Domain name speculation
Domain name speculation, popular as domaining in professional jargon,[1] is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring generic Internet domain names as an investment with the intent of selling them later for a profit.
The main targets of domain name speculation are generic words which can be valuable for type-in traffic and for the dominant position they would have in any field due to their descriptive nature. Hence generic words and phrases[2] such as poker, insurance, travel, creditcards, loan and others are attractive targets of domain speculation in any top-level domain, the most popular of which is .COM.
The speculative characteristics of domain names may be linked to news reports or current events. However, the effective period during which such opportunities exist may be limited. Quick turnaround in the resale of domains is often called domain flipping. Domain flipping may also involve the process of buying a valuable domain name and building a related website around it, all this with the objective of selling the domain and newly built website to an interested party.
Concept
Sometimes, domain name speculation involves finding domain names early in a market, particularly when a new top-level domain is launched, registering them and waiting until the market grows to sell them. Domains such as voice.com, sex.com, and fund.com have sold for millions of US dollars.[3][4]
The COM top-level domain (or 'TLD') is the focus of most domain speculation activity as it is the largest TLD. Domain speculation occurs in other TLDs as well, such as NET and to a lesser extent in ORG, INFO, and BIZ. Of the Generic top-level domains, INFO is the most popular by registration volume compared to BIZ gTLD due to the low cost of initial registration and the recognizability of INFO as being an abbreviation of information.[5]
Domain name speculation also occurs in
Specialist and repurposed
Domain name speculators, sometimes known as domainers or domain investors, also register domain names based on seemingly generic phrases such as propertyforsale in the hope that these domain names could be sold later to businesses. Some (but not all) domain name investors will try to stay away from domain names containing trademarks as this could be considered cybersquatting.
Some
Evolution
Domain name speculation has evolved with the expansion of the domain name system. Domain names were registered primarily for business purposes. In the 1990s, much of the ccTLD landscape had yet to appear, and the growing public awareness of the COM TLD was gathering momentum owing to the growth of the Dot-com bubble. This inevitably attracted the attention of those who saw potential value in domain names, and by this time many of the most valuable generic domain names, such as sex.com and business.com, had been registered. No clear legal position existed to distinguish domain name speculation and cybersquatting. Due to the open nature of most TLDs, anyone could register a domain name. This led to the development of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy in 1999.[18]
Distinction from cybersquatting
A common accusation against domain name speculation is that it is cybersquatting.
Generic terms, such as the term "salt" when used in connection with sodium chloride, are not capable of serving the essential trademark function of distinguishing a product or service. This means that generic terms are generally not afforded any legal protection.[25] The Canned Foods, Inc. v. Ult Search Inc. decision[26] specifically deals with a case involving a generic term, "Grocery Outlet" and the domain name "groceryoutlet.com". The decision contains the key sentence "Generic terms receive no protection in US trademark law when they are used to label the goods and services that they describe."
Cybersquatting was first used as a legal term in March 1998 by a U.S. District Court in California in the case of Avery Dennison vs Sumpton.[27] An early definition of the practice was given in Intermatic Inc. v. Toeppen, 947 F. Supp. 1227 (N.D. Ill. 1996). The definition was "These individuals attempt to profit from the Internet by reserving and later reselling or licensing domain names back to the companies that spent millions of dollars developing the goodwill of the trademark."[28]
As domain name speculation has evolved alongside the domain name system, the most memorable and shortest domains tend to be amongst those registered first in any TLD. For old TLDs like COM (introduced in 1985), these domains will be long gone and people registering their first domains are often frustrated at the lack of short and memorable domains in this and other mature TLDs.[29]
One of the main problems concerning trademarks and domain names in
The global and unrestricted nature of TLDs and gTLDs effectively means that anyone in any country can register a domain name in them regardless of whether they have any intellectual property rights in that name. With
Primary market speculation
The primary market for domain name speculation covers newly registered domain names that have not been registered before. Such domain names are often linked to news and current events. The launch of a new TLD encourages primary market speculation as domainers rush to register generic terms and also phrases that make a pun on the TLD name (domain hack). Other more organised domainers or domain name speculators register trademarks in advance of the launch of new TLDs specifically in order to register these short, memorable and potentially high value domains in the sunrise period of new gTLD launches. The Sunrise period is when intellectual property rights owners (trademark owners etc.) can register their trademark in the new gTLD in advance of the gTLD being opened for general registrations. In the last three years the main new TLDs launched were .eu ccTLD,[33] .mobi TLD and .asia sTLD.[34][35] All of these had landrush periods of varying success.
Secondary market speculation
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2010) |
The secondary market for domain names covers previously registered domain names that have not been renewed by registrants or are available for resale.[6] Sometimes these dropped domain names can be more valuable due to their having had high-profile websites associated with them. They will have links from other websites and could still have users searching for the websites because of these links. Others can be valuable because of the generic nature of the domain name or the length of the domain name, with two and three character names being the most sought after.
The business of registering the domain names as they are deleted by the registries is known as
Some registrars do not allow domains to drop in the normal fashion, instead introducing an intermediary (e.g., Snapnames and Namejet) that auction the domain prior to their deletion. If nobody buys the domain at auction, it will pass through the normal deletion process.[38]
Domain name speculation and the rise of Pay per click websites
Cybersquatting has a clear legal definition, but this definition tends to be lost when people open a webpage with only
The ease with which
The March 2006 Verisign Domain Brief
The latest statistics for domain name usage quoted in the Verisign Domain Brief for June 2009 states that of the 92 million COM and NET domain names, 24% of these domains have one page websites, 64% have multipage websites and 12% have no associated websites.[43] In purely numerical terms, those single page websites would account for approximately 22 million COM and NET websites. The survey quoted in the Verisign Domain Brief does not explain the methodology or provide anything other than a summary of the results. However this is effectively a rise in single page websites of just over 7 million websites.
Some hosters such as
See also
References
- ^ Oprendek, Greg (25 November 2019). "Domaining 101: Domain investing startup guide". GoDaddy Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
- ^ A 242 page list of premium generic words and phrases reserved by the .mobi registry, mTLD during the Sunrise phase of the launch of .mobi TLD Archived 31 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "MicroStrategy Sells Voice.com Domain Name for $30 Million". Business Wire. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
- ^ Irvine, Chris (10 March 2010). "Top 10 most expensive domain names". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ^ "ICANN Registry Status Domain Counts (.aero to .mobi)". Forms.icann.org. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ a b "Nominet (.UK Registry) document discusses Domaining, dropcatching and the secondary market in .uk ccTLD" (PDF). Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "DE Registration figures". Denic.de. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "UK Registration figures". Nominet.org.uk. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ .eu ccTLD Landrush period controversy.
- ^ "Cybersquatters can get rich if they're quick, says .eu registry". Out-law.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent (8 April 2006). ""Thousands lose out to touts in sale of .eu addresses" Guardian Newspaper, London, UK 8 April 2006". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ McCarthy, Kieren (24 July 2006). "74000 .eu domains suspended". TheRegister.co.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "Eurid 2006 annual report, Page 20. Numbers of domains per registrant" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "us Nexus requirements" (PDF). Nic.us. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ ".eu Registration Eligibility" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "asia Registration Requirements". Asia.asia. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "de German administrative contact requirement". Denic.de. 11 February 2007. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "Timeline for the Formulation and Implementation of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy". Icann.org. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ ""Domain restrictions target cybersquatters" news.com 03 May 1999". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "UDRP rules". Icann.org. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ WIPO. "WIPO Press Release on Rise of UDRP Cases". Wipo.int. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Microsoft-Ships-URL-Tracer-to-Hunt-Down-TypoSquatters/ [dead link]
- ^ "Microsoft's Strider URL Patrol". Research.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "Examples of typosquatted domains detected by Microsoft's Strider project". Research.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ Why generic marks are not generally afforded legal protection.
- ^ "Canned Foods, Inc. v Ult. Search Inc. National Arbitration Forum Decision". Adrforum.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ Isenberg, Doug. "The Origins of 'Cybersquatting'". Retrieved 15 June 2016.
- ^ "Intermatic Inc. v. Toeppen, 947 F. Supp. 1227 (N.D. Ill. 1996)". Retrieved 15 June 2016.
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(help) - ^ "Good Domain Names Grow Scarce – Inc Magazine, 01 July 2009". Inc.com. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "How long does it take to decide a UDRP case?". Internic.net. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "(UK Registry) The "One in a Million" Court Case which dealt with domain names and passing off". Nominet. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ ""One In A Million" Judgement. 28 November 1997". Nominet.org.uk. 28 November 1997. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ .eu Landrush period controversy.
- ^ "asia Landrush and auction. – Circleid.com 27 July 2007". Circleid.com. 27 July 2007. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ .asia Landrush period controversy
- ^ "Drop-Catching". ICANNWiki. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^ Jackson, Ron. "Inside a Drop Catcher's War Room: How eNom Arms Maker Chris Ambler Is Turning The Tide for Club Drop". Domain Name Journal. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^ Cole, Mason. "The Domain Name Secondary Market" (PDF). ICANN. SnapNames. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
- ^ "ICANN Registry Statistics (.aero to .mobi)". Forms.icann.org. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "GNSO Council Report to the ICANN Board Recommendation for Domain Tasting" (PDF). Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "The End Of Domain Tasting. ICANN Report on AGP Measures 12 August 2009" (PDF). Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "Verisign Domain Brief August 2006 Page 5" (PDF). Verisign.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- ^ "Verisign Domain Brief June 2009 Page 5" (PDF). Verisign.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.