Month: February 2011

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Twittersearch.com turned over to Twitter, after domain dispute filed back in Dec. ’10

Twitter Search

Back in Dec. 2010, Twitter Inc. filed a case against the owner of the domain Twittersearch.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.  As TechCrunch first reported, the UDRP complaint was the first ever since the company was founded.

The disputed domain is now registered to Twitter Inc, according to the latest Whois information and data provided by DomainTools.  News of the ownership change has not been reported by any other blog or news site.

The web address continues to resolve to a GoDaddy parked page as it had before the UDRP complaint.

The UDRP complaint, case number D2010-2073, is still active with WIPO.  And though no decision has been officially announced by WIPO as of today, the registrant is now Twitter, Inc. 

Will Twitter go after more Twitter domains?

While Twitter hasn’t filed any new cases with WIPO, it’s possible that some degree of precedence has been set on twitter domains. 

Robin Wauters suggested that Twitter-search.com might be the next disputed domain, but my money is on Searchtwitter.com. According to a rough estimate by Compete, Searchtwitter.com receives just as much type-in traffic (often more) than Twittersearch.com. 

And the owner of the domain, even has a For Sale page online suggesting the domain is available for purchase.

Searchtwitter.com Twittersearch.com

Categories
News

Dirt.com owner releases website teaser

Five months after purchasing the domain name dirt.com for $100,000 at Go Daddy auctions in Sept. 2010, the buyer who goes by the handle yessman on Flippa, has released a teaser trailer for the website. 

Although the owner had put the domain name up for auction on Flippa with a $3,000,0000 reserve price so that as he says could “travel and focus on Foundation and Charity Work”, a website was unveiled days later that hinted at a celebrity gossip site.

The domain name is still up for sale at Flippa and yet, construction of the website is still underway. 

I’ve received a number of tips from readers about Dirt.com.  One rumor was that NewsCorp might purchase or partner with Dirt.com.  Another reader tipped me off that Dirt.com had staff at Sundance trying to get access badges.  

Whatever the case, it’s clear that Dirt.com is using a variety of channels for marketing and has big plans for their celebrity gossip website.

Categories
News WIPO

WIPO proceedings over BlackberryTablet.com suspended, domain now registered to RIM

Blackberry Playbook Tablet

Last month, Research In Motion filed a complaint with WIPO over BlackberryTablet.com, a domain name that was first registered over 1 year ago on January 24, 2010. 

While details haven’t been released, it appears both parties have reached a settlement.  The case has been suspended at WIPO and as of yesterday, the domain name re-directs to the Playbook Tablet page on the Blackberry web site. 

And, as of Thursday, Feb. 10, the domain name is now registered to Research In Motion Limited according to Whois records.

Although RIM has had to file literally dozens of complaints over the years at WIPO in order to win web addresses that are clearly abusive registrations, the company does own BlackberryPlaybook.com and Playbooktablet.com.  But despite RIM expecting to be a major player in the tablet market, it doesn’t own all the domain names that could potentially help its online marketing even further.  Perhaps the best name for its tablet product, Playbook.com, is operated by Playbook Publications which runs a web site for sports handicapper Marc Lawrence.

The Blackberry Playbook is rumored to be launched some time next month or at the latest, by April.

Categories
News

After turning down low six-figure bids, Mike Berkens’ Worldwide Media sells VisitBerlin.com for $230,000

Worldwide Media Inc.

Popular domain investor and blogger Mike Berkens, launched his corproate web site Worldwide Media Inc. in December. 

Using the web address wwmi.com, the web site provides information on the company’s business, projects, consulting, and still one of the most interesting sections is the Domain Name Sales & Acquisitions section, which  describes a handful of the more than one hundred thousand domain transactions that Worldwide Media has been involved in since the nineties.

The last time I wrote about Worldwide Media, there were 13 offers listed in the Recently Rejected $10,000 and above section, including one offer for VisitBerlin.com for $100,000. 

Since then, at least one more offer of $150,000 for VisitBerlin.com was rejected, but now it appears the buyer and Worldwide Media have finally agreed on a number:  $230,000.

According to the most recent domain name sales section which are not subject to a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), Worldwide Media has sold the domain name for nearly quarter of a million dollars.

Here’s a look at all the offers over $10,000 that were rejected by Mike Berkens’ WorldWide Media.  The ones in bold are new since my last story.

VisitBerlin.com $150,000
D.tv  $125,000
iBill.com $100,000
VisitBerlin.com  $100,000
345.com  $75,000
Stuff.com $75,000
MotorcycleHelmets.com $60,000
RestaurantSupply.com $50,000
Aili.com $40,000
TheTour.com $30,000
RugbyNews.com $20,000
Dirty.com $15,000
Kevin.me $10,000
Ayanna.com $10,000
woodmere.com $10,000
FreshPrints.com $10,000
BettertoKnow.com $10,000
BankAccounts.com $10,000

Categories
News

Reinvent Inc. issues press release on purchase of ThreeWords.me, the web app built by 18-year old Mark Bao

ThreeWords.me

Reinvent Inc. issued a press release on Wednesday, officially announcing the purchase of ThreeWords.me. 

“We are always looking for great ideas to nurture and develop,” said Dr. Kevin Ham, CEO, Reinvent. “ThreeWords.me is a simple application that has the potential to transform the way people express and track sentiment online. We are starting to make gradual improvements to the site with a full relaunch to feature an updated platform that will retain simplicity but boast deeper functionality.”

Though the official press release went out this week, news of the purchase by Reinvent had already been reported by Mashable on January 19th, shortly after Mark Bao, the 18-year-old technology entrepreneur, had put the website up for sale.

Check out the full press release below.

Vancouver, Canada, February 2, 2011 — Reinvent Inc., an emerging business incubator for innovative online start-ups, today announced the acquisition of popular web application, ThreeWords.me (http://threewords.me/). The application launched on December 22, 2010 and has since experienced rapid growth, approaching 5 million visitors and 17 million page views in just over a month.

“We are always looking for great ideas to nurture and develop,” said Dr. Kevin Ham, CEO, Reinvent. “ThreeWords.me is a simple application that has the potential to transform the way people express and track sentiment online. We are starting to make gradual improvements to the site with a full relaunch to feature an updated platform that will retain simplicity but boast deeper functionality.”

ThreeWords.me has been a labor of love and I’m excited to hand it over to the team at Reinvent,” said Mark Bao, 18 year-old creator of ThreeWords.me. “The company has an incredible vision matched by technical expertise. I believe that they will be able to take what I started and create a revolutionary new way for people to express their opinions online.”

Reinvent is an expanding incubation house for strategic, creative and passionate entrepreneurial businesses. The company’s portfolio currently includes socially conscious daily deal site, GoodNews.com and Black Friday resource site, BlackFriday.com. In addition to the incubator projects, Reinvent is also a pioneer of domain names and advertising networks with a massive online global network that currently receives 30 million unique visitors a month. Reinvent’s founder, Kevin Ham has garnered international attention and accolades for building one of the largest domain companies in the world. In 2008, Dr. Ham was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Technology for the Pacific Region.

About Reinvent Inc.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Reinvent Inc., is a global Internet company founded more than ten years ago that specializes in business incubation, direct navigation, online advertising, syndication and domain ownership. The company also recently received the AlwaysOn Global Top 250 Private Companies in 2010 distinction. For more information about Reinvent Inc., visit http://www.reinvent.com/. For more information about GoodNews.com visit http://goodnews.com. For more information on BlackFriday.com visit http://blackfriday.com.