27 February 2013

The new gTLDs and protecting your Domains

What Do We Do Now that the World Didn’t End in 2012? | McDermott Will & Emery - JDSupra:" . . . In light of the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that are scheduled to launch in the latter half of 2013, companies should now review their global trademark portfolios for marks they want to protect. The new gTLDs will allow companies to have “.brand” extensions (e.g., .yahoo, .nike) and allow the creation of new domain name registries with extensions containing generic words and locations  e.g., TheFrenchLaundry.restaurant, BuddhaBar.paris). With the launch of almost 1,400 new gTLDs, the World Wide Web is poised to explode with new marketing opportunities and, it can be assumed, opportunistic cyber squatters and domain name thieves. Now is an ideal time to conduct an audit of your company’s global trademark portfolio and decide which trademarks, if any, need to be defensively registered with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) in order to be protected against potential misappropriation.The TMCH is a centralized depository of information that will function as an authentication/validation mechanism for protecting registered, court-validated and statute- or treaty-protected trademarks as the new gTLDs roll out. Registering trademarks with the TMCH will provide trademark owners (1) access to the Sunrise Period, i.e., the priority domain name registration period before registration opens to the general public; (2) Claims Notices, which will alert trademark owners when a new gTLD is registered that matches their exact trademark; and (3) access to the Uniform Rapid Suspension system and other dispute mechanisms for taking action against abusive and infringing domain names registered by third parties. . . ."


IP lawyers gird for trademark issues amid domain name expansion:
NEW YORK, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Intellectual property attorneys are focused on guarding against misuse of their clients' brand names and trademarks ahead of the massive expansion of Internet domain names, which is expected to begin by the end of 2013. The expansion is forcing brand owners to decide which of their marks to actively protect, including through registering Internet address ownership themselves. The new system, which was announced in 2011 and designed to allow more personalization of Internet addresses, allows a wide increase in the number of so-called "top-level domain names," such as .com, .org or .edu. Applicants can even seek to register for domains that end with a topic, such as .wine or .golf, or with a company name. The number of top-level domain names is expected to leap from 22 to about 1,000 . . . The registration fee of $185,000 per top-level domain name has also served as a deterrent . . . .

Small businesses lose domain names as they wait too long to register their company: "Over a quarter of of small business owners wait months after they’ve registered their company name to register their domain name, risking losing out on their preferred .com or .co.uk web address, according to new research.With so many small businesses going to Companies House before they check for their desired domain name, 1 in 5 (22%) actually lose their preferred name and have to settle for a name not related to their company at all (21%). . . . "


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25 February 2013

Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

Reverse Domain Name Hijacking: " . . . If you allege cybersquatting, and a UDRP panelist or panelists determine that you have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking, you may end up with more than egg on your face. Rest assured, bloggers on the internet will pick up the decision and essentially call you bad names and laugh at you. This will not be good for that trademark and brand you're trying to protect. But it could get worse under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) if you choose to file a cybersquatting lawsuit against a domain owner. There are examples of cases where the defendant has won up to $100,000 as a penalty based on a finding that the plaintiff/complainant attempted to engage in reverse domain domain name hijacking. Reverse domain name hijacking occurs when your cybersquatting allegations are frivolous and it should have been clear to your cybersquatting attorney that no claim existed. Essentially, it is trying to use the leverage of the legal system or the UDRP against a legitimate domain owner in order to force a transfer of the domain for free. . . ."

IP lawyers gird for trademark issues amid domain name expansion: " . . . ICANN is expected to begin delegating the new top-level domain names by the end of 2013, Abrams said. Of the 1,930 requests submitted during the application period of January 2012 through May 2012, 59 percent were for standard terms, like .shop, while 34 percent were for brands, according to statistics released in October by ICANN's Business Constituency group. The remaining 7 percent were for community or geographical identifiers, like .Miami. The brand applicants include the American Broadcasting Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Microsoft Corp, according to the ICANN website. Registrants could decide if only they could use their top-level domain address or if it would be open to the public, Steptoe & Johnson attorney Brian Winterfeldt said in a telephone interview with Reuters. Winterfeldt advises companies, including Google, on trademark and domain name issues. APRIL MEETING - ICANN made non-confidential portions of new top-level domain name applications public last June. If companies or others think a proposed name misuses their intellectual property, they have until March 13 to object. The names can be reviewed on the website gtldresult.icann.org.


Go Daddy Posts Biggest Sales Day in History After Super Bowl Ads Run: "The company on Tuesday reported that the Monday after the game was its biggest sales day in company history. The company provided Mashable with the following stats that illustrate a big increase over the comparable day in 2012:
Hosting sales jumped 45%; Dot-com domain sales rose 40%; New mobile customers increased by 35%; The company added 10,000 customers in total."


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22 February 2013

Petition to Stop Corporate Takeover of New gTLDs (domain names)

A petition (link below) against the corporate takeover of new gTLDs--

Petition | ICANN: Stop Corporate Takeover of New Internet Names | Change.org: " . . . These attempts to restrict access are an abuse of the system and pose great risk of harm to business, consumers and internet users globally. New generic word top level domain names should be open to the general public to use. Individuals and small businesses should be able to use .music, movie .shop and .whatever to create, innovate, and promote their business or interests online. These takeover attempts have potential to give large companies enormous power in their respective markets. If Amazon alone controls all web addresses ending with .music, .app, .book and others they will wield an enormous competitive advantage in these markets online. The result would be further consolidation of wealth at the top. Corporate takeover here will also stifle creativity and expression online. How could one company alone possibly determine all possible creative applications of website names that end with .video, .store, .song and more? Artists should be able to use .art names to showcase their craft. App developers should be able to get a .app domain name for their new app website. There are millions of new small businesses that could use a .SHOP name for their website. But Amazon wants them all. No single company should be sole arbiter of how these new names can be used for innovation, expression and commerce. New TLDs in languages like Chinese and Japanese are at risk also. Large corporations are asking to close off Chinese domain symbols; .家電(consumer electronics) .手表(watches) .書籍(book) .珠宝(jewelry) .食品(food) .通販(online shopping) and Japanese characters; .クラウド (.cloud), .ストア (.store), .セール (.sale ), .ファッション (.fashion ). People and businesses in Japan and China would not even have access to use website names in their own language! The very group that these new names are supposed to serve will be shut out from them. ICANN has opened a comment period on this subject. Submit your views directly to ICANN here. . . . "


ICANN has new website for new gTLDs: http://newgtlds.icann.org
ICANN New gTLDs:
12 February 2013
New gTLDs Website, Renewed
06 February 2013
Beneficiary Requirement on Letters of Credit
01 February 2013
Webinar: Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant: Examining the User Experience Implication of the Active Variant TLDs
29 January 2013
Next Applicant Update Webinar 5 February 2013


gTLD Strategy Congress takes shape with Google, .Boston, and more - Domain Name Wire: "First, L’Oreal has switched speakers to Brigitte King, Senior Vice President. Her keynote is called “The L’Oreal Story: Building Beauty Brands with Digital, Data and Direct Relationships”. Given the title, it’s not clear how much insight she’ll provide about the company’s new top level domain ambitions. Second, Hal Bailey, Director, Domains Business at Google will take part in the futurist panel “Domains in 2015, 2020, 2025: A View of the dot Future”. Google has applied for about 100 top level domain names. Third, The Boston Globe’s Jeff Moriarty, Vice President for Digital Products, will discuss the group’s bid for .Boston. Finally, Mommy blogger Ilana Wiles will discuss what she would do with .mom if she could have afforded to apply for it. This is an interesting session, as it may just show how new TLDs provide a bigger gap between the “haves” and “have nots” on the internet. . . .


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20 February 2013

Closed gTLD debate

Closed gTLD debate threatens Google and Amazon | DomainIncite - Domain Name News & Opinion:
"Howls of criticism about Google, Amazon and others’ plans to grab huge swathes of new gTLD real estate and keep it to themselves seem to have spurred ICANN into action. A public comment period opened this week seeks community feedback (indirectly) on applications such as Amazon’s .music, L’Oreal’s .beauty and Google’s .blog, among many others. These gTLDs have all been proposed with “single-registrant” business models, in which the registry controls all second-level domains and regular registrars cannot sell them to anyone else. It’s the “dot-brand” model, but applied to generic dictionary words for which the applicants have no trademark rights. Scores of such applications have been made, notably by Google and Amazon, but they have drawn criticism from many in the ICANN community, such as a small group of registrars and others led by Blacknight Solutions. Members of the Governmental Advisory Committee, most vocally Australia, have also expressed serious concerns about the model, saying it could be anti-competitive. ICANN’s board of directors is currently mulling over these complaints, and has thrown the issue open to public comment to aid in its deliberations. . . ."

Global domain name disputes rise 4.3 per cent: report - Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services, WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organization, domain names - CIO: " . . . The report, which uses data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), said there were a record 2884 uniform domain name resolution policy (UDRP) disputes in 2012, covering 5082 domain names. Not surprisingly, .com was the domain most recovered from cyber squatters – who register and typically profit from a domain owned by someone else – with more than 3475 domain names, almost triple the number of disputes in all other generic top level domains (gTLDS) combined, the report said. Only 16 disputes related to the .xxx domain were filed with WIPO during this domain’s first full year of operation. “The domain industry and global brands have been looking for evidence to shed light on the predictions that the arrival of potential new gTLDs such as .web, .home, and .sucks will drive cyber squatting to new highs, and the first year of .xxx has been closely watched as an indicator,” said Martin Burke, executive VP at Melbourne IT DBS. “Some will be quick to point out that 16 cases show the fears are just hype but that ignores the fact that around 80,000 trademarks were registered in .xxx to protect brands before the gTLD even went live. “What is more compelling is that .com accounts for 68 per cent of WIPO domain disputes and in our view, that percentage is likely to remain high once the new gTLDs arrive, meaning the biggest problem for brands is actually one they are already having to deal with,” he said. . . . "

It’s a BRAND New World: Update on ICANN’s Expanded gTLD Program | Reed Smith - JDSupra: " . . . . In addition, various applicants for gTLDs have individually committed to offer enhanced protections in the event that they are awarded the top level domain(s) for which they have applied. You will need to monitor this process with respect to the gTLDs that are of most interest to your brand(s), so that once gTLDs are awarded, you will be ready to avail yourself of any additional protections offered, over and above the minimum required by ICANN.  . . . "


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18 February 2013

Appraising A Brandable Domain Name

Domaining MBA Monday: How Do You Appraise A Brandable Domain Name? | Morgan Linton: "You might not be happy with the answer but like I said above, there is no magic formula for appraising brandable domains, instead it all comes down to the buyer and the seller. If you are selling a domain, do your homework and really understand who the buyer is. If you are the buyer, get to know the seller, see if you can find what range they typically sell in and make a deal that is meaningful to them. Last but certainly not least, remember, every deal is different just like every domain is different. You aren’t selling houses. You can’t look at what the median price in a particular neighborhood is because every domain is different. The most valuable thing you can do is really take a deep dive and get to know who you are doing a deal with because at the end of the day it’s all about the people, not the domains."

Cincinnati Zoo gets CincinnatiZoo.com eleven years later
Domain Name Wire
It seems inconceivable to the Panel that the Complainant cannot have been aware of the DomainName since at least September 8, 2001 when it registered its domain name, . Checking the status of the “.com” equivalent of the Domain Name would have been ...

University Of Oklahoma Files Federal Lawsuit Over SoonerNetwork.com
TheDomains.com
However since the domain name was registered by Mr. Glenn in 2010, Screenshots.com it has had a few different looks including this one from August 2012 which says Go Longhorns”"” (One of Oklahoma traditional rivals has been the University of Texas who ...

TheDomains.com

University of Oklahoma sues Dallas man over cybersquatting claim
Tulsa World
The University of Oklahoma is suing a Dallas man who officials say violated the university's intellectual property rights by registering an Internet domain name to sell it for a profit later. Hugh Michael Glenn, 43, said he was using the domain name ...

Your Top 5 Questions About The New gTLD Domain Extensions, Answered
Search Engine Land
Whether it is the business' main site, a targeted microsite, or a “category killer” premium domainname, pithy, descriptive names have the power to make a company stand out in searches, boost its position in organic search results, and establish a ...

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15 February 2013

Domains, Collapse, Consolidation

Man's Best Friend is a Great Domain Name™ - The Rick Schwartz Domain Name and Traffic Blog RicksBlog.com.........Home of the "Domain King"®: " . . . 1900 voices coming to market all trying to carve out their little niche and it will only become harder and harder and harder. . . . Collapse and consolidation will be the FIRST ROUND of their history that is in the future that nobody can see but those that see the future as history. By this time next year you can refer to this post and see just how true this is going to be and the year after even more so. This train will be very crowded for the next couple years. . . ."

Now this is cool: LDS Domain Trends - Domain Name Wire: "See what’s hot in domain name registrations with this neat tool. Matt Mazur just released a killer tool on his Lean Domain Search: Domain Trends. The tool lets you type in any keyword and it will pull up domain registrations by date that include that keyword. . . . "

Microsoft gets hands on three XBox-related domain names - DomainNews: "An arbitrator with the National Arbitration Forum has recently awarded Microsoft three XBox-related domain names: XBoxMusicPassFree.com , XBoxLive2Days.info and XBoxLiveRewards.net .
The company submitted a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum on November 29,2012,asserting legal rights over the disputed domain name. Microsoft owns many trademark registrations for the "XBox" and "XBox Live" marks.Therefore,it is more than obvious that the disputed domain names are confusingly similar to its trademark.The company also managed to demonstrate that the respondent had no rights and legitimate interest in the disputed domain names and that the respondent registered and used the disputed domain names in bad faith ."


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13 February 2013

How To Choose Best Domain Name

2 good articles (excerpts below) on choosing a domain name--

How To Choose A Best Domain Name Smartly: " . . . When choosing the domain name, remember the acronym RAIL:
1. R- recall. How easy is to recall the name?
2. A-aesthetics. How does the name look? Does it look good on business cards and company literature?
3. I-impressions. First impressions are crucial. Does the name sound good?
4. L-length. Domain names are limited to the 26 letters of the English alphabet, ten numerals and hyphen – 37 characters in all. When picking a name, less is more. A short name is preferable to a long one. . . ."

3 Common Mistakes Startups Make When Picking A Domain Name | Morgan Linton: " . . . three common mistakes I’ve seen startups make when picking a domain name: Picking a brandable that nobody can spell – brandables can be great if everyone can hear the word and instantly know how to spell it correctly. You should be able to tell someone your brand name over dinner or drinks and they should be able to get home, go to their computer, and easily access your site. Sun.com is an awesome domain for a lighting company, Suunn.com is a confusing one leading many customers to email you at Sun.com and try to find your site on Sun.com. Using an extension nobody has heard of – the world has become comfortable with extensions like .CO, .ME, .TV, .IO, .LY, etc. However almost nobody in the world knows .AM, .MD, and many other obscure ccTLDs . . . Assuming that one day you will get the .COM . . . "


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11 February 2013

Where To Sell Your Domain Names

2 good articles (excerpts below) for where to sell your domain names--

The Complete Guide To Where You Can Sell Your Domain Names - Hybrid Domainer: "There are a lot of places to sell your domain name, in this guide we will try to give you all the info you need to start listing your domains and giving them maximum exposure. We will also look at the pro's and con's of listing everywhere and what you need to keep in mind. First on the list is Sedo. Sedo according to their website has more than 1 million member accounts . . . ."

Domain Name Marketplaces - Elliot's Blog

" . . . Some of these websites sell privately-owned domain names and others sell company-owned domain names. I did not include auction sites such as NameJet or Snapnames or forums like DNForum. I also didn’t include eBay since it’s fairly challenging to search for specific types of domain names. . . ."

Exclusive: HTC says "keep the RUUs, just give us the domain name" - ROMs - RootzWiki - RootzNews - RootzWiki: " . . . The conversation started with clearing up some misconceptions about my old site (htcruu.com). . . . from this moment out, the site will only contain release RUUs. They also said they are looking into hosting the RUUs themselves negating the purpose of my site and I hope they do. There is no timeframe for it but it is something they are looking into. As for my personal opinion of this whole situation. The domain name htcruu.com was obviously a bad choice and I was wrong. I never denied that fact. As for the rest of the issues, they have been resolved. . . . "


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08 February 2013

ICANN Webinar on Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant TLDs

Webinar: Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant: Examining the User Experience Implication of the Active Variant TLDs | ICANN: " . . . In an effort to develop potential solutions for the delegation of IDN variant Top-Level Domains (TLDs), IDN Variant Project Teams, consisting of volunteers, subject matter expert consultants and ICANN staff, have conducted case studies in six scripts, produced an integrated report, and are currently underway to completing three projects investigating potential solutions for IDN Variant TLDs delegation. One of these projects is called the Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs Project (P6). The purpose of the project is to gain an understanding of issues that could arise from activating IDN Variant TLDs and offer recommendations to users to avoid such issues. Examples of user roles that have been identified include registrants, registrars, registry operators, system administrators, network operators, application developers, and end users. Project team has published for public comment the Draft Final Report for Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs and is seeking to establish a dialog with the community to refine proposed principles, impacts and recommendations of the study. This webinar is offered to complement that process both by presenting the key concepts and gathering user input. . . ."
When and Where--
Date: 13 February 2013
Time: 13:00 – 14:50 UTC (5:00am – 6:30am PST)
Adobe Connect: http://icann.adobeconnect.com/idnvarianttld/
Dial In: 1-800-550-6865 or 1-213-233-3193
International numbers available here
Meeting ID: 46389


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06 February 2013

Tips for Choosing a Domain Name from Google


Tips for Choosing a Domain Name
Google's Get Your Business Online presents Friday 15, an education series designed to help small businesses succeed online. In this session, an industry expert offers tips for choosing a domain name and explains how you can get a free domain name for one year. Visit www.gybo.com/friday15 to learn how to join future Friday 15 Hangouts. (Published on Jan 17, 2013)

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04 February 2013

Cybersquatting on new top level domains

Why you probably don’t need to worry about cybersquatting on new top level domains - Domain Name Wire: " . . . the breakdown of gTLD UDRP filings at WIPO last year. . . . almost all the action is in .com. Now, you can point out that there are a lot fewer .info and .biz domains registered, and that’s why the numbers are skewed this way. You’re right. In fact, the ratio of domains registered to UDRP’s filed in .com, .net, .org, and .info is right around 30,000 to 1. (.biz and .mobi have ratios closer to 50,000 to 1). Yet that also kind of proves the point. Most of these new top level domains will be small. If the domains don’t get much type in traffic (which they won’t) and aren’t in an identical field (like the oft mentioned example nike.shoes), there’s not much to worry about. Should Nike worry about Nike.actor? Nah. “But what if someone starts selling fake Nike’s on it?” That’s no harder than selling fakes on nike.somefreehost.com. The consumer doesn’t really realize the URL they’re visiting most of the time. That’s why phishing attempts just use similar looking domains to trick people."

The Internet In 2012: 634 Million Websites, 2.4 Billion Users: "Highlights from the list include 2.2 billion email users worldwide (425 million use Gmail, making it the biggest email service around), 634 million websites (with 51 million being added to the web every year) and 246 million domain name registrations in 2012. There were 100 million .com domain names (remember the first one, registered in 1985?), 2.4 billion internet users worldwide, and 1.2 trillion searches on Google in 2012. On the social media front, in 2012 there were 2.7 billion likes on Facebook every day, 175 million tweets were sent on Twitter every day, while Google's +1 button was used a whopping 5 billion times per day. Finally, there were 1.3 billion smartphones in use worldwide by the end of 2012, 4 billion hours of video was being watched on YouTube monthly and a flabbergasting 7 petabytes of photos were added to Facebook every month."

Berryhill Wins His 2nd UDRP Of The Day & Almost Another RDNH Finding
TheDomains.com
“Complainant is owner of the INTELLIGENTSIA trademark registration, United States Reg. No. 2,599,643, filed April 26, 2001 and registered on July 23, 2002.” The Panel finds that the Domain Name is identical to Complainant's mark, because the gTLD “.com ...

Finally A UDRP Panel Gets The Domain Aftermarket Finding RDNH On ...
TheDomains.com
Mr Schwartz feel free to add Personally Cool Inc. of New York, USA to your list of companies found Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name ColdFront.com. Thedomain, as indicted in the title to the post, is owned by Frank ...

The best time (and way) to get press for your domain business
Domain Name Wire
I get a lot of pitches to write about domain name companies and their launch, latest products, new features, etc. I have six tips on the best and worst times to get press, and the best way to pitch. 1. Friday is the worst day to put out news about your ...

And here is the court order that stopped the deletion of publication.com
Domain Name News
In the case of the non-deletion of publication.com last Friday, DNN has now obtained a copy of the court order that prevented the deletion and you can see it here (PDF). Please note that this is the unsigned version of the restraining order as it was ...

Twitter.org Being Used For Scams, Twitter Seeks To Gain Control Of Rogue ...
Marketing Land
The UDRP permits complainants to file a case with a resolution service provider, specifying, mainly, the domain name in question, the respondent or holder of the domain name, the registrar with whom the domain name was registered and the grounds for ...

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01 February 2013

Domain registrar powers Kim Dotcom’s new Mega

Domain registrar powers Kim Dotcom’s new Mega - Domain Name Wire: "Lentino and Kim Dotcom have partnered to launch the new version of Mega. Instra Corporation, based in New Zealand and Australia, will provide technical and product support to Mega users. It is also signing up resellers that will provide premium accounts to the service. These resellers will sell packages to people who need more than 50 GB of storage space. In addition to Instra, other resellers at launch include EuroDNS and DigiWeb."

2 tools I use to track my domain portfolio
Domain Name Wire
Watch My Domains Pro and DomainTools Domain Monitor work in tandem to keep a watchful eye on my portfolio. Yesterday I reiterated my appreciation for Watch My Domains Pro, a tool I've been praising since 2007. Rob Sequin seconded my approval for ...

.Org wholesale price to increase to $8.25
Domain Name Wire
Org gets pricier. .Com prices may be fixed for the next six years, but that's not stopping other registries from increasing prices. Public Interest Registry has informed ICANN that it will increase the wholesale cost of a .org domain name to $8.25 on ...

8 companies that changed their domain names…but it isn't easy
Domain Name Wire
Now that I'm using a non-optimum name, is it worth switching? That's another tough call. Let's face it, changing domain names is painful. Especially when you're successful. At that point it's probably not the cost so much as the education and SEO. In ...

MLBAM Buys Rockies Domain Name - Baseball America (blog)
Bayoubuzz (subscription)
Major League Baseball Advanced Media has purchased the domain name Rockies.com for an undisclosed sum from a Canadian organization that promoted tourism in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. MLB Advanced Media vice president of corporate ...

Have you done a domain parking audit lately? - Domain Name Wire
Bayoubuzz (subscription)
But when it comes to making sure my domains are parked correctly, apparently I'm a little lax. I just audited a few hundred of my domain names to check their nameservers. I was surprised at what I found: 1. Some of my domains were pointing to Go Daddy ...

UK domain names had successful 2012
By admin
... and recent activity to open the second-level .uk space. Regardless of these direct impacts, the rise of .co.uk domain name sales points to the value of a region that has a high user adoption of the geo-specific TLD, similar to Germany (.de).
Domain and Trademark Blog

Sign.com owner threatens Signs.com - Domain Name Wire: "The owner of Signs.com is fighting back. It filed suit in Utah, asking for declaratory judgment (pdf) that its use of the domain name doesn’t infringe SA International, Inc’s rights."

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