First Canadian Reverse Domain Hijacking Finding

Globe Media International Corporation tried to grab the generic domain ForSale.ca from Bonfire Development, Inc., through a CDRP proceeding (the Canadian equivalent of the UDRP) and failed.  Not only did it fail, but it resulted in Canada’s first ever finding of Reverse Domain Hijacking.

Background

In January of this year, the domain ForSale.ca dropped.  After it was caught, it was purchased by Bonfire Development for $29,000 CDN.

Trademark

The plaintiff had a trademark on the domain For-Sale.ca.  Although one might ask how they managed to trademark that term, the CDRP does not allow the panel to go behind the trademark.  In the circumstances, the panel found that the domain was confusingly similar to the trademark.

Bad Faith

Next, the panel analysed whether the domain was registered in bad faith.  They found that it was not, and made some statements that I consider very positive.  They state:  “the disputed domain is a generic term over which the Complainant in this particular case cannot claim exclusivity.  This is so despite being the owner of a trade-mark that is confusing with the domain name.  The term “for sale” is clearly and obviously a commonly used term by businesses and members of the public to say the least, and is one over which the Complainant would be hard pressed to assert a monopoly.”

It’s clear that the Panel understands what a generic domain is and the importance of a generic name being avaialable to all members of the public.  Kudos to them for this.

The Panel further stated:  “There is no question that the Respondent, or related parties, have been found in the past to have engaged in the practice of cyber-squatting.  In particular, Shaun Pilford, who appears to be related to the Respondent, is known to domain name panels.  However, this is not relevant to this particular case… While the Panel does not endorse the Respondent’s unauthorized domain name registrations, it needs to be proven that the Respondent was cyber-squatting in this case.”

That’s good news too.  Too often in UDRP decisions, if you lose one, you’re at high risk of losing all future cases because you’ve been branded a cybersquatter.  The Panel is correct just to look at the case before it, not the reputation of the parties.

Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

The Complainant had previously tried to get this domain before it dropped via the CDRP and failed.  Now it failed a second time and the Respondent asked for a finding of reverse domain name hijacking.

The Panel found that the Complainant has a history of registering trademarks for .ca domains of well known brands.  The Complainant had registered Versace.ca, Mentos.ca, Zantac.ca, Smirnoff.ca and also filed trademark applications for Versace.ca, Mentos.ca, Zantac.ca and Smirnoff.ca.  The Panel found that the Complainant had an extensive history of abusing trademarks to try to give it rights to domains it should not have, including in this case.

Adding all of this to the fact that the domain is generic, the Panel found that this was Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and in fact stated that the Complainant appears to have engaged in filching.

Costs have yet to be decided, but the CDRP allows cost awards of up to $5,000.

Congrats to lawyer for the respondent Zak Muscovitch for obtaining this finding!

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.

Sibername Increases .ca Prices for Second Time in a Year

I just received an announcement from Sibername that they are increasing their prices for .ca domains from $14.95 to $16.95 (Canadian).  This follows on an increase earlier in the year that increased prices from $12.95 to $14.95.

I am somewhat surprised at this aggressive pricing move, especially in light of Godaddy recently entering the .ca market.  Sibername blames the increase on the fact that “.CA domain names require lengthy procedure and communication for changes like administrative email change, registrar transfer.”  .Ca domains are definitely more complex than gTLDs, but this hasn’t changed recently and a lot of these functions are automated (although the CIRA process is so confusing, I bet Sibername gets a lot of requests for support).

In the past, Sibername was one of the top registrar choices for Canadian domainers due to their low prices and TBR success.  To me, this price increase signals a change in business strategy by Sibername away from catering to domainers.  Given the recent very vocal criticism of Sibername by some domainers (and I’m really not sure about the merits of this criticism), this is perhaps a good business decision by Sibername.

By comparison, CIRA charges registrars a wholesale rate of $8.50 per domain.  Namespro.ca, my Canadian registrar of choice, charges $12.88, and often runs $1 off specials and offers discounts to large portfolio holders.  Godaddy charges $12.99 USD, which currently works out to about $13.84.  10dollar.ca charges $10.45.  Netfirms.ca charges $9.95.  DomainsAtCost.ca charge $12.95.  Baremetal.com charges $12.50.

At least Sibername is still cheaper than Internic.ca, the registrar of choice for people with money to burn, which charges a mere $50, and yet manages to be used by most large businesses across Canada.

GoDaddy to Offer .CA Domains

As most people know, Godaddy is the most popular registrar in the world, thanks largely to their aggressive marketing and reasonable pricing.  Unfortunately, one of their shortcomings is that while they offer ccTLDs from around the world, they did not offer .ca registrations.  This is about to change in the near future - Godaddy has announced that they have become a Canadian registrar.  They hope to be able to offer .ca registrations in one month.

This is sure to shake up the Canadian registrar industry significantly - Godaddy states that they have 5.5 million Canadian customers.  Considering that there are only slighly more than 1 million .ca domains registered, it would seem to me that Godaddy already has the market well covered.  (I find the figure somewhat astonishing - that means almost all Canadian domain holders don’t own .ca domains).

Godaddy is, of course, launching their entry into the Canadian market with a splash - by being the official broadcast sponsor of the NASCAR Napa Auto Parts 200 on TSN, Canada’s leading 24-hour all-sports network Aug. 2 in Montreal.

Exciting times ahead for the .ca world!

Canadian Auction Update

The second MyID auction completed successfully with three 5-figure sales: Interview.ca for $30,000, Bond.ca $19,100, and Gamble.ca $15,000. In all, 33 domains were sold. Here are the remaining results:

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Canadian Domain Auction Update

At Pool’s weekly auction, Betting.ca closed at $5,310. The result seems a bit modest to me.

Pool’s next weekly auction is for Cafe.ca. Astute readers may notice that this domain was previously auctioned. At that time, it failed to meet its reserve and was not sold. This time Pool is auctioning Cafe.ca on a no reserve basis. It looks like it could be a good bargain.

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Auction Review - Detailed Look At the MyID Auction

As I previously discussed, there is a MyId dot ca auction in process. I said I’d analyze the domains soon, and now that it’s the weekend I’ve had some quiet time to do this. Here is the list of domains on auction, with the reserve range in brackets, and my thoughts on some of them afterwards:

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Canadian Domain Auction Update

After the successful sale of Dates.ca, Pool is now auctioning off the premium dot ca domain Betting.ca. The auction starts tomorrow, so get your order in quickly. There is no reserve price on Betting.ca - the domain will sell at the highest bid. Pool seems to be continuing their no reserve policy which worked really well with the sale of Dates.ca.

Tomorrow the next MyId premium dot ca auction begins. They are also including a couple of no reserve auctions - PainClinic.ca and SummerSchool.ca. If these two auctions go well, the no reserve format will likely become popular in dot ca auctions, but likely only for strong domains at strong auction venues.

The list of domains was just released earlier today, so I haven’t had a chance to go through it in detail. They’ve got another great two letter domains VP.ca. Gamble.ca is another great domain on auction and it will be interesting to see how the sale price compares with Betting.ca.

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Dates.ca

The great domain Dates.ca finished its auction on Pool today. The closing price was $18,353 (USD). Another DN Journal worthy dot ca sale following on the heals of Friday’s MyID auction.

The domain is an expired website and apparently earns $300 per month from affiliate sales. Bidding in the last half hour was incredible, driving the price up from about $9,000 to the closing price. The servers at Pool really were slow - I’m not sure if that affected bidding.

CV.ca Smashes Records as MyID Auction Ends Successfully

The MyID auction ended as a resounding success. The domain CV.ca closed at $53,300 (Canadian) - making it the third largest dot ca domain sale of all time. There were several other great sales. The most contested domain was Diploma.ca, which closed at $17,352 (Canadian). Another highly contested domain was Income.ca, which closed at $25,299. All of this is likely DNJournal material, as soon as payment is made.

Below is a table of unofficial (and possibly inaccurate) results that I compiled from the auction. N/A means that there were no bids. All figures are in Canadian dollars. I’ll analyze the figures over the weekend and post some further thoughts then. Without further ado, here are the results:

Domain	Reserve Range	Closing Bid
0b.ca (reserve not met)	$501 - $1000	$652
AccountingJobs.ca	$501 - $1000	$2350
activeholidays.ca	$1001 - $2500	N/A
Anywhere.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2701
AssuranceMaladie.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1001
BCapartments.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1101
BirthInjury.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
BoatRental(s).caBoatRental.ca + BoatRentals.ca	$2501 - $5000	N/A
buh.ca (reserve not met)	$251 - $500	$276
calgarian.ca (reserve not met)	$251 - $500	$251
calgaryrentals.ca	$0 - $100	$185
camrosehomes.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
canadafsbo.ca	$251 - $500	N/A
CanucksForum.ca	$0 - $100	$50
CarAppraisal.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
CardioStripTease.ca	$251 - $500	N/A
Chiropractice.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
cv.ca	more than $ 5000	$53300
delicacy.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
denim.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2802
Diploma.ca	$2501 - $5000	$17352
eFares.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1001
eFit.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2702
eImmigration.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1202
eLaws.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$3503
eleve.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
enceinte.ca (reserve not met)	$501 - $1000	$501
Enjoy.ca	$501 - $1000	$1800
Eyeglasses.ca (reserve not met)	more than $ 5000	$10999
Feminine.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
fitnessdiet.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
Fling.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1951
FloorTiles.ca	$501 - $1000	$1150
forexsystemtrading.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
freeinternetgames.ca	$251 - $500	N/A
gagnez.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2601
geriatrician.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
giveaways.ca	$1001 - $2500	N/A
HomeFinancing.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2501
homeloanrates.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
HotelOnline.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2902
iborrow.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
icar.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$3650
iGuide.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1001
income.ca	more than $ 5000	$25299
iPoker.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2902
istore.ca	$501 - $1000	$950
jetset.ca	$501 - $1000	$750
kau.ca	$251 - $500	N/A
kun.ca	$251 - $500	N/A
lactosefree.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
LawyersToronto.ca	$1001 - $2500	N/A
LegalHotline.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1101
LoanDirect.ca & DirectLoan.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2902
LoansCanada.ca	$2501 - $5000	$3000
montrealfashion.ca (reserve not met)	$251 - $500	$251
MontrealMortgages.ca	$1001 - $2500	$2499
offreemploi.ca (reserve not met)	$501 - $1000	$501
ontariojob.ca	$501 - $1000	$750
PentictonJobs.ca	$101 - $250	$199
Pharmacies.ca	more than $ 5000	$15100
Pies.ca	$501 - $1000	$995
priceshopper.ca	$1001 - $2500	N/A
primetime.ca	$2501 - $5000	N/A
princealberthomes.ca	$1001 - $2500	N/A
provider.ca (reserve not met)	more than $ 5000	$5000
pz.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$4802
quatre.ca	$501 - $1000	N/A
quebechome(s).ca	$2501 - $5000	$2999
Randys.ca	$1001 - $2500	N/A
std.ca	$2501 - $5000	$3999
sweats.ca (reserve not met)	$2501 - $5000	$2701
VancouverTravel.ca	$1001 - $2500	$1750
webtemplates.ca	$501 - $1000	$1503
WeddingCaterer.ca (reserve not met)	$1001 - $2500	$1001
WhistlerTrip(s).ca	$1001 - $2500	$1500
zz.ca	more than $ 5000	$9600

Canadian Domain Auction Scene

Pool is continuing with their one-at-a-time premium dot ca domain auction format. Their next auction is for Dates.ca, which is obviously a top of the line domain. According to Pool, the site receives 600 uniques per month and earns $300 (Canadian) per month - which shows just how profitable the dating niche is. Browsing through archive.org, it looks to me like it formerly was a “sex search - free adult personals and adult dating online” website, which is where the traffic must be coming from.

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MyID Releases Auction List

The MyID auction is starting Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 15:45 EST and runs for one week to Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 15:45 EST. MyID has announced the domains to be auctioned. Here is the list, with reserve range in parentheses, as well as some of my comments:

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Canadian Domain Auction Update

As previously reported, Pool has started a one premium domain at a time auction format. The first domain it auctioned was cafe.ca. Unfortunately, this domain did not sell, as it did not meet the reserve price. The next domain they are auctioning is slots.ca, which is also an extremely good domain. If you are interested in bidding on this domain, simply backorder the domain with Pool before noon EST on May 7, 2008.

The MyID auction has announced a new bonus for both its purchasers and its sellers. For every $10 spent by purchasers or received by sellers, you receive an “at-cost credit.” What’s an at-cost credit? Basically, it allows you to register, transfer or renew a domain at the cost that MyID pays CIRA - currently, $8.50. So, for instance, if you buy or sell a domain for $1,000, you would get 100 domain renewals for only $850. This is a substantial savings - representing 15% to 30% off what the cheapest registrars charge. For domainers with large portfolios, this is an extremely good deal - and hopefully will payoff in higher bids across the board. Start saving your pennies for the auction! The list of domains to be auctioned will be published by May 8, 2008.

Canadian Domain Auction Landscape Changes

There have been some notable changes over the last few days in the Canadian domain auction landscape.

Sibername has introduced changes in their TBR system. First, they have raised the minimum bid from $15 to $25. While I’m sure domainers will complain about the increase in price (after all, who wants to pay more?), I believe that this is a good step. My guess is that Sibername was wasting a lot of resources trying to catch dropping domains that would only sell for $15, when these resources could have been reallocated to catching higher value domains. For $15, they are better off selling new registrations than TBR domains.

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Special Domain Deal For Canadians - 0b.ca For Sale

I’m offering a top NL.ca for sale - 0b.ca. NL.ca are obviously very rare - there are only 260 of them.

0b has overture of 113. There are 8,590,000 Google results for 0b. It makes a good acronym.

Here are some recent comparable sales (all in 2008):

A7.ca - $1,580
3W.ca - $1,500
X2.ca - $1,495
6X.ca - $1,250

There have also been several five-figure LL.ca sales in 2008. Some of them are:

RR.ca - $15,811
VV.ca - $10,000
BU.ca - $13,500

Prices of .ca domains are rising fast - it has been a record breaking year for .ca domains. Prices will continue to rise, now that we are at the one million .ca mark.

0b.ca will be on auction at the MyID Premium .ca Auction, which starts May 22, 2008. The reserve price is $1,000 (Canadian) and the BIN price is $2,000.

MyID Dot Ca Auction Update

Further to my recent post, the details of the MyID Dot Ca Auction have been released. Here it is in a nutshell:

1. Monthly Auction - The auction will start on the first Thursday of each month at 15:45 EST and end on the following Thursday at 15:45 EST. The first auction will be start May 1, 2008 and run until May 8, 2008.

2. Deadline for Submissions - Submissions must be made during the first seven days of the preceding month. So, for the May auction, submissions must be made from April 1 until April 7. There will be a web based interface set up for submissions, but for now submissions are made via email. Submissions must include a desired reserve range and a suggested category (see below).

3. Categories - For the first auction, the categories will include:
2-3 character
Professional Services (Legal, Medical, Accounting,…)
Health, Fitness, Nutrition, and Exercise
Real estate
Geo Domains (Domains that have ‘Canada’, ‘Canadian’, or any of the Canadian provinces/cities in them)
Business and Financial Services (Loans, mortgages,…)
Shopping
Travel
French domains
Miscellaneous (Domains that do not fit in any category above)

4. Reserve Ranges - Reserve ranges will be grouped into the following categories:
$0-$100
$101-$500
$501-$1000
$1001-$2500
$2501-$5000
$5001+

5. Domains on Auction - Domains that will be auctioned will be announced 15 days before the auction. For the upcoming May auction, the list will be announced on April 15, 2008.

6. Security - MyID will be announcing steps they will take to prevent bogus bids and to ensure the legitimacy of domain owners.

All in all, it sounds to me like a good set up. If you wish to sign up as a buyer or a seller, head on over to MyID.

MyID.ca Launches .ca Auctions

MyID.ca has now tossed their hat into the .ca auction market ring.

Prior to this, the only company offering .ca auctions was Sibername. Sibername only started offering these auctions in December 2007. It’s good to see increasing competition in this market, and it’s a sure sign that .ca domains are becoming more important.

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Canadian TBR Drop Auction Irregularities

I’m not sure how many of my readers are Canadian - if you are, please let me know by leaving a comment. If there is enough interest, I’ll write more about the Canadian domain landscape.

Anyhow, CIRA is the authority for .ca domain names. Every Wednesday at 2.00 p.m. Eastern they run a TBR (”to be released”) drop of .ca domains that have expired. The registrars compete to catch the drops, then auction them off.

Fine and dandy, except today, a lot of the names that were caught yesterday suddenly were added to next week’s drop list.

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