La première question à se poser est : combien vaut ce nom de domaine ? Pas la valeur chez le registrar mais la somme que vous êtes prêts à dépenser pour le récuperer.

L’une des façon de récuper un nom de domaine est la négociation avce le titulaire. Il existe un marché où les domainers mettent en vente leurs noms de domaines. Il arrive souvent que la négociation permette de récupérer le nom de domaine “à l’amiable”.

L’autre solution est la mise en place d’une procédure de résolution des litiges ou UDRP, plus complexe et quelques fois plus longue, cette procédure permet de récupérer un ou plusieurs noms de domaine. Les preuves à apporter pour récuperer un nom de domaine sont :

• Le nom de domaine doit être identique ou confusément similaire à une marque pour laquelle vous avez des droits.
• Le titulaire actuel doit n’avoir aucun droit ou intérêt légitime dans le nom de domaine disputé.
• Le nom de domaine doit être utilisé en mauvaise foi.

Cliquez ici plus d’information sur la récupération de noms de domaine ou domain name recovery.

• .kr : extension de l’enregistrement aux caractères ASCII
• Le Pérou ouvre directement des noms en .PE
• 2156 plaintes pour cybersquatting traitées par l’OMPI en 2007
• Des marques… d’occasion !
• La course au .eu: comment se préparer pour être au point le jour J?

However, it does not avoid cybersquatting, the widespread practice of registering domains around well-known brands in order to sell or exploit them at profit. At this day, the common way to solve .ru domain disputes is to file a case at arbitration courts. According to Baker & McKenzie, dispute resolution costs can fluctuate between $5000 to $50,000 (source: Moscow Times).

Most companies opt for directly buying domains owned by cybersquatters, because it can be less expensive and quicker than arbitration courts, or they might fail to provide evidence of rights on the preferred domains. Sales of .ru domains can reach an amount from $500 to hundred thousand dollars. For example, vodka.ru was recently sold for $50,000 whereas msn.ru was bought by Microsoft at an undisclosed price.

According to Ru-Center, the .ru regulation authority, 10% of the 1.25 million registered .ru domains still belong to cybersquatters. Since introduction of this amendment, cybersquatting might have decreased by 50%.

• New domain sale record: 10 million USD for fund.com
• Cybersquatting : Microsoft expands lawsuits overseas
• Cybersquatters taken to court
• Domain name hijacking
• Google will pay 90 million dollars to settle click fraud lawsuit

.me schedule

source : NIC.ME

• .cr domains: TLDs opening continues…
• .asia: updated application and auction lists
• .hk : Launching of IDNs
• The first figures about .eu launching
• Dot-asia: Pioneer Domains Program starts

- 30,000 .asia applications during Sunrise period and Pioneers
- 300,000 domain applications submitted during Landrush
- 45,000 domains will go to auction

.Asia is expected to be popular in the Pacific Asia area as the use of social networks such as blog spaces (technorati.cn), video-sharing sites (youku.com), is growing fastly in the region and as businesses are taking advantage of the flourishing e-commerce sector.

According to CNNIC report, the number of blog writers reaches 47 million at the end of 2007. Recently, .cn has surpassed 10 million domains. Thus .com is facing a giant rival in this area. A research firm also announced that China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest web population, with now 220,000 million internet users (source: Zdnet). The future of Asian domain names seems to be optimistic!

• .asia: updated application and auction lists
• .asia : a new regional extension approved by ICANN
• The .me event calendar
• Dot-asia: Pioneer Domains Program starts
• Russia fights against cybersquatting

According to American Airlines, customers can book and check in for flights and schedules via web-enable devices (mobile phones, PDAs, etc.). The mobile site also allow travelers to use their devices to get information on weather and destination cities. When web users are accessing aa.com via cell phones, they are automatically directed to the mobile version of the site, whose content and design are suited for navigation on a mobile device.

Companies may develop more mobile-suited websites with the growing number of WiFi hotspots, which expands the web mobile market. The big part of the WiFi hotspots are currently located in the US and Europe. However, the highest growth of WiFi hotspots is expected to be in Pacific Asia, particularly China.

• Over 500,000 .mobi domain names registered!
• La SNCF se lance dans le m-commerce via son portail en .mobi
• .mobi : Thalys développe son site en .mobi
• Domain name hijacking
• Top Chinese brands 2006

Maybe the expansion of this niche market should increase interest in developing other reversed web services, such as reversed search engines (Google has already registered elgoog.com since 2000) or reversed advertising. Palindromes (e.g : kayak, pop, level) should really be advantaged in this case.

For intellectual property holders, it would be more difficult to recover reversed domain name registered around their brands, particularly if no website content is associated. An example of hijacked domain name is Barak Obama reversed domain(amabokcarab.com), whose website content is related to the Republican John McCain!

• .cr domains: TLDs opening continues…
• Over 500,000 .mobi domain names registered!
• .xxx : rejected by ICANN
• Search engines strike back against click frauds
• Increase of UDRP cases treated in 2005

A 90-day priority registration period will be set, and restricted to holders of third-level domain names. If several applications have been submitted for a same domain name, that domain name will be attributed on the first-come, first-served basis.

After this priority phase, any entity would be able to register .cr domain names, if they fulfill the registry requirements. At this day, registration of third-level domain names is opened to local and foreign companies as well as individuals. Despite these light rules, there are only 7140 .cr domain names as of February, 11th 2008. I think that the launch of .cr domain names will not increase much more interest for this extension…

• The .me event calendar
• .hk : Launching of IDNs
• 2008 outlook for .fr domain names
• Over 500,000 .mobi domain names registered!
• Domain name hijacking

However, the registry has not determined a date for registration launch yet. Regarding the NIC.ME rules, dot me will not be submitted to restrictions and domains will contain between 2 to 63 characters. According to the registry evaluation, Go Daddy will act as agent for domain exploitation.

Montenegro, formerly an autonomous region of Yugoslavia, has become an independent state since 2006. Which relation with domain names? According to NIC.me, “all domains, registered below “.yu” domain and related to registered identities with residence in Republic of Montenegro [...] will be available at least 12 months starting from the day of official delegation of “.me” domain administration to Technical Administrator, i.e. due to final extinction of “.yu” domain”. To sum up, your .yu domain name will disappear if you have registered it with an entity established in Montenegro.

Dot me represents a branding opportunity for English speaking countries. With the expansion of social networkings, .me would help web users to make their blog more personal. However, this is not the first time that a registry tries to give an individual aspect to its extension. Registry for .ps (Palestinian territories) has marketed its extension as Personal Sites. The .ps campaign has not been very successful (4,200 .ps domain names at the end of 2006).

• Over 500,000 .mobi domain names registered!
• Is the .eu domain name a success?
• .cr domains: TLDs opening continues…
• Russia fights against cybersquatting
• 2008 outlook for .fr domain names

Table 1: distribution of .fr domain names

AFNIC has also published a report on .fr market observations with intention of highlighting its importance among the public and private entities (read AFNIC report). The document reveals that:

• domain variations are linked to internet penetration rate
• .fr rise is likely due to less registration restrictions (opened to individuals living in France since June 2006),
• the extension benefits from a good popularity among web users (close to local population, French speaking countries, secureness in case of disputes).

According to AFNIC, .fr usage is distributed as below:

Table 2: usage of .fr domain names

Compared to the leading geographical extensions (ccTLDs), .fr is late despite the catching-up effect (+66% of .fr creations in 2006). Therefore, strategic evolutions appear as the key of the .fr development, such as integration of IDNs and creation of new second level extensions.

Table 3 : Main TLD statistics on December 2007

Source: Denic

• .xxx : rejected by ICANN
• ICANN .xxx reporté
• Registration of internet keywords in China
• .asia : a new regional extension approved by ICANN
• Milka.fr goes back to Kraft Foods

Domain auctions on eBay concern by far .com domain names (93%). Domains for sale are frequently related to porn industry (bestdamnpornstars.com) and often exploit events (US primaries and caucuses 2008, ClintonObamaIn2008.com).

Moreover, a lot of domain names are infringing rights: celebrities are targeted (angelinajolie.name, britneyspearstears.com) and trademarks are cybersquatted (yahoo.is, WiiiTV.com, googlevideosonline.com), including ironically eBay brands (paypal4less.com, ebayandyahoo.info, ebaybuyitsellit.com).

Results for ‘Domain names’ category on ebay.com (10/01/08):

Domain bids start from $0.01 (opete.com) up to million dollars and some domain names are sold by package. Below a few examples of bids:

Thus the leading auction platform seems to attract not only good counterfeiters, but also cybersquatters…

• .asia: updated application and auction lists
• Le Top 100 de 2007 des gTLDs sans le .com
• New domain sale record: 10 million USD for fund.com
• Russia fights against cybersquatting
• Cybersquatting : Microsoft expands lawsuits overseas