Domain typos and the billion $$$ empire. Everybody is set to cash in on it.. Why not?

[mike031]

That's news to me. I asked this question awhile ago and never got this reponse. I always thought they were the same ads.

most of the parked domains, part of the domain channel >>> part of the "search" network distribution

all sites setup with google adsense >>> part of the "content" distribution

different ad feeds

Mike,
It is DIRTY money. No question. I still hold hundreds of TM names from yesteryear and will not relinquish it for nothing. And I understand that you are emphasizing 'Change' which is coming. Even behemoths like Microsoft's charge cannot contain this dirt.

But, like Acro pointed out, your concerns or what has to come must support data. Although we still enjoy reading your posts, we may just about get tired sooner than later without getting facts to support your warnings.

But keep writing. You make us think, cause a reaction and eventually a fruitful discussion.

Considering that Typos, and especially the blatant TM name game is worth billions of dollars, I am surprised, why there isn't an industry to quell it altogether instead of an ad hoc approach by lone rangers?

The big G's need it. The GoDaddy's need it and ICANN's need it. Make no mistake about it. It is all about mutual profits.

Barring few serious violations, this game will be played for a long time to come. If you need proof, I will openly post my sales without fear of retribution. There is NONE!

Looking forward to your next post.

id advise against posting too much info... no need for it, keep it to ur self

there is always consequences buddy... they are not obvious at first, but sooner than later, it always catches up with you

as for you wanting more proof, if u re-read my post, i pointed out exactly how to go about seeking out this proof.. how to go about seeing it with ur own two eyes within 2 mins of opening up domaintools.com and using the typogenerator and looking up MySpace, Facebook, Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Verizon, etc...

everybody want stuff handed to em on a silver platter... come on now, do some of the work urself :yes:

i wrote about it... u want to pursue it further, do it ur self

 

[nameadvertising.com]

Dude, did you skip ur meds today or something? What exactly was the point of all that rambling?

Ask you Mother! She'll tell ya!

Yes, Mike. It is a slow process. The shift will happen.

 

[mike031]

Chris, that is very interesting... when do you think is this slow process conclude? how much more time is there left in your opinion??

it's been happening for years already, you know, with lawsuites for domain tm infringement being settled for millions both in and out of court... latest biggie came from Verizon...to the tune of $30 million

a few dozen trademark domains can bankrupt any individual / smaller company... a few hundred can and will destroy everything u worked so hard for, take OnlineNic for isntance.. they were around for like 10 yrs... and thanks to those hundreds of Verizion domains... KABOOM !

 

[fab]

Dude, did you skip ur meds today or something? What exactly was the point of all that rambling?

He's starting his presidential campaign early!

 

[nameadvertising.com]

Mike, the disparity is obvious. Case in point - What is stopping Verizon from pursuing this guy/gal below?

http://verrrizon.com/

There is only so much Verizon can get from that small time typo squatter. Verizon does not feel threatened by a Sedo parking page. They can get a UDRP win in 30 days of they so wish. I do not claim to know what will happen in the future. My business model is totally not so TM names anymore. In fact, it was just a recent distraction in the past 3 years. The real money was made back in the 90's and better half of this decade. They (big time typo squatters) never really made as much money from clean generics

And those of you, who don't get the crux of this thread or claim my views as mere rambling, please have something smart or funny to retort with. You guys have neither.

 

[jberryhill]

You caught on Chris.

Verizon doesn't want to take down the typosquatters. Does BelgiumDomains et al look "taken down" to you?

If you take a look at the docs in the case - what Verizon figured out is that you can use the legal claim to simply muscle a share of the revenue across all typos that the typosquatter owns.

 

[nameadvertising.com]

You caught on Chris.

Verizon doesn't want to take down the typosquatters. Does BelgiumDomains et al look "taken down" to you?

If you take a look at the docs in the case - what Verizon figured out is that you can use the legal claim to simply muscle a share of the revenue across all typos that the typosquatter owns.

Yes, they can. So why may I ask, Sedo and tons of other parking companies are still in business? Why Google still pays dividends to it's shareholders from Typo clicks?

In fact, DNForum is the only venue I know of that either discourages or bans typo and TM dealings. It is always convenient to blame the little guy, but that no one wants to be brave enough to point fingers on those, such entities as Google, The big registrars and parking companies to merely tweak their software enough so as to reject typo squatting registry.

The fact is, the big guys are complicit in this. And they should own up to it.

 

[mike031]

Mike, the disparity is obvious. Case in point - What is stopping Verizon from pursuing this guy/gal below?

http://verrrizon.com/

There is only so much Verizon can get from that small time typo squatter. Verizon does not feel threatened by a Sedo parking page. They can get a UDRP win in 30 days of they so wish. I do not claim to know what will happen in the future. My business model is totally not so TM names anymore. In fact, it was just a recent distraction in the past 3 years. The real money was made back in the 90's and better half of this decade. They (big time typo squatters) never really made as much money from clean generics

And those of you, who don't get the crux of this thread or claim my views as mere rambling, please have something smart or funny to retort with. You guys have neither.

many more companies, big companies... have taken notice of Verizon's easy win.

will they ever see the $30m from onlinenic ?? i doubt it... but they made their point

they made an example outta em

there will be many more cases such as this to come, tens of millions worth of damages if not more will be rewarded

many more companies to go bankrupt all because of those damned easy-money tm domains

lawyers will be pitching companies in order to pursue this stuff more and more... it is easy money

so, anybody who thinks that TM names is good money, or still peddling em, such as supporters and believers of em, mr. Focus...if u honestly think and believe that all is well and there isnt seriously something wrong with it if u are doin it on a larger scale.... you got soemthing totally else coming ur way

 

[jberryhill]

The big G's need it. The GoDaddy's need it and ICANN's need it.

Actually, among TM owners that have stopped obsessing over geometrically large typo variations of dozens of famous marks, they need it to - since their own PPC ads and those of their retailers is what shows up on the parked pages, so they don't have to manage ungodly large domain portfolios of names that don't perform.

 

[mike031]

Actually, among TM owners that have stopped obsessing over geometrically large typo variations of dozens of famous marks, they need it to - since their own PPC ads and those of their retailers is what shows up on the parked pages, so they don't have to manage ungodly large domain portfolios of names that don't perform.

that is one of the worst arguments iv heard in favor of TM typos

there is some truth to it tho in a twisted sense but really... come on, how difficult is it managing domains or redirecting em??

fabulous.com is one of the companies that is squeaky clean, iv been a supporter of em for over 5 yrs... they should introduce a service for TM holders such as Verizon and other big companies that will simplify the management of this domains...

they can charge em a lot of money for this... it can work!

they have the registry capabilities as well as domain management tools

wouldnt that be something!!

 

[dvdrip]

Mike that is already done by many companies/registrars. Mark Monitor etc.

 

[nameadvertising.com]

Mike, John,
I think our industry needs a Moses amongst us. You know - The, Thou shall not.....

An organized religion of sorts. An MLS. A licensed organization with charter and rules. ICANN failed. It is up to us to do that. Only then we will gain credibility.

I am too broke and ill to take charge. But, I honestly feel, this should happen. Create an accredited association of domainer professionals. Those with the resources are too content holding domain name auctions.

It took decades for the real estate industry to get organized. Remember, back in the day, all one need do was fence a piece of land and claim ownership.

 

[mike031]

Mike that is already done by many companies/registrars. Mark Monitor etc.

yes i am aware of em... they obviously don't do a good enough job with their "monitoring" :lol:

the guys behind domaintools.com can also put together and OWN this market if they were to get serious about it... but who the hell cares

obviously there is a lot more money to be made off of NOT offering such a service

 

[jberryhill]

lawyers will be pitching companies in order to pursue this stuff more and more... it is easy money

He's right. You know, every company loves it when a lawyer shows up and says, "Hi, I'm a lawyer and I'm here to help you make easy money."

True story here -

Back before the .info sunrise, I had a client who was willing to pay $20K to the owner of a certain trademark registration to simply apply for the corresponding .info domain name in the sunrise. The trademark owner didn't want the .info domain name, didn't really care what a .info domain name was, and didn't really care about the internet at all.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to call someone cold out of the blue and tell them, honestly, something like:

"Hi, I'm a lawyer and I'd like to pay you $20,000 for something you don't know you have and which you don't want."

He kept thinking it was a telephone sales call.

"So you want to pay me $20,000 for nothing."

"No, not for nothing, it's because you are the only person with a registered trademark on a word that is important to my client."

"I don't want to sell my trademark."

"We're not asking if you want to sell your trademark. We want you to use your trademark to get something that only you can get with it, and we'll pay you for it."

He kept thinking he was clever...

"Oh, I see, so what's it going to cost me to get this domain thing, eh?"

"Nothing. We'll take care of the entire process and all costs, and pay you $20,000."

"For nothing. You're going to pay me $20,000 for nothing. And I'm so good at doing nothing that you called me to pay me $20,000 for it. Sorry. What's the catch?"

And so it went until he got "fed up" with me not telling him what I was trying to make him buy or pay me for.

I'll never forget that guy. What a retard.

 

[mike031]

Mike, John,
I think our industry needs a Moses amongst us. You know - The, Thou shall not.....

An organized religion of sorts. An MLS. A licensed organization with charter and rules. ICANN failed. It is up to us to do that. Only then we will gain credibility.

I am too broke and ill to take charge. But, I honestly feel, this should happen. Create an accredited association of domainer professionals. Those with the resources are too content holding domain name auctions.

It took decades for the real estate industry to get organized. Remember, back in the day, all one need do was fence a piece of land and claim ownership.

good idea, but it is never going to work..

the ICA has less than 100 members and most of the money they have collected in order to survive / stay in business is from the big sponsors...

nobody really cares to "cooperate"

each to his own.

some of the industry's finest, including Rick Schwartz have tried to get people together and make a run for it, but each and every time.. it fails, miserably

everybody will attend a conference or get together when there is disney land close by or NYC, in order to have a good time, but to ask the tough questions and point out the guys who are destroying the industry...

OH NOOO... WE CANT DO THAT !! SHH shhhHHHhh!

all we can do now is look back and laugh at this efforts, its how it always is

im very passionate about the industry, so is Rick and a few others but there is a big disconnect amongst us all, we each have other stuff really driving us and very little focus on the most important things

i bet everything i have it will never happen --- and the industry will deteriorate faster then it will continue to boom, but it will recover once all the BS is taken outta the picture as well as speculators, etc.

i think the good ol days are behind... time to get real

 

[dvdrip]

Sorry but Rick Schwartz is not the "king" of getting people together, if you know what I mean. Alienating people and then asking them to pay to get together again is not my kind of game.

 

[jberryhill]

that is one of the worst arguments iv heard in favor of TM typos

It's not an argument "in favor of TM typos".

I was talking to a brand manager for a well known hotel chain at a conference quite a while ago who explained to me that they had X franchises in Y cities, and that if you took their brand and every combination of "CITYBRAND", "BRANDCITY", "CITYBRANDHOTEL", etc. and every common typo, they would be looking at six digits worth of domain names - just for that brand, and they have several brands. I don't mean six digits as in cost, I mean six digits as in the permutations of domain names.

Then he says, "but all of the parking pages have links to our corporate site, hotels.com and priceline, and we have deals with hotels.com and priceline to promote our hotels."

And he asks me, "So, is there something I just don't understand?"

I dunno. He could pay for the traffic, or he could pay for the domain names, but either way, he was going to pay something.

You ask, "what's so hard about re-directing domain names" - It's easy, all you have to do is pay someone in your organization to do it, and you still don't know if you've registered a bunch of worthless names that are costing you more in registration fees than you are getting in sales, because these types of organizations don't measure traffic to their own names.

Now, I just went to verrrizon.com. The top link on the page is to VerizonWireless.com.

That's a pretty simple typo. But instead Verizon has brought claims against major tasters on the basis of names that were registered for five days, and weren't even kept. And during the course of the litigation, did Verizon ever seek to shut anyone down? No. Instead, they agreed to take a share of revenue across the entire portfolio, and keep the tasters ALIVE.

Verizon lists domain names in their complaints that were tasted, are unregistered, and remain unregistered. They don't even WANT the domain names in these suits. It's not even what they are after. Do you think they think there is some idjit anywhere on the internet looking for Verizon that can't find Verizon?

I think our industry needs a Moses amongst us. You know - The, Thou shall not.....

I believe you'll find I've been pretty consistently saying that for years.

Dr. Doom aside, all it takes is 1 trademark name to get yourself into tens of thousands of dollars of doo-doo. Some people think they are bulletproof. They eventually end up disabused of that notion.

You don't need me or Mike to say that you can get very badly burned by this stuff. You can get very badly burned by this stuff. Some people need to learn that the hard way.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

John, try telling a defunct charit you want to give them $XXXXX for a domain they have and no longer use, talk about a moral decison lol

In the end I tracked it until it expired and sold for as much on snap. Those were the most moral/ethical people I have spoken to n a long time, stupid but ethical. I literally said to them " I dont care if you use the money to start a fire " these people refused to profit to the point of stuidity as there were ways.

 

[mike031]

John, thanks for sharing that story... interesting

i see your point and logic behind it too

but all those companies who have tasted all those millions of domains and profiting off of the high trafficked infringing ones that they keep... when they clearly shouldnt of... WRONG IS WRONG!

thinking that somehow they are doing a public service or actually helping the brand... its BS

...and one day that brand manager is telling u that "oh yea, its fine.. no prob" and the next day the legal team is going to be all over your ass

dealing with all this big companies isnt as simple as it sounds

i do understand exactly what u are saying

let me share a true story...

i had many "for dummies" domains few yrs ago which i didnt even realize to begin with was a tm and be problematic as there were many sites setup on "WHATEVERfor dummies"

there are 2000+ currently active and approx 2,500 that have been deleted

i got an email from their legal team one day demanding that i take the sites down.. i ignored it of course

few months later

i had another one from a lawyer come in from wiley on a bunch of other different domains tho,

blah blah... we exchange few friendly emails, and, he was ready to PAY me in order to transfer all of those domains as i had convinced em that i spent a lot of money in registering em and developing websites which were parked pages in actuality...

then when we're closer to the deal, somebody higher up in their legal team steps in and i get an email from soembody else at Wiley legal

he demands that i take down the sites immediately and transfer them over at no cost or they will pursue legal actions

LOL :lol:

i will never forget this too

there is lots of this lil silly stories iv heard from domainers, but u never know, with domains.... ITS A CRAZY WORLD out ther

win some lose some

 

[Focus]

Most times if you just give them the domain name and comply with the C&D you won't have further problems....from what I have seen it's the guys that ignore the emails that end up with a real headache because they think the lawyer won't actually do as he/she threatens in the first email..well, trust me..they do - and they will. But what good does that do when the guy is making $1 or $2 a day from a domain name and has 3 kids at home and works a 9-5 job making 30k/yr? You think it's really worth them going after this guy? You think they will actually ever collect any damages? What about LLC's that pay all their profit's into the owners private offshore account? Lawsuits/Damages are one thing but actually getting any real money out of the situation is another...the Verizon case is something very specific & singular imo. But thinking deeper, is Verizon now considered to be profiting from "illicit" TM domain revenues? Whats to stop the other TM holders from coming after them? A court order regarding their payouts? The whole system is so screwy...I can buy a name, park it, get a C&D, hand it over to the complaintant, the next day it's going to Godaddy parking and sits there like that running ads for the next 5 years...this way Godaddy and the search engine make all the money..but I don't make anything. This all makes perfect sense.