Domain Sales

French fashion house Louis Vuitton recently filed a complaint to get its hands on lvmobile.com, only to lose in the arbitration hearing this week. The company claimed the domain violated its trademarks for “Louis Vuitton,” “Vuitton,” and “LV.” Fortunately, the arbitrator decided that the letters “lv” could not be confused …

There’s been a lot of talk lately about reforming WHOIS. In an effort to make good on its vows to improve the system, ICANN released a document entitled “Inventory of WHOIS Service Requirements.” The document (PDF) lays out a number of proposals for fixing the broken domain owner contact database. …

Have a seat and listen to this. Domain sofas.com has sold for a whopping $231,500 USD. In addition, CamRoulette.com garnered $151,000. The seller got a great deal, having bought it for only $1,400 two months ago. As far as I’m concerned, there’s a bubble in the domain market if a …

If you’ve been pining to register a .bo ccTLD, now is a great time to do so as NIC Bolivia has cut the registration fee by 35%. The normal price without discount is around $40 USD. Unfortunately, the discount does not apply to third-level domains like .com.bo and .net.bo. NIC …

Exactly one week after covering Go Daddy’s sham backorder service, here’s a prime example of the company in action. After a customer failed to renew the domain PondPumps.com, the registrar sold it at auction for $15,671 USD. Talk about a great deal for Go Daddy. While I’m all for a …

According to blog Domain News, Twitter has acquired a new domain name: twee.tt. While the company has yet to relegate the Trinidad and Tobago name to any specific purpose, there are rumours that it will be used to create a URL shortener. If this is true, it could spell the …

While the passing of the Digital Economy Bill by Parliament last week changes quite a few things, one of more important inclusions in the legislation deals with domain registrars. Among other things, the government now has the right to regulate any “UK-related” domain registrar. Most notably, this includes Nominet, the …

Normally the domains big corporations fight for are pretty useless. Recently, however, Google filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum over a name that is very important for its brand protection: qoogle.com. The name is so important because the “q” looks very much like a “g.” A quick visit …

Minds + Machines, a company that has significant ties in the gTLD scene, released an estimated timeline today for the roll-out of the first gTLDs. Those pining to register new gTLDs will be sourly disappointed if M+M is correct. According to its best guess, gTLD registrations won’t be available to …

UsedAirplanes.com CEO Mark J Horne announced today that his company has bought Flying.com for a solid $1.1 million USD. Regarding the sale, he stated: Owning a domain name of this caliber will allow us to expand our talents deeper in the aviation business and build upon the success of UsedAirplanes.com. …