Frank Schilling Loses UDRP

In one of the most ridiculous UDRP decisions that I have ever seen, Frank Schilling (owner of Name Administration) lost the domain ChilliBeans.com.

The case was brought by a company in Uruguay, which owns a trademark for “CHILLI BEANS” for eyewear and watches.

The panel found that the domain ChilliBeans.com was identical or confusingly similar to the trademark CHILLI BEANS and that the design elements of the trademark didn’t matter.  No big surprise here.

In the second stage of the UDRP analysis, the panel looks at the parties’ rights and legitimate interests in the domain.  The panel found that the Complainant had such rights and interests. Schilling argued that he was using the domain in a legitimate way – to display ads linking to goods and services relating to food and beverages, which is consistent with the meaning of “Chilli Beans.”  However, the panel found that there was no evidence that Schilling explored the possibility of third-party trademarks before registering the disputed domain name.  The panel further found that there was evidence of (a very small amount of) pay-per-click advertising links on the ChilliBeans.com, related to the trademark.

The Panel decided to make up its own law and stated:

Moreover, this Panel cannot ignore the implications of publicly available traffic rankings generated by Alexa – and unchallenged by the Respondent – reflecting that in August 2008 some seventy-five percent (75%) of the traffic to the Respondent’s website originated in Brazil. This is significant given that the CHILLI BEANS mark has been used in Brazil since as early as 2000 and is more widely known there than in other areas of the world. While the Panel has no effective means of discovering traffic data at earlier dates, this certainly cautions against the Panel blindly accepting the Respondent’s contention that the sheer numerical preponderance of links keyed to the generic or descriptive meaning of the domain name renders the presence of paid advertisements related to a trademark insignificant or inconsequential, at least insofar as it concerns the pay-per-click revenue generated as a result of these links.

What??  The panel is looking at Alexa data and domain owners are expected to do so too??  And Alexa can’t be easily gamed?

The ultimate issue in these sorts of cases is whether the domain owner registered the domain in bad faith.  Apparently, not knowing about a trademark, plus intending to use a domain only for its generic use, and targeting ads for the generic meaning are not sufficient.  The panel concludes that Schilling registered and used the domain in bad faith, as he failed to explore the possibility of third-party rights and his parking software was incapable of distinguishing between dictionary meaning and trademark meaning of a term.

The panel completely ignored the fact that Schilling went out of the way to target food products in his ads.

The panel ordered Schilling to transfer the domain.

My guess is that Frank will be taking this to court soon.  If something as generic as ChilliBeans.com is in danger of an UDRP loss, almost every domain is too.

Sedo / dotMobi Registry Auction Results

Today the latest Sedo / dotMobi auction finishes.  All eyes are on this auction as it is a bellweather for the state of dot mobi domains.  While the domain market as a whole has fallen during the course of the year, some say that the mobi market has had a meltdown this year.  The domains on auction are all premium domains held back by the dotMobi registry – whatever the results are with these domains will trickle down to mobi domains of all qualities.

The auction results (unofficial) are:

games.mobi – 44,000
xxx.mobi – 10,099 – reserve not met
software.mobi – 9,500 – reserve not met
bank.mobi – 11,500
blackjack.mobi – 9,700
media.mobi – 5,099
dvd.mobi – 4,875 – reserve not met
sexe.mobi – 9,523
funds.mobi – 4,800 – reserve not met
lawyers.mobi – 4,800 – reserve not met
vip.mobi – 10,099
meteo.mobi – 4,200
computer.mobi – 4,000 – reserve not met
shoes.mobi – 4,600
auto.mobi – 3,900
internet.mobi – 9,901
discount.mobi – 2,050
silver.mobi – 1,723 – reserve not met
lawyer.mobi – 1,650
mobilephones.com – 1,600 – reserve not met
law.mobi – 2,850
store.mobi – 2,650
homeloans.mobi – 1,557
school.mobi – 1,502 – reserve not met
any.mobi – 1,500 – reserve not met
online.mobi – 1,550
she.mobi – 1,600
cellphones.mobi – 1,549
cruise.mobi – 2,680
accountants.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
baptism.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not meti
chocolate.mobi – 1,350
house.mobi – 1,300
man.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
model.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
movieclips.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
spam.mobi – 1,300 – reserve not met
psychology.mobi – 1,290 – reserve not met
carpenters.mobi – 1,270 – reserve not met
divorce.mobi – 1,320
doctors.mobi – 1,318
downloadmovies.mobi – 1,259 – reserve not met
downloadmusic.mobi – 1,259 – reserve not met 
boys.mobi – 1,253
consulting.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met
grants.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met
industry.mobi – 1,300 
international.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met 
medical.mobi – 1,250 – reserve not met
sexstories.mobi – 1,250
math.mobi – 1,750
quiz.mobi – 1,257
account.mobi – 1,250
babyshower.mobi – 1,200 – reserve not met
bus.mobi – 1,200 – reserve not met
expert.mobi – 1,250
anime.mobi – 1,150
interviews.mobi – 1,100 – reserve not met
quotes.mobi – 5,333
room.mobi – 1,051 – reserve not met
sad.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
schule.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
screw.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
steel.mobi – 1,001 – reserve not met
kamera.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
publicidad.mobi – 1,050
research.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
special.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
suche.mobi – 1,000 – reserve not met
guy.mobi – 999 – reserve not met
recht.mobi – 1,010
support.mobi – 1,010
air.mobi – 1,050
reise.mobi – 950 – reserve not met
sound.mobi – 950 – reserve not met
anwalt.mobi – 1,352
science.mobi – 1,100
jobsuche.mobi – 889 – reserve not met
message.mobi – 930
stars.mobi – 1,050
racing.mobi – 850
sea.mobi – 800
send.mobi – 790 – reserve not met
shock.mobi – 778
sol.mobi – 750 – reserve not met
how.mobi – 3,050
bands.mobi – 800
real.mobi – 666
see.mobi – 3,900
put.mobi – 651 – reserve not met
refinance.mobi – 951
sell.mobi – 2,300
service.mobi – 601
cats.mobi – 600
screen.mobi – 570
run.mobi – 950
sem.mobi – 600
booty.mobi – 510
rock.mobi – 610
used.mobi – 750
road.mobi – 509
rims.mobi – 501 – reserve not met
shit.mobi – 500 – reserve not met
south.mobi – 500 – reserve not met
say.mobi – 480
allergies.mobi – 432 – reserve not met
question.mobi – 510
kinky.mobi – 366 – reserve not met
actors.mobi – 410
memory.mobi – 460
dvr.mobi – 320
robot.mobi – 310
smallbusiness.mobi – 560
may.mobi – 300 – reserve not met
bild.mobi – 900
punk.mobi – 260
quick.mobi – 260
rail.mobi – 411
stamps.mobi – 510
ride.mobi – 260
farm.mobi – 251
public.mobi – 231
retro.mobi – 210
saturday.mobi – 210
searchengines.mobi – 210 
son.mobi – 283
after.mobi – 200 – reserve not met
rpg.mobi – 680
side.mobi – 200 reserve not met
taxes.mobi – 800
rate.mobi – 1,060
sleep.mobi – 560
shirt.mobi – 260
system.mobi – 421
cheese.mobi – 230
fruit.mobi – 755
icon.mobi – 260
raw.mobi – 750
seguridad.mobi – 211
ship.mobi – 800
smoke.mobi – 180
smoking.mobi – 420
spider.mobi – 260
stadt.mobi – 1,050
telefonino.mobi – 300
purple.mobi – 140
sportinggoods.mobi – 300 
scanner.mobi – 250
transportation.mobi – 335
libre.mobi – 310
moviedownloads.mobi – 300 
revolution.mobi – 385
society.mobi – 220
tempo.mobi – 500 – reserve not met
medien.mobi – 211
minutes.mobi – 270
pull.mobi – 100
rule.mobi – 121 – reserve not met
running.mobi – 260 – reserve not met
sicherheit.mobi – 80
sister.mobi – 420
statement.mobi – 120
fertile.mobi – 100
ricerca.mobi – 160
right.mobi – 260
sand.mobi – 370
shower.mobi – 236

Network Solutions to Offer .CA Domains

In a sign that Canadian domains are now a major player in the domain world, Network Solutions has announced that is going to offer .ca domain registration.  This is hot on the heals of Godaddy doing the same thing in July.

Network Solutions is charging $34.99 per year for a .ca registration – quite the markup from the wholesale price of $8.50.  At this cost, domainers won’t be rushing out to Network Solutions any time soon to register .ca domains.  But the fact that the major registrars are moving into the .ca market highlights the increasing growth and importance of the .ca space.

Domainersphere War – A Possible Resolution

An ugly war has broken out in the domainersphere between Mark Fulton and Owen Frager.  Mark states that Owen’s GrandNames is a “Grand Waste“;  Owen gives a “thumbs down” to Mark’s blog and his AQDN marketplace.  I can’t begin to express how disturbed and sad I am that this war has erupted in our domainer family.  Others agree with me.

I’d really like to see this war ended rather than escalated.  Here’s what I think the parties should do:

1.  Call an immediate ceasefire.  Both Owen and Mark are probably very upset about the situation.  To resolve matters, things need to calm down a bit.  There needs to be some time and distance from the conflict so that both parties can attempt to resolve matter in an objective manner.

2.  Realize that both of them are on the same team.  Ultimately, the interests of Mark and Owen are the same.  While they have different ideas about how to go about doing things, both of them care about domainers and both of them want to help domainers sell their domains.  Both of them want to educate domainers through their blogs.

3.  Look at things from a different perspective.  After some time of quiet, there should be a dialog between Owen and Mark.  In this dialog, the emphasis should be on finding common ground.  If the approach is – “is Mark right or is Owen right” then things will never be resolved. 

As an example, both of their blog posts make clear that they are concerned about ensuring that people don’t purchase “crap” domains.  They could have a dialog about what the best ways to achieve this are. 

Ultimately, I hope that Owen and Mark can work this out.  I urge them both to take positive steps in that direction and end this very ugly war.

Protecting Your Domains – Going Offshore to Canada

In an increasingly hostile legal environment in the United States, your domains are at risk. Whether it’s the US Treasury Department blacklisting your domains because they are about Cuba or the governor of a backwards state trying to put his cronies’ competitors out of business, this legal risk is growing every day.

A lot of savvy domainers are proactively dealing with this by moving their domains offshore – to registrars located outside the United States. By using an offshore registrar, you are providing yourself with a layer of protection against these attacks on your domains.

There has been a lot of discussion in the domainersphere about what options are available, ranging from the Bahamas to Australia. However, I haven’t seen discussion about what I consider one of the best options – Canada – and its most domainer friendly registrar – Rebel.com.

There are a lot of advantages to keeping your domains in Canada. It’s a large, wealthy, politically stable country. It’s about as close to the United States as you can get. It’s an English speaking country. There is a solid British based legal system that avoids the excesses of the American legal system, as well as a solid, constitutionally entrenched bill of rights.

Rebel.com is a great registrar. I first started using them during the .asia landrush, and have been very happy with them. There was good support – it was prompt, responsive and friendly. Their interface is slick and intuitive, and seems to have been built with domainers in mind rather than your average domain customer. The pricing is reasonable, with prices going down the more domains you hold with them. Plus, Rebel.com is very domainer friendly, being involved in and supporting many of the domainer conferences, and participating in the domainer forums. They also seem to be one of the fastest growing registrars since the Kentucky court case started, so it looks like a lot of people are seeing things the same way that I do.

I asked Rebel.com what they do if they are served with an American court order, and they told me that they simply ignore it. They confirmed with me that they have no offices or staff in the United States.  They also stated that when they are served with a court order, they immediately notify their customer of all the issues involved, unlike a lot of the registrars in the Kentucky case.

The recent attacks on domains are just the beginning – it is going to get much worse in the years to come. There is not really an advantage to keeping your domains at a US registrar, and many risks to doing this. Moving your domains to an offshore registrar certainly isn’t going to provide you with bullet proof protection (and unfortunately, there is nothing that will). However, it is an additional step you can take to increase the security of your domains. Canada is one of the best options for that, and we have a well established, domainer friendly registrar at Rebel.com.