CooperMills

Posts Tagged ‘domain name law’

A Sedo domain market study has confirmed a record sale of domain names in this year’s first quarter, in which close to 12 000 domain names were sold via the Sedo marketplace. These sales take the record for the highest selling quarter with an 18.6 percent increase from Q4 of 2009.

The Sedo study has indicated a swell in generic (gTLDs) and country code Top Lop Level Domains (ccTLDs). Sedo believes that the growth in the domain name market over the last quarter is due to an increase in market spending among larger corporations and the introduction of one and two-character domains and IDN domains that use a non-Roman script.

Closer to home, secondary domain markets have developed in the .au space with both Drop.com.au and Netfleet.com.au leading the way in sales which are achieving record prices. Drop.com.au shows domain sales as high as $18,000 for carparts.com.au while Netfleet achieved $6000 for graphicdesign.com.au.

Sedo is expecting a rise in sales to continue over 2010 as it believes that companies are starting to understand the critical role a domain name strategy plays in driving a successful marketing campaign.  Many large companies are investing heavily in branding and domain name sales. The study also highlights the importance for trademark owners to get in quickly and take action to protect brands.

Cooper Mills Director and Technology Lawyer Erhan Karabardak believes that the market will continue to grow and achieve higher prices, he says that:

“With the end of the Global Financial Crisis, marketing budgets are increasing and companies are becoming more active with their online sales and marketing strategies which are key in the increasingly competitive market place.“

Tags: domain law, domain name law, domain name lawyer, IT Lawyer, technology lawyer
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ICANN has announced that domain names will now appear in Arabic Script, as part of the move to non-latin domain names.

Since November of last year ICANN has received 21 requests for top-level domains (TLDs) through its Fast Track Process, representing 11 different languages, however ICANN has chosen Arabic as the first Non- Latin script as it is one of the most widely-used on the internet today. Other non latin language requests have come from China, India and Russia to name a few.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been chosen as the first three regions that will be able to use country-code specific TLDs. Addresses for regional domain names in these countries can be found by using native language characters. Egypt has been the first to create a domain name using Arabic characters. The domain name .misr, which is the Arabic word for Egypt, will be spelled out in Arabic script.

ICANN expects that the introduction of domain names in Arabic script will make a surge in the number of internet users in the Arab speaking world and will enable Internet services to penetrate into new market segments by eliminating language barriers.

Tags: arabic domain names, domain law, domain name law, domain name lawyer, domain name lawyers, ICANN, non latin domain names
Posted in Domain law and domaining, General, IT Law | Comments Off

In a judgment released by the Supreme Court of Kentucky on 18 March 2010, the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeal, which found in favour of the domain owners, was overturned.

More to follow.

Tags: domain law, domain name law, domain name lawyer, domain name lawyers, domain names, IT Lawyer, Kentucky Domain Seizures
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The issue of domain name wildcarding became a hot issue in 2006, after auDA deleted 19 domain names from a Registrant because they were wildcarded. This matter ended up in the Federal Court of Australia and was fought out, until the parties resolved the matter shortly before trial.

This Court battle caused auDA to develop an interim policy on wildcarding in 2007, which was to have been reviewed  but almost 3 years on and nothing has happened – so it remains an interim policy. Our enquiries of auDA revealed that they did intend to have their security and stability advisory committee (SSAC) look at the issue soon (that was in 2009) – it is interesting to note that at the time the interim policy was announced the SSAC didn’t have any members!

In order to understand wildcarding one must understand what it means. The auDA policy defines it as:

A “wildcard DNS record” is a record in a DNS file that will match all requests for non-existent domain names, so that a user who types a non-existent domain name into their browser does not get the standard “Error 404” message, but is instead redirected to another webpage.

The auDA definition is a little misleading. Firstly a wildcard record matches all requests for fourth level domains as opposed to ‘non-existent domain names‘. For example a domain coopermills.com.au exists, but if it were wildcarded then anything that was typed before coopermills.com.au with a full stop would resolve to (usually) a web page hosted at the third level domain. If an internet user was to type cars.coopermills.com.au, then it may resolve to www.coopermills.com.au. The effect of this is to in essence allow any fourth level domain, as opposed to manually creating them.

Wildcarding is commonly used by almost all parking companies such as Sedo. The rational is that it is better that an internet user is directed to content rather than an error – this enhances the internet user experience.

auDA had claimed that wildcarding caused the security issues identified in RFC 1535. The Registrant called the author of RFC 1535 Ehud Gavron to give evidence as an expert at the trial, who disagreed. During Mr Gavron’s visit (and after the matter had been resolved by the parties), Cooper Mills Lawyers hosted Mr Gavron who spoke on wildcarding of domain names in the .au context.

To download the podcast click on the link: Domain Wildcarding: The Implications for the .au Space

Tags: Cooper Mills Lawyers, domain law, domain lawyers, domain name law, domain name lawyers, domain wildcarding
Posted in Domain law and domaining, Podcasts | Comments Off

To all of our clients and visitors to our blog, we wish you seasons greetings and a safe and prosperous new year.

Thank you for your support in 2009, and we look forward to working with you in 2010.

Our office will be re-open on 11 January 2010.

Stay tuned for our new IT Law, Telecommunications Law, Domain Law and general Commercial Law articles / posts.

Tags: Commercial Law, domain law, domain name law, IT Law, telecommunications law
Posted in Domain law and domaining, General, ISP and Telco Law, IT Law, Podcasts, Privacy, Spam, Trade Practices Law, Uncategorized | Comments Off

After an 11 year process, ICANN has signed a historic agreement with the US Department of Commerce, which affirms its role as the supreme manager of the global domain name system.

In 1998 ICANN was set up by the US Government under the oversight of the US Government. Although sometimes controversial and subject to debate, ICANN has managed to successfully guide the global domain name system. ICANN’s most recent meeting was held in Sydney, and was attended by industry participants including Cooper Mills Lawyers.

According to ICANN:

When ICANN was created in 1998, with the assistance of the United States Government, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) process was started with the objective of achieving a noble goal: the coordination of the Internet’s unique identifiers by the private sector through a not-for-profit organization where policies were developed from the bottom up.

The signing of the Affirmation determines once and for all that this model works.

The JPA was the seventh amendment of the original MOU.  Over the years there have been thirteen report cards on performance of responsibilities to the US Department of Commerce alone.  So why is the Affirmation of Commitments a further step in progress and internationalization of the ICANN model?

It commits ICANN to remaining a private not for profit organization. It declares ICANN is independent and is not controlled by any one entity. It commits ICANN to reviews performed BY THE COMMUNITY – a further recognition that the multi-stakeholder model is robust enough to review itself.

The full text of the Affirmation between ICANN and the US Department of Commerce is available here.

Whilst this is a historic step it is not likely to affect business as usual at ICANN. This Agreement comes at an important time with the introduction of IPV6 and new TLDs among, the host of other challenges facing ICANN.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyers, domain name law, domain name lawyers, domain name regulation, ICANN
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ICANN has just announced that since changes implemented in June 2008, Domain Tasting has dropped a massive 99.7%, which effectively spells the end of the practice.

Domain Tasting, is the practice of registering domains to identify their potential to attract visitors and typically revenue from online ads, and cancelling the registration within 5 days to avoid paying the fees if the domains did not attract visitors / revenue within this period – this was in effect a ‘try before you buy’.

ICANN says (in reference to their solution to this problem):

The solution in brief means that if a company registers and then returns more than a certain number or percentage of domains each month, they are charged for each additional registration above that amount. The result is that domain tasting becomes increasingly expensive the more a company engages in the practice for what may be speculative reasons.

The announcement by ICANN comes after the release of its report: The End of Domain Tasting – Status Report on AGP Measures.

The issue of domain tasting is not one that we have experienced in Australia.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, ICANN, IT Lawyer
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Yesterday we received notification from auDA (the .au Domain Name Regulator) that they had instigated a review into the Domain Renewal Expiry and Deletion Policy.

According to auDA the review will focus on:

• 1. Whether the current 30 day pending delete period for expired domain names (ie. where the registrant has not renewed their domain name) is appropriate.
  2. Whether the current “domain purge” procedure (ie. where domain names are purged from the registry at a random time between 10.30am and 5.00pm AEST on the next business day after the pending delete period ends) is effective.
  3. What action (if any) auDA should take in relation to unofficial domain drop lists, and the domain-catching services being provided by some accredited registrars and other industry participants.

At the risk of sounding pessimistic, auDA may be using this review as a cover to stifle innovation by putting a stop to, or restricting domain drop lists and auctions. auDA needs to carefully consider these issues, the .au name space is already over regulated by world standards, the last thing we need is more regulation.

We have been asked to make a submission on behalf of Australian domainers – without speculating on what our submissions will say, it is clear that there is great support for the drop lists and auctions.

If you are a domainer and you would like to make submissions, we encourage you to contact us so that we can combine your comments / views with our broader submissions to this review.

Tags: auDA, domain law, domain lawyers, domain name law, domain name lawyers
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A United States man has been charged in what is thought to be one of the world’s first cases where a suspected domain name thief has been prosecuted.

The accused allegedly hacked into an online account belonging to one of the owners of the popular P2P.com domain name. He then purportedly moved ownership of the domain to himself and then resold it via eBay.

The man was charged with felony charges of unlawful taking or deception, identify theft and computer theft. Each of the three counts carries a maximum sentence in the United States of 10 years in prison.

A civil suit by one of the legitimate owners of P2P.com is also pending. The owner claims he has spent 30 months and US$500,000 trying to reclaim the domain name. The civil suit is filed against the alleged thief, the group that runs the on-line account system that was hacked and the person who bought the domain name, Mar Madsen. Mr Madsen did not know P2P was stolen when he bought it for US$111,000. He still retains the domain name today.

The case has further raised concerns about specific laws protecting domain name owners and the industry’s failure to provide domain name owners with deeds.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyer, domain name law, domain name lawyer, IT Law
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Paul Twomey CEO and President of ICANN yesterday announced that he would not be seeking to renew his contract with ICANN, at the expiration of its term this year, and will move on at this end of the year.

Twomey made his announcement in front of 1200 delegates at ICANN’s 34th International Public Meeting in Mexico City.

Twomey said:

“Last year, I told the Board that I did not want to renew my contract as President and CEO for another 3 year term,” said Twomey. “While I am deeply and personally committed to ICANN and its success, I think this is the right time for me to move on to another leadership position in the private or international sectors.”

Twomey became CEO and President of ICANN in 2003 after 4 years as Chairman of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), after a distinguished career.

Tags: domain law, domain lawyers, domain name law, domain name lawyers
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