China's largest search engine Baidu.com announced today it is going to launch an independent online video website subsidiary under the brand name Qiyi.com. The subsidiary's CEO Gong Yu said the "Qiyi" video platform will carry films and TV series including HD programs. This marks a continuation of major media branding using LLLL domains to launch new sites. Interestingly enough the … [Read more...]
WIPO: You Need To Know The Trademarks Of Mexico Too
In a case involving the domain name, Bachoco.com, a one person WIPO panel held in favor of the trademark holder. The term Bachoco is the subject of a trademark registered in Mexico in 1989 and a US trademark registered in July 2003. The domain name was created in 2002. The panel found that although Bachoco is a mountain region in Mexico that the Mexico trademark coupled with the use of … [Read more...]
Why The ICA Objected To The Contract To Run The .XXX Extension In 2007 & Still Does
Back In February 2007 the Internet Commerce Association (the"ICA") wrote to ICANN objecting to the contract ICANN was considering entering into the ICM Registry to run the .xxx extension. With the ICM Registry taking the position yesterday, that the Independent Panel's decision mandates that ICANN enters into a contract with them to operate the .xxx registry and that they start offering .xxx … [Read more...]
Google Sued By Advertiser For Dropping Its Quality Score & Increasing Prices 10,000%
Domainers are all too well aware of the quality scores that Google imposes on publishers/domainers which winds up adjusting the payments that publishers/domainers receive for the traffic it sends to Google. Google apparently also sets up quality scores for at least some of their advertisers which effect the amount that advertisers are required to pay to Google for the traffic. This quality … [Read more...]
Catching Up With The Ongoing 2 Character .Biz Auctions: $37K Sold So Far
The .biz registry has been holding online auctions over the last couple of months for 2 character .biz domains. The auction on these domains really started on New York at the live TRAFFIC auction when NY.biz sold for $7K. Since then all the action has gone online where the .biz registry is still holding auctions daily. Since this auction model extends the auction another 24 hours every … [Read more...]
Will ICANN On Now Approve .XXX? ICM Says Yes; ICANN Seems To Say No
As we wrote about over the weekend the independent panel that reviewed ICANN's handling of the application of ICM Registry to run the .xxx registry, ruled that since ICANN voted to approve the application it should have allowed it to move forward without the additional review it understook. So the question now becomes whether ICANN will follow the report of the panel and approve the ICM … [Read more...]
VeriSign 4th Quarter State Of The Industry Domain Report: 192 Million Domains; Up 11 Million
According to the new VeriSign released its State Of The Industry Report for the 4th Quarter today, (pdf) the Internet added 11 million domain name registrations in the 4th quarter of 2009 and wound up the year at more than 192 Million domains. New registrations in the 4th quarter of 2009 came in at around 3.7 million domain name registrations per month, to total approximately 11 million new … [Read more...]