Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
New
Domain Sales Site Launched by Industry Heavyweight
Andrew Miller of the Internet Real Estate Group
The
number of options
for buyers in the domain aftermarket continues to grow. Andrew
Miller, co-founder of industry heavyweight Internet
Real Estate Group (IREG), dropped me a note
this morning to let me know he has launched a premium
domain sales site at SimpleDomains.com.
As
many of your know, IREG started and sold several websites
and businesses based around category defining
dotcom domain names, including Beer.com, Diamond.com,
CreditCards.com, Shop.com, and Luggage.com
and they currently manage and are shareholders in a
collection of names and websites (both inside and outside
SimpleDomains.com) including InsuranceQuotes.com,
Phone.com,
Patents.com,
Alerts.com,
Software.com,
Chocolate.com,
Sweepstakes.com,
Safety.com
and Sportsfan.com.
Regarding
his new aftermarket project at SimpleDomains.com, Miller
said, "We
own a portfolio of hundreds of incredible category
domains, a few in development, but mainly, we have
been selling them to domainers and end users. For now they
are 99% our own domains that we have been
successfully selling at or below fair market value."
Miller said SimpleDomains would consider featuring
listings from outside sources but only if the domain are
"fabulous".
You can keep up to date on
what is available at SimpleDomains by signing up for
their free daily domains newsletter. Miller said,
"We are
Andrew
Miller
SimpleDomains.com
sending special offers, rights to buy or see offers on
some of the world’s best domains, all at below fair
market value." Miller has also started his own blog
at SimpleDomains that he plans to update regularly. With
his experience and knowledge of the industry that could
quickly become a very valuable resource.
Our industrious friend
at Domaining.com,
Francois Carrillo, also wrote today to tell
us about a valuable tool that has been added to his
free Valuate.com
automated domain appraisal site. The first trademark
checking search engine, created by Estibot,
has been incorporated into the Valuate.com
results.
If you enter a name
that could have trademark
issues, an X
will appear in the far left column of the search
results. For example, if you enter iphonestore.com
and then mouse over the X in the results it will
bring up a message that says "Exact trademark
issue with APPLE on the term "iphone."
Probablility 100%. Risk 10/10".
Carillo said there are several
important points to remember when using the TM
checker tool:
EVERY word is trademarked (ex: apple, orange, great,
elephant) so it’s pointless to have a TM scanner
that checks every TM because 99% of domains will have
some generic TM.
TM checker only works on BIG Fortune 1,000 companies
+ their products (ex: Microsoft => xbox => halo)
+ smaller industry companies (ex: Verisign, GoDaddy).
TM checker is optimized for companies that have a
history of suing domainers (ex: Verizon, Viacom,
Facebook, Twitter, etc).
It’s NOT a comprehensive TM check. Always consult
a good TM lawyer for real analysis. It’s only good
for identifying obvious TMs in a portfolio.
It detects typos. You can adjust the probability
match (default is 65%, but you can lower it to
30% to make the search very broad).
We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
