked into the Demand Media party last night, I’d estimate that about 25% of the people there were texting, tweeting, and updating their Facebook status instead of conversing with others. I imagine their updates were something like this: “At DemandMedia party, updating my status rather than meeting new people.”
Mobile phones are like the new cigarette. People used to smoke in bars as a social crutch; something to do. Now that they can’t smoke, they pull out their phones and act like they’re doing something really important. I’ve found myself doing this in the past, but am making an effort this year to leave it in my pocket.
3. Book your hotel early. If you ever make the trip to SXSW, book your hotel early. Like 6 months early. Many of my friends figured this out the hard way, and are staying at “hourly” hotels on the outskirts of town.
4. We need to have a domainer meetup during SXSW next year. I’m already working on an Austin meetup on a UT football weekend this year. But I think a meetup during SXSW Interactive next year makes sense given the number of domain companies in town.
A U.K. charity wants to create a secure .org top level domain name at .ngo.
Non-profit Article 25 has set up a web site at dotNGO.net describing its plan:
There is currently no secure version of .org that can give any public reassurance that your donation is going to a registered charity. .ngo will fill that need. We belive(sic) that .ngo will become the single secure and trusted domain of legitimate charities and NGOs worldwide.
Given the number of typos on its web site, I hope it’s still under construction.
The idea is that a secure top level domain name would verify the charitable status of all organizations using it, so that anyone who’s at a .ngo domain name would know it wasn’t a scam. In particular, .ngo hopes to shut down disaster relief scams that pop up after earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. Currently, anyone can register a .org domain name.
It makes sense, but would the typical person who gets duped by an online charity scam know the difference between .ngo and .org, and know not to make a donation at a .org site?
Article 25 is looking for donors to pitch in £500,000 to help it complete the new top level domain name application.
VeriSign appears to be involved. Its logo is on dotNGO’s home page, but a note on the FAQ reads only “VeriSign, as part of its corporate” and then cuts off.
Board opts for separation of registrars and registries for new top level domain names.
ICANN’s board resolved today that there will be “strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars. No co-ownership will be allowed.”
However, the board left the possibility open for compromise, stating that if the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) comes up with a compromise, it will consider it.
This is bad news for companies such as Demand Media, which owns registrar eNom and hoped to apply for new top level domain names. It’s good news for incumbent registries VeriSign, Neustar, and Afilias.
The issue of registry/registrar separation has been a hot topic since the start of discussions on new top level domain names. The separation of the .com registry from the registrar business opened the door to massive registrar competition. Without it, it’s fair to wonder if behemoths such as Go Daddy, eNom, and Tucows would be around today.
But proponents of allowing integration — including some of these very same registrars that benefited to separation the first time around — argue that was a different time with a different set of circumstances.
Practically speaking, I don’t think prohibiting registrars from being registries will make that much of a difference in new TLDs. It will just create a headache for registrars as they create separate legal and financial structures to side step the prohibition.
With Sex.com hitting the auction block next week, mainstream media are in a tizzy writing about the auction of the “world’s most valuable domain name”. As usual, they’re comparing it to other big ticket domain sales. The only problem is that many of the sales they refer to have misleading sales figures.
Casino.com is on HuffPos’ list at $5.5 million, but the caption notes that it was the web site and domain. So that wasn’t a domain sale.
You’ll also see Business.com, which was widely reported as sold for $7.5 million. But that was in illiquid equity. According to the buyer, the equity ended up being redeemed for only $2.0 million. (The seller claims it ended up being more than $7.5 million.)
Then there’s the granddaddy of them all, Insure.com. Look, Quinstreet did not buy the domain name Insure.com for $16 million. It bought an active web site, and it generates substantial leads. The domain itself wasn’t worth that much.
Buyers and sellers often times have an incentive to pump up the sales price for domains. The buyer gets lots of publicity, and the seller gets an ego boost. Yet it’s painful to see this sort of misinformation continue to spread.
About six months after crossing the 30 million domain name mark, The Go Daddy Group is set to surpass 40 million domains under management, most likely on Wednesday. So if you register a domain name tomorrow, you might get some extra notoriety if you time it just right.
Ten years ago there were only about 17 million domain names registered, and now there is a single registrar with more than twice that many domains under management. When you do the math, it’s no surprise the company grossed about $750 million last year.
It was on March 10, 2000, coincidentally the same day Go Daddy is likely to hit 40 million domains under management, that the .com bubble is generally thought of to have “burst”, with the NASDAQ topping out at 5132.52. In the period that followed, many people and companies let their domain names expire. It was during this time that the domain name gold rush caught its second wind.
Network Solutions was the biggest registrar at the time. Ten years later it has only about 6.5 million domain names under its umbrella.
Given the role Go Daddy played in bringing domain names to the mass market, I’m somewhat surprised it wasn’t nominated to The .Com 25. But rather than look at the past, I’m sure the company has its eyes on a bigger milestone: 50 million domains under management. At this pace, it could hit that number later this year.
Internet Commerce Association wants ICANN to act quickly on move by UDRP provider.
Internet Commerce Association counsel Philip Corwin has sent a letter (pdf) to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom and Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate-Thrush asking it to act on Czech Arbitration Court’s new UDRP policy.
Czech Arbitration Court (CAC), one of the newest UDRP providers, proposed a new scheme in which it would charge only 500 EUR to file a domain name complaint and arbitrators would not spend as much time on cases.
Counsel for CAC posted a comment on Domain Name Wire’s earlier story on the proposal, stating that it would not move forward without ICANN’s blessing. Instead, before getting final word from ICANN, CAC made a few changes to the proposal and announced it was going forward with our without ICANN’s approval.
So far, ICANN has not made any public comment on CAC’s move that I’m aware of. It was briefly discussed in another context on the first day of ICANN’s meeting in Nariobi.
Whether ICANN acts on CAC’s move or not, it needs to say something.
UDRP filing goes after three highly generic .net domain names.
Here’s a domain name dispute filing that must be complicated: someone has filed a UDRP for Recent.net, Than.net, and They.net. The dispute was filed with National Arbitration Forum, which does not disclose the complainant’s identity until a decision is rendered.
On the face of it, these seem like very generic domain names. But when you dig into the whois history, you notice similarities with all of the domain names.
-currently registered to “Skelton Logic” in Australia
-previous registrant Vonny Ling of Singapore in January 2010
-several whois registrant changes in 2009 that are the same for each domain name
On the outset, it looks like it might be a case of someone using UDRP to challenge a domain theft. Several companies have used UDRP when their three character domain names were stolen, and panelists have granted the domain names given the circumstances.
But using UDRP to get three very generic domain names will prove extremely challenging. The complainant will have to prove some sort of trademark rights in the terms recent, they and than. That will be quite difficult. Unless the details are surprising, this seems like a case that will more likely need to be settled in court rather than UDRP.
It quotes David Farber saying “I don’t think that [adding new TLDs] creates innovation. I think that creates rapid confusion.”
Antony Van Couvering with new TLD service provider Minds + Machines, responded in the comments:
There’s no evidence whatever that people will be confused by new top-level domains. We already have more than 270 top-level domain today (all the gTLDs and ccTLDs) and no-one seems to be confused. People are smart and adaptable and quickly gravitate toward Internet services that improve their lives…
Really? Look, I agree with a lot of what Antony has to say about new TLDs, but to say that no one seems confused by having more than one top level domain name is just bunk.
Just last week, Michael Berkens received 27,000 web visitors in a single day to his .com from people looking for the .info of the same domain. A number of companies with ccTLDs (the majority of those 270 tlds Antony is referring to) have filed UDRPs or bought the .com version of their ccTLD because many of their customers go to .com instead.
So the argument isn’t whether increasing the number of new TLDs increases confusion or not. Instead, the argument should be that the possible innovation from adding new TLDs outweighs the cost of confusion.
It’s true that new TLDs may lead to innovation. (I assume some of the people Antony refers to in his comment about being “in a bit of a time-warp” would be someone like Tim Berners-Lee.)
Sadly, everything that has been publicly announced about new TLDs isn’t innovative; it’s just attaching a new label to the end of a domain name. It makes sense that someone who has an innovative idea doesn’t want to tell the world about it, but so far when I ask for examples all I hear are cases where someone wants to bundle services with the TLD or something else that can be done today with any other TLD or web site.
If anyone is working on a truly innovative TLD — something that can’t be done with today’s existing structure — I’d love to hear about it off the record.
It quotes David Farber saying “I don’t think that [adding new TLDs] creates innovation. I think that creates rapid confusion.”
Antony Van Couvering with new TLD service provider Minds + Machines, responded in the comments:
There’s no evidence whatever that people will be confused by new top-level domains. We already have more than 270 top-level domain today (all the gTLDs and ccTLDs) and no-one seems to be confused. People are smart and adaptable and quickly gravitate toward Internet services that improve their lives…
Really? Look, I agree with a lot of what Antony has to say about new TLDs, but to say that no one seems confused by having more than one top level domain name is just bunk.
Just last week, Michael Berkens received 27,000 web visitors in a single day to his .com from people looking for the .info of the same domain. A number of companies with ccTLDs (the majority of those 270 tlds Antony is referring to) have filed UDRPs or bought the .com version of their ccTLD because many of their customers go to .com instead.
So the argument isn’t whether increasing the number of new TLDs increases confusion or not. Instead, the argument should be that the possible innovation from adding new TLDs outweighs the cost of confusion.
It’s true that new TLDs may lead to innovation. (I assume some of the people Antony refers to in his comment about being “in a bit of a time-warp” would be someone like Tim Berners-Lee.)
Sadly, everything that has been publicly announced about new TLDs isn’t innovative; it’s just attaching a new label to the end of a domain name. It makes sense that someone who has an innovative idea doesn’t want to tell the world about it, but so far when I ask for examples all I hear are cases where someone wants to bundle services with the TLD or something else that can be done today with any other TLD or web site.
If anyone is working on a truly innovative TLD — something that can’t be done with today’s existing structure — I’d love to hear about it off the record.
I originally started writing this post as ways to get more traffic to your domain name blog. But it really applies to any type of blog. The message is that you need to think about growing your blog traffic over the long term, and that requires trust. I often see people try to get ‘quick hits’ of traffic by misleading their readers. But getting long term traffic involves building trust with your readers. Here are ten ways to do that.
1. Be accurate - we all make mistakes, and I’ve made plenty here on Domain Name Wire. The goal is to limit stupid mistakes. These are usually caused by a) not knowing your subject matter or b) writing in haste without checking your sources. Just yesterday I came across a domain blog posting that was basically 100% inaccurate. When someone reads that and realizes it’s inaccurate, you lose all of the trust you’ve built up. Reader lost.
2. Don’t write the headline only for the click - this is especially true in the domain name world since many blogs get a lot of their traffic from Domaining.com. I admit I sometimes write sensational headlines, but some blogs write only click-grabbing headlines and the content it leads to is only loosely tied to the headline. In the domain industry, I often see people use people’s names (e.g. Schilling) as attention grabbers, when the article has little to do with that person.
3. Be concise - if you can write something in one sentence, stop at one sentence.
4. Give credit - it’s tempting to act like you know your stuff and came up with that story on your own. But if you learned about it from someone else, you should link to the source. The source you link to will recognize you, and probably start following your blog. If it’s a tip from a reader, ask them if they’d like a “hat tip” in the post.
5. Use Twitter - if you haven’t linked your blog to Twitter, you need to do so ASAP. It’s a great (and easy) way to get traffic.
6. Look at the right analytics - with blogs, a lot of data in your log files is just noise. There are so many scrapers out there, plus RSS calls, that most of the traffic isn’t really traffic. My webalizer stats show 1.3 million page views last month. That’s inaccurate and not helpful. Use something like Google Analytics. It will undercount your traffic a little bit, but is still a better picture.
6. Use search box analytics - what are your readers looking for? Sure, you know what keywords they clicked to find your blog. But what are they searching for when they actually arrive on your site? Implement Google Analytics ’site search’ data to see what words people are typing into your search box. (You do have a search box on your site, right?)
7. Watch real time traffic with Woopra - most web site analytics programs are good for seeing what happened yesterday or last month. But what about right now? Try Woopra. It’s killer. Here’s how I use it.
8. Use full feeds - it’s tempting to only authorize partial feeds for RSS readers. After all, if they see only part of my feed they have to click over to my site to read the full thing, increasing my traffic, right? Sure, but you won’t get as many loyal readers. Blogs that only post partial feeds often don’t get enough across to the reader to show them that an article is interesting. So these feeds often get dropped from RSS readers. Look, all the biggest blogs use full feeds. Are they just stupid?
On the down side, you will find a lot more sites scraping your full articles if you have full RSS feeds. But you can always monetize your feeds.
9. Get more RSS readers - if there’s one metric that will drive your long term traffic more than anything else, it’s RSS readers. To get more readers you need to a) offer full feeds (see #8) and b) have an RSS button prominent on your site. Oh, and write good content so people want to subscribe.
To get a decent measure of your number of subscribers, you can check log files which sometimes report them. But the best proxy is the data Google gives you at Google.com/webmasters. (By the way, those Feedburner numbers are bogus and pointless.)
10. Don’t post just for the sake of posting - some people feel compelled to post even when they have nothing to say. If your readers find some of your posts of little value, they will eventually stop reading.
11. Proofread your posts - I make spelling and grammar errors in my articles. In fact, I’m sure there are a few in this one. But what annoys me is when someone clearly didn’t even take the time to read their post before they hit ‘publish’. If you have sentences that disappear in the middle, an incoherent structure, or dozens of spelling errors, I start to lost interest.
So there you have it. I’m sure I’ll think of many more tips, but these eleven are ones I strive to live by.
Company files patent application for cross-selling business cards based on registrant information.
The Go Daddy Group, parent company of domain name registrar GoDaddy, has filed two patent applications related to ordering business cards along with a domain name registration.
U.S. patent applications 12/202919 (pdf) and 12/202956 (pdf) describe a method of using information collected during the domain name registration process to help generate — and cross-sell — business cards for the registrant. These business cards could be offered as printed cards, an electronic file that may be printed, or as an electronic-only business card.
It makes sense to offer business cards to people when they register a domain name. After all, many people registering a domain are starting a business, and you’ve already collected their contact information (and now have a URL to put on the card). But I wonder how Go Daddy’s invention compares to other companies that collect information to sell one good and cross-sell another. VistaPrint, one of the masters of cross-selling, often uses customer information gained from selling one print or electronic product to sell another to the same customer.
The patent applications were filed September 2, 2008 an published today.
Second DOMAINfest conference to take place in Prague.
We now have the details about the second DOMAINfest conference for 2010, something the company foreshadowed back in July.
Oversee.net announced today that it will hold the second conference in Prague, Czech Republic. It will be a two day event, October 6 and 7, 2010 at Hotel Intercontinental. Conference details will be released in June. Registration is not yet open, but hotel reservations are available for 159 EUR per night.
A European conference is a natural progression for Oversee, which recently expanded into Europe with a new office.
The Fall is shaping up to be a busy season for domain conferences, although they will be spread geographically. In addition to the DOMAINfest conference, TRAFFIC will hold events in October (South Beach) and November (Hong Kong). Chef Patrick is organizing a domain name cruise in October as well.
Johns Wu has a new favorite past time — domaining.
Here’s an interesting story about Johns Wu, who founded the Bankaholic blog and sold it for about $15 million to Bankrate. He’s investing in high quality domain names — part of his “Grand Slam” strategy:
Thankfully, the cash from the Bankaholic sale has enabled me to become a player in the domaining space at a time when domain valuations have corrected as speculative capital has dried up and parking revenues have taken a nosedive.
My strategy is acquiring category killer exact match keyword names in high paying and high traffic niches—and yes, Google gives these domains much respect. I am always acquiring domains with the intention of one-day developing them. My online marketing experience has given me an extremely keen and accurate sense of valuations & development potential for domains… I constantly cold-email domain owners and make aggressive offers. 60% of the time I get no reply. 39% of the time I get an outrageous counter-offer. But the 1% of the time I succeed is worth the effort! All it takes is 1 solid domain to build a multi-million dollar web property.
Wu defines “Grand Slam” as category killer domain + SEO [Search Engine Optimization] traffic + monetization. I won’t bother to tell him that looks like a triple. But if he succeeds like he did with Bankaholic, he’ll turn it into a Grand Slam.
By the way, the site that did the interview has a nice domain name, too: MO.com.
ICANN Ombudsman upset about service from “the little guy” at Air Canada.
ICANN Ombudsman Frank Fowlie is giving a whole new meaning to “sticking it to the man”. The “little man”, that is. At the same time, he has learned what it’s like to be on the losing end of a complaint.
Here’s the story.
Fowlie was frustrated with the service he received from Air Canada after he did not get his meal choice in Executive Class last year on a flight from Paris to Montreal. He said he complained to the flight attendant and was then ignored for 35-45 minutes with no snacks until the correct meal was served. The flight attendant says that he informed Fowlie it would take thirty minutes to cook the meal and that he provided wine and bread to Fowlie during the wait. But apparently Fowlie became agitated and started ringing his call button.
What happened next is in to dispute, because Fowlie’s version of events differ from the entire flight crew of Air Canada.
The flight attendant claims that Fowlie cursed ant shouted at him. The flight attendant informed Fowlie that if he didn’t calm down, he’d have to be moved to a different area of the aircraft. Fowlie took this to mean he’d be downgraded to coach.
After the flight attendant told his supervisor about the incident, the supervisor asked Fowlie to step into the galley to talk about it. The supervisor claims:
Dr. Fowlie was physically imposing through his tone of voice, his body language and the use of his finger in her face. She also states that Dr. Fowlie referred to the flight attendant as “the little man” or “the little nothing”.
Fowlie says his reference to the flight attendant as “the little man” was just a descriptive term of his appearance. Hey, this might be fair. After all, the Ottawa Citizen reports that the attendant is just 160 pounds. As you can tell from Fowlie’s picture, he’s weighs a bit more than the attendant.
The supervisor then reported the incident to the captain, who issue a citation to Fowlie.
Once Fowlie arrived at his layover, he allegedly acted aggressively toward the ground manager. The crew for his next flight was told what happened, and the captain denied Fowlie access to the flight because he was a “risk of further disruption.”
The ground manager was concerned enough that she called airport security. Fowlie had to wait until the next day to be allowed to continue on his trip. That’s quite amazing for someone who has a Doctorate of Conflict Resolution and a Master of Arts in Conflict Analysis and Management. Perhaps a Masters of Anger Management is in order.
Fowlie filed a complaint with Canadian Transportation Agency, which denied his claim. I suppose Fowlie now knows what it’s like to be on the losing side of a complaint. After all, he’s quite skilled at ignoring the key points that are presented in cases filed with his office.
According to the Ottawa Citizen article, Fowlie is a SuperElite member of Air Canada’s frequent-flyer program and regularly logs 240,000 km a year in his work as ombudsman for the ICANN.
Lawsuit over employee bidding scandal voluntarily dismissed by plaintiff.
A lawsuit against Snapnames and parent company Oversee.net that was requesting class action status has been voluntarily dismissed.
Steward Resmer, a SnapNames customer who lost $20 in an auction thanks to the “halvarez scandal”, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Central District of California in November. Resmer was seeking class action status for the case on behalf of U.S. customers who had lost money due to inflated bidding. He was asking for Snapames to “Disgorge Defendants of all revenue earned from SnapNames.com Internet domain name auctions during the Class period”.
The lawsuit hit a major roadblock when the judge questioned the dollar amount in question in the suit. In order to be certified as a class action, at least $5 million in damages must have occurred. As it turned out, U.S. customers lost less than $1 million in direct over bids thanks to the employee bidding.
Resmer dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled at a later date. A copy of the dismissal is here.
In a letter (pdf) to ICANN chairman of the board Peter Dengate-Thrush, ICM chairman Stuart Lawley writes:
“I am hopeful, as are others in the community, that ICANN will embrace the communications of the panel and use them to improve its processes and to restore confidence in ICANN as an institution.”
Lawley said time is of the essence for ICANN to regain institutional confidence:
“Assuming, as I do, that the Board takes its obligations under the accountability provisions of the Bylaws seriously and will respect the conclusions of this Panel of preeminent international jurists, we believe that it is now incumbent on ICANN to move expeditiously to execute a registry agreement with ICM for operation of the .xxx top level domain.”
And if ICANN doesn’t act expeditiously to get a contract in place with ICM registry? It probably faces a lawsuit:
“ICM is mindful that our patience has not always been rewarded in the past and can see no purpose (other than the expenditure of yet more time, money and effort by both parties) that would be served by delay. Accordingly, and with respect, I hope you will understand that we must protect our rights if it appears that our efforts to work in partnership with ICANN are failing, once again, to bear fruit.”
My guess is ICANN either approves the agreement or pays off ICM registry to go away until the new gTLD round gets going.
Since I live in Austin, I often take for granted the size and scope of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference. There are essentially three conferences in one: Interactive (tech), Film, and Music. Starting last Friday, there will be tens of thousands of techies, film buffs, and music fans cycling through town. Heck, there will be close to 2,000 musical acts taking the stage over just a half of a week.
With Sex.com 
The Go Daddy Group, parent company of domain name registrar