Our esteemed colleague John Berryhill, Esq. just spotted this patent Amazon Filed on a ‘Method & Sytem For leasing & Purchasing of Domains

I don’t know if this has anything to do with Amazon’s new gTLD application but this is how Amazon is describing what many of us have been doing in the domain business for over 10 years purchasing and selling of domain names.

“Methods and systems are described that enable a domain name owner (i.e., a “lessor”) to grant a third party (i.e., a “lessee”) a lease to any domain name the lessor owns. More specifically, a lessor may use a domain name service to allow a third party (i.e., a “lessee”) to lease a domain name for use or to purchase the domain name outright. More specifically, the lessor may lease a domain name to a lessee so that any user who accesses the leased domain name is directed to a network resource identified by the lessee.”

“The lessee may also be provided the option to purchase the domain name outright from the lessor, rather than lease it. In addition, a valuation of the domain name may be generated.”

“What is claimed is:

1. A system for leasing a domain name to a third party, the system comprising: one or more computing devices programmed to: identify a domain name available for lease; obtain an offer from a first party to lease the domain name; accept the offer from the first party to lease the domain name for a period of time; assign a percentage of total requests corresponding to the domain name to the first party for the period of time, the percentage being less than 100%; cause, for the period of time, requests corresponding to the domain name to be interchangeably redirected to a network resource identified by the first party and to one or more additional network resources, wherein each of the one or more additional network resources is associated with an additional party to which the domain name has been leased, and wherein the requests are interchangeably redirected to the network resource identified by the first party in accordance with the percentage of total requests assigned to the first party; and generate a valuation of the domain name.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computing devices are further programmed to accept an offer from the first party to purchase the domain name in lieu of leasing the domain name.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more computing devices are further programmed to recommend a purchase price for the domain name based at least in part on the valuation.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or more computing devices are further programmed to: collect information corresponding to the requests to the domain for the period of time and information corresponding to requests to at least one additional domain name; compare the information corresponding to the requests to the domain for the period of time and the information corresponding to requests to the at least one additional domain name; wherein the valuation is based on a relative performance of the domain name compared to the at least one additional domain name.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computing devices are further programmed to monitor performance of the domain name.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer to lease the domain name comprises a bid for purchasing a lease to the domain name in an auction.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer to lease the domain name comprises a fixed price offer for purchasing a lease to the domain name.

8. A computer-implemented method for leasing a unique name of a network resource, the method comprising: generating a valuation of a unique name of the network resource; accepting an offer to lease the unique name of the network resource to a lessee for a specified period of time, wherein the offer corresponds to a minimum portion of requests corresponding to the unique name; receiving requests to the unique name of the network resource; and causing the requests corresponding to the unique name to be interchangeably redirected to a second network resource identified by the lessee and one or more other network resources, in response to accepting the offer to lease the unique name of the network resource, wherein less than all of the requests are redirected to the second network resource for the specified period of time; wherein the method is preformed under control of one or more configured computing devices.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the unique name of the network resource available for lease is identified in response to a submitted search request.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising accepting offers from another third party to concurrently lease the unique name of the network resource for the specified period of time.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising causing a portion of the requests corresponding to the unique domain name to be redirected to a third network resource during the specified period of time, wherein the third network resource is identified by the another third party for whom another offer has been accepted.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein a lessor of the unique name retains rights to a portion of the requests corresponding to the unique name for the specified period of time, and wherein a portion of the requests is redirected to one or more network resources identified by the lessor.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the offer to lease the unique name of the network resource comprises a bid for purchasing a lease to the unique name of the network resource in an auction.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the offer to lease the unique name of the network resource comprises a fixed price offer for purchasing a lease to the unique name of the network resource.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the offer to lease the unique name of the network resource includes at least a purchase price for a lease to the unique name of the network resource and identification information for a second network resource to which at least a portion of traffic is to be redirected.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising accepting an offer to purchase the unique name for the network resource in lieu of leasing the unique name of the network resource.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising recommending a price for purchasing the unique name of the network resource based at least in part on the valuation.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the valuation is based at least in part on performance of the unique name of the network resource.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising recommending a price for leasing the unique name of the network resource based at least in part on the valuation.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the valuation is generated based at least in part on a comparison of information associated with requests for the unique name of the network resource and one or more other unique names of network resources, wherein the unique name of the network resource and the one or more other unique names of the network resources are associated with a same category.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by one or more computing devices perform a method, the method comprising: enabling a third party to submit an offer to lease a unique name of a first network resource, wherein the lease is for a specified period of time; recommending a price for leasing the unique name of the first network resource; in response to accepting the offer, causing a portion of requests corresponding to the unique name of the first network resource, but less than all of the requests, to be redirected to a second network resource identified by the third party for the specified period of time; and during the specified period of time, randomly redirecting any single request associated with the unique name to any one of a plurality of network resources, wherein the plurality of network resources include the second network resource.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises enabling the third party to submit an offer to purchase the unique name of the first network resource in lieu of leasing the unique name of the first network resource.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises: collecting information corresponding to requests to the unique name for a period of time and information corresponding to requests to at least one or more other unique names; and determining a relative performance of the unique name compared to the one or more other unique names based on the collected information; wherein the recommended price for leasing the unique name of the first network resource based at least in part on the relative performance of the unique name compared to the one or more other unique names.

24. A system for leasing a domain name to a third party, the system comprising: a data store that stores domain names available for lease; and one or more computing devices communicatively coupled to the data store, wherein the one or more computing devices are programmed to: accept an offer to lease a domain name to an offeree for a period of time, wherein the offer specifies a portion of requests to the domain name to be interchangeably redirected to a network resource identified by the offeree; generate a valuation of the domain name; and cause requests associated with the domain name to be interchangeably redirected for the period of time to a network resource identified by the offeree and to one or more additional network resources, wherein each of the one or more additional network resources is associated with an additional party to which the domain name has been leased, and wherein the requests are interchangeably redirected to the network resource identified by the offeree in accordance with the specified portion of requests.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the one or more computing devices are further programmed to solicit offers to lease the domain name.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the valuation is based at least in part on a performance rating of the domain name, wherein the performance rating based at least in part on a comparison of information associated with requests for the domain name and one or more other domain names, and wherein the domain name of the network resource and the one or more other domain names are associated with a same category of domain names.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the valuation is increased when the performance rating satisfies a threshold.