Domain Name News: “FICORA investigating large cybersquatting case involving 886 .FI domains” plus 3 more

FICORA investigating large cybersquatting case involving 886 .FI domains
New gTLDs: A sneak peek before the ICANN gTLD Big Reveal Day
Neustar to provide registry services for up to 358 new gTLDs
Demand Media applies for 26 new generic top level domains (gTLDs)

FICORA investigating large cybersquatting case involving 886 .FI domains

Posted: 11 Jun 2012 02:17 PM PDT

The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, operator of the Finnish ccTLD domain .FI, is examining close to one thousand deliberately misspelled Finnish domain names of popular Finland based companies and internet services. A total of 886 .FI ccTLD domains are currently being closely examined. All of the domains in question were registered at a single Maltese based domain registrar but listed under a Finnish holder, according to a press release by FICORA.

FICORA has contacted both the Finnish domain name registrant and the Maltese registrar for more information. The investigation is on-going. Meanwhile, the Maltese registrar’s capabilities to process registrations of new .FI domain names has been denied until further notice.

.FI ccTLD Domains

This case is extremely unique, because you don’t often see the actual registry operator get involved in these types of situations. There must of been a tremendous amount of pressure and/or legal threats being made towards the operators of the small ccTLD, for them to take such an aggressive approach.

As of this writing, there are 295,308 .FI domain names registered, according to the official .FI registry website. There are 323 active domain registrars that are currently accredited by FICORA, in other words licensed to be able to resell direct to consumers. These domain registrars allow users from around the world to register .FI domains.

New gTLDs: A sneak peek before the ICANN gTLD Big Reveal Day

Posted: 11 Jun 2012 10:07 AM PDT

ICANN’s big reveal day is almost here. On Wednesday, we will find out exactly which companies applied for what new gTLD’s. If you haven’t been “keeping score”, here is a roundup of what we know in regards to who is applying for how many new extensions, which ones exactly, and more.

FairWinds Partners has applied for about 100 gTLDs on behalf of it’s brand clients, according to Josh Bourne, a managing partner with FairWinds. Melbourne IT also filed 146 applications for it’s brand owner clients, according to Theo Hnarakis, the managing director of Melbourne IT.

The above information was just revealed in an article on ADWEEK titled “With 1,900 TLDs being snapped up, the marketplace is bracing for either a bonanza or a bust.”

Neustar will provide registry services to 358 new gTLD’s, according to a press release. Top Level Domain Holdings submitted 92 applications in total on behalf of clients and its own account, according to the company’s website. ARI Registry Services signed contracts to provide back-end domain name registry services for 161 new Top-Level Domains (TLD), according to the company’s website.

Donuts Inc applied for 307 new gTLD’s. Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry will be going for around 50 – 100 new gTLD’s, according to rumors from industry insiders. Radix applied for 31 new gTLD’s, according to company’s website.

Verisign will be involved with 220 new gTLD’s according to a press release. AFNIC — 16 new gTLD’s, according to their website. Demand Media also just announced that they have applied for 26 new gTLD’s, according to a press release. Google officially announced that they will be pursuing new gTLD’s, 4 of them were publicly revealed, but some have speculated that the search giant is going for upwards of 50.

If you add up all of these numbers, we have well over 1,500. ICANN plans to reveal information about 1,900+ new gTLD strings and their applicants on June 13th. One of the last big players to be revealed, we speculate, may be MarkMonitor. MarkMonitor.com provides brand protection and corporate domain management services to many of the largest companies and leading brands on the internet, including Google, Facebook and Apple.

Neustar to provide registry services for up to 358 new gTLDs

Posted: 11 Jun 2012 08:01 AM PDT

Neustar Inc (NYSE: NSR) has announced that it has been selected as the registry services provider for 358 applicants for new generic Top-Level domains (gTLDs). Additionally, Neustar has been selected by the City of New York as the official registry service provider to manage the application process and operate .nyc. Neustar currently provides domain registry services to over 5.7 million domains in various gTLD’s and ccTLD’s, according to it’s website. That number will surely increase quickly once the new domain extensions start going live.

Alex Berry, senior vice president, Enterprise Services at Neustar says: "Neustar is proud to serve as the registry partner for those looking to bring innovation and choice to the Internet with new gTLDs… We're looking forward to working with many of the world's largest brands and companies applying for extensions that will intuitively enhance navigation on the Internet."

It was recently announced by the City of New York that Neustar has been selected as the registry partner to manage the application process and operate the dot NYC (.NYC) new extension. The introduction of .nyc will create a way for New York City businesses, organizations and citizens to identify themselves as being located in the City of New York, or to promote services or content serving New Yorkers, according to the press release.

Neustar’s domain name registry services operates the global registry for .us and .biz; in addition, it provides back-end registry services for .co, .tel and .travel, gateway services to country code top level domains (ccTLDs) such as .cn and .tw, internationalized domain names (IDNs), and full registry services to new top level domains. Neustar’s registry is connected to over 250 domain name registrars worldwide.

Neustar DotYou.biz

Neustar created a separate site — dotYOU, to market and educate about new gTLD’s. It looks like things worked out really well for Neustar at the end, getting them 358 contracts which will surely generate them a whole lot of money in the years to come.

Demand Media applies for 26 new generic top level domains (gTLDs)

Posted: 11 Jun 2012 06:51 AM PDT

Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) has announced that the company will be actively participating in the historic expansion of the internet, under ICANN’s new gTLD’s program. Demand Media applied for 26 new gTLD’s in categories such as e-commerce, social media and sports. DMD has also revealed that the company has entered into a strategic arrangement with Donuts Inc., through which Demand Media may acquire rights in certain gTLDs after they have been awarded to Donuts Inc. by ICANN. These rights are shared equally with Donuts and are associated with 107 gTLDs for which Donuts has already applied for.

Demand Media Domains

Richard Rosenblatt, chairman and CEO of Demand Media Inc. said: "We believe the new gTLD program represents a significant milestone in the evolution of the Internet. In addition to delivering more choice for consumers and business owners, we expect the domain name expansion to spur innovation and new business opportunities."

According to the press release, Demand Media will be pursuing a diverse portfolio of gTLD domain names intended to help bring millions of digital destinations to life. Guided by a proprietary, data-driven methodology, the company selected gTLD names in categories connected to an extremely broad range of interests and capabilities including: e-commerce, personal & professional identities, education, entertainment, internet life, sports, small business and social media.

"The gTLDs we seek naturally reflect and organize the world around us and will help consumers more seamlessly discover and connect with the people, information and organizations of importance to them" said Taryn Naidu, executive vice president of Demand Media.

Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD) is a leading content and social media company that informs and entertains one of the internet's largest audiences, helps advertisers find innovative ways to engage with their customers and enables publishers to expand their online presence. The company’s headquarters are in Santa Monica, California. Demand Media has additional offices in North America, South America and Europe.

Donuts Inc Domains

Donuts Inc. CEO, Paul Stahura, added: "As previously announced, Donuts has raised more than $100 million in funding to pursue the new gTLD opportunity. Donuts' strategic arrangement with Demand Media takes us well beyond that $100 million funding and enables both companies to utilize additional resources, expertise and talent to generate the most value and benefits for customers from this historic opportunity."

According to the press release, Demand Media and its affiliates are neither investors in Donuts Inc. and its affiliates nor are they involved in any joint venture with Donuts and its affiliates. The relationship between the two companies, DMD and Donuts, is simply a “strategic arrangement” they say.