BusinessWeek just published a story on domain names, entitled “The Domain Name Business”
Nothing revolutionary here but always good to see domains discussed in a positive light as an investment vehicle by the mainstream media, and it doesn’t get much more mainstream than BusinessWeek.
Congrats to Jeremiah Johnston CEO of Sedo.com for again being widely quoted and actually serving as the sole interview for the article.
I’m not keeping count but this makes several articles I’ve read in recent weeks where Jeremiah has been the star including here and here
Mike–here’s a “decent” article on domains as well:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090701/good-domain-names-grow-scarce.html
The article was informative and aimed to discuss domaining without bias. I wrote Karen Klein to express my appreciation for her coverage. We need more people like this gaining an education on our industry and publishing similar articles via the BusinessWeek platform. Quite glad you found this MHB. Thank you.
great article, but she got one part wrong
“During the early years of the Internet, there was furious competition for Web site domain names, accompanied by lawsuits and huge sums paid for well-known names. ”
Today, there competition is like never before for prime domains, lawsuits are growing exponentially, and huge sums are still being paid for domains. With one exeptions, most 7 figure domain sales are going unreported.
we know of at least 6 domains in the 7 figure range that have gone unreported over the past year.
@fx,
Actually, that part is exactly right. What she means by “well known domains” is trademark brand names. Yes, before the UDRP and ACPA trademark brand domain names were sold “back” to the TM owners for large sums.
Interesting that BusinessWeek and Inc are using the terms domainers now. This comes from Sedo PR push.
There is a rash of recent publicity due to a report Sedo published and a really good PR person who is getting lots of ink on Sedo CEO’s behalf. Good for whole industry:
http://www.sedo.com/presse/index.php?tracked=&partnerid=&language=us
Last time we had such a push was way back in 2006 when iReit invested in PR with a great publicist whom I know
http://ireit.com/articles.php
These articles don’t happen on their own. I wish there was an advocacy group that had funds to work this on our behalf. Legislation is only a small part of what’s needed from groups like ICA.
Owen
I agree with you and know that you know, but want to put on record that Sedo is a very strong supporter of the ICA
“Actually, that part is exactly right. What she means by “well known domains” is trademark brand names. Yes, before the UDRP and ACPA trademark brand domain names were sold “back” to the TM owners for large sums.”
Not really. Pre 97-98 names like tv.com were selling for $15,000. There were no “large sums” sales back then. I am sure some strong trademarks were sold back to trademark owners at that time, but prices would have a been a few thousand or maybe a few tens of thousands.
Prices are several magnitudes higher now and competition for best domains are magnitudes higher also. Lawsuits are way up also.
“Actually, that part is exactly right. What she means by “well known domains” is trademark brand names. Yes, before the UDRP and ACPA trademark brand domain names were sold “back” to the TM owners for large sums.”
Not really. Pre 97-98 names like tv.com were selling for $15,000. There were no “large sums” sales back then. I am sure some strong trademarks were sold back to trademark owners at that time, but prices would have a been a few thousand or maybe a few tens of thousands.
Prices are several magnitudes higher now and competition for best domains are magnitudes higher also. Lawsuits are way up also.
OH! You’re my new favorite blogger fyi
The ACPA wasn’t passed until 1999.
Prior to that date the law regarding trademarks was quite uncertain.
Yes today we know what is and isn’t permissibly but back then, neither domainers nor trademark holders knew exactly where the line was drawn and what the rules are.
So I’m it would not surprise me to find that back in the day, prior the well establish law, trademark holders paid to get their domains
Sedo and Oversee – both Platinum Level/Board members of ICA — are assisting ICA with PR help. It would be great if we had a dedicated budget for that purpose, especially to educate DC before we’re in a big fight there, but we don’t have those resources as of yet. Still, articles like this one by BW make my job a whole lot easier because it’s a relatively respected 3rd party source changing the perception of the industry.
And there’s a lot that can be done without dedicated PR. For example, I know Saul Hansell from previous tech issues I was involved in and I reached out and encouraged him to attend Monday’s ICANN “consultation” in NYC, which resulted in three pretty balanced Bots Blog pieces by him that made a broader public aware of what was going on. He even showed up at an 8 am breakfast sponsored by ICA and Enom to hear the side of those concerned with various parts of the IRT report, so we were able to make our case.