If you have received a UDRP domain name dispute complaint from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) either by mail or by email, you should respond to it as soon as possible. Otherwise, you may lose your domain name.

The acronym UDRP stands for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Procedure. It is a procedure that has been established by ICANN, the governing body of the Internet to handle domain name disputes in an expeditious manner through arbitration. The legal proceedings are commenced in an attempt to take away a domain name from the person who has registered the name. In other words, the person who has filed the complaint is claiming that they should have the domain name because they think that you are a "cybersquatter" or because they think that they have more rights to the domain name than you.

As described in the information that you receive from the arbitration organization (NAF), they require that a response be sent to them within 20 days of the commencement date. If a response is not sent, the arbitration organization can decide to transfer the domain name away from you. You may have additional legal and financial risk beyond the arbitration proceeding. There are several laws that the complainant can utilize in order to attempt to obtain a money judgment and monetary damages from you. Accordingly, it is important that this matter be handled well.

After a response to the UDRP complaint is submitted, the dispute is assigned to an arbitrator to make a decision about whether the complainant can take away your domain name. Second submissions can also be filed in order to bolster the arguments of either party to the domain name dispute. If the judge makes a decision that your domain name should be transferred to the complainant, the transfer is made to the complainant within a few days. The only way to overturn the decision of the arbitrator is to initiate a lawsuit. Consequently, it is important that you submit a strong defense to the arbitrator in response to the complaint.

On the website of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), http://WIPO.INT there are descriptions of the procedures that can be followed in order to respond to the complaint. They are somewhat complex. There are also a number of considerations and factors that most people are not aware of. Consequently, it is often advisable to consult with DomainNameLawyers.com a domain name law firm that is experienced with these matters. Experienced law firms can provide all of the legal services necessary to protect your domain name for a fixed fee.

Sedo has just announced the sale of Travel.info for $116,000. This is the highest price paid for the .info TDL so far. Of course Travel.info makes good sense for a web site that will contain travel information. It would be easy for users wanting traveling information to remember.

Previous sales of .info domain name registrations include: newspaper.info for ¬13,550 (approximately $18,500), booking.info for $11,500 and names.info for ¬8,100 (approximately $10,500).

Sounds like the .info TLD has found its niche for those wanting to provide information about a generic term.

Domain Name News points out that where you park your domain name registrations might just mean trouble.

Frank Michlick, the author of the original article points out that some companies are using domain registrations that don't properly resolve to domain name servers. This can happen either out of an error by the registrant who improperly denotes the name servers of their intended host; or it can happen when a domain name registration is not renewed and the registrar company switches the name servers to their own.

You can see how many domain names registrars have pointed at their own domain name servers at IP Walk. Some of these domains are registered and actually hosted with the registrar, others are parked at the registrar and still others are actually owned by the registrar.

Someone commenting on the original article uses the domain name Ajax.us as an example, pointing out that he registered the domain name in interest of the relatively new Ajax web technology. However, should he choose a domain name registration company that offers to park domains for free and then uses those parked domains to show Yahoo or Google ads, that might just mean trouble for him.

Ajax is also a trademarked name for a household cleanser. Should the parked domain start showing ads for household cleaners, will the registratant be accused of cybersquatting?

The .ASIA domain name extension joins other regional extensions such as .EU and .CAT starting October 9, 2007 when registrations for this extension open to governments and Trademark registrations applied for prior or March 1, 2004. These older trademark registrations end October 31, 2007. Registrations for newer trademarks and for company names begin Nov. 13, 2007. General registrations are expected to begin in 2008 but reportedly will be limited to those within the Asia-Pacific region which includes Australia, Vietnam, China, Japan and South Korea.

In attempt to give everyone wanting an .asia domain name, opening registrations will not be on a "first-come, first-served" basis. This prevents those with automated programs from jumping ahead and registering the best domain names first. Rather, all applications received in a round will be treated equally with an auction required for multiple requests for the same domain name. DotAsia Organization Ltd. will be handling registrations for this regional extension. More

The Sidney Morning Herald runs a June 5, 2007 story Masters of their Domains.

Dan Warner, chief strategy officer at Brisbane-based Dark Blue Sea Limited which holds the world's second-largest portfolio (over 550,000) of domain names is highlighted in the story. Warner estimates the number of companies holding more than 10,000 domain name registrations has risen in the last two years from 18 or 19 to approximately 50.

VeriSign estimates that there were 120,000 top level domain registrations last year, an increase of 32 percent from 2005 to 2006. A catalyst to this frenzied purchasing of domain name registrations is sophisticated technology that helps domainers find the best expiring domain names as they become available.

Because many speculators believe the currently domain name market is undervalued, they tend to buy and hold instead of recycling domain name registrations.

So what happens to all these domain names? VeriSign estimates that 23 percent of all .com and .net domains, approximately 15 million sites, consist of merely one parked page. These parked pages serve up sponsored links from search engines such as Google which is related to the domain name.Every time a user clicks on one of those sponsored links, the owner of the page makes money. A little money per click adds up to big money when multiplied by the number of pages using this technique.

Users of this technique rely on "natural search" or direct navigation where a user types in words and adds a .com, assuming they will retrieve content related to their interest. Just as Flowers.com results in a seller of flowers, BigBearLake.com is assumed to retrieve information about Big Bear Lake. If the result ends in nothing but advertiser links, users' typical reaction is to click on the most promising.

Warner created a market intelligence engine which finds domain name opportunities based on factors such as the frequency of a search phrase in search engines, and bids by search engine advertisers for those terms. "What we do is much closer to linguistics than it is to some sort of marketing activity," says Warner.

In 2006, sponsored links added up to $800 million in payoffs. An analyst for RBC Capital Markets thinks advertisers links may added up to 1.1 billion in 2007.

Many new businesses creating an Internet presence wonder how best to choose a domain name. The first rules of thumb include branding considerations which require that the name be memorable, something people can pronounce and something that reminds users of your product and its attributes. The next consideration should be one or more words easily spelled that dont intrude on someone elses trademark.

Because so many top level domain names have already been snapped up, creativity is important unless you are willing to pay large sums for existing top level domain names. If you simply can't find a good domain name through an accredited registrar that's currently available, you might look at the expiring domain name market. Acquiring an expiring domain name is what this article is about.

The Players

The main players in acquiring expiring domain names are currently: Enom's Drop Club; Snap Names and Canadian company Pool

Tread lightly and carefully when choosing a service that specializes in expiring domain names. Some are reputable and some are not.

How to Acquire an Expiring Domain

Domains that expire don't actually get thrown back into the big pot of domains available on expiration date. Rather there is first a "grace period" of 40 days. During this grace period, the domain usually will not result in resolving to a web site and may show up in databases as expired, but the domain name can only be renewed by the current owner of the domain name registration.

Next comes a "redemption period". This redemption period is usually about 30 days long. During the redemption period the current owner of the registration can renew the domain but must also pay a redemption fee of approximately $100.

After the redemption period is over, the domain enters a "deletion period" of five days. At this point the domain name's status is "locked". Between 11am and 2pm Pacific time on the 5th day of the deletion period, the domain name will be deleted from the ICANN database.

The Drop

"The drop" is described as that 3 hour period between 11am and 2pm Pacific time on the 5th day of the deletion period. This is the time when major players in the expiring domain name business go to work with various types of technical systems. And dont kid yourself, this is very serious business as you can learn by reading DNJournal's article Inside a Drop Catchers War Room

An important point to understand is that it is possible for a registrar to simply "repossess" a domain name prior to the drop. If a registrar realizes they have a valuable commodity they may never allow the domain name to go through The Drop phase, or shorten the redemption period. Some registrars have amended their registration agreements to supposedly allow them grab up valuable expiring domain names by calling it a "repossession".

ICANN rules currently specify that domain names go through the three expiration phases (a total of 75 days) and so there's some question as to whether registrars are legally within their registrar agreements with ICANN when they capture expiring domain names without putting the names through the process. However, at this date, ICANN has done nothing to stop the practice.

The Major Players

The major players in acquiring expiring domain names are currently: Enoms Drop Club; Snap Names and Canadian companyPool

Each of the "the players" charge fees (currently Pool and SnapNames charge $60, Enom charges $30)for attempting to snag the expiring domain name. If more than one person signs up to acquire the expiring domain name, each service has its own rules as to how it handles the competition.

Pool won't even tell you if you really have any competition! Instead, if Pool is the first to snag the expiring domain, you are then given 3 days to place a sealed bid for the domain name (not knowing if you are the only bidder or there is competition). Even after winning that round, there is yet another auction round.

SnapNames has an exclusive contract with Network Solutions (who controls expiring domain names that were registered with Network Solutions during the expiration period). Therefore, SnapNames gets first choice on acquiring these expiring domain names through Network Solutions. With SnapNames, you are told if you are the only bidder and therefore only have to pay SnapNames fee (currently $60) for grabbing the domain name. If there are more interested parties, the parties compete in an auction similar to the final phase auction at Pool.com.

Bottom line is that capturing a good expiring domain name can be far less expensive than acquiring an active domain name. However, there is no guarantee that you will be the only person interested in acquiring the domain name or that you will win the eventual auction if there is competition.

Burlington Coat Factory purchased http://www.BCF.com for a cool $71.2k according to The Conceptualist

Three letter .com domains are a rarity and often worth the price to large multi-million dollar corporations with long names. BCF.com is must easier for customers to not only remember, but spell correctly.

We recentlywrote about the troubled Registerfly domain name registrar.

On Friday, ICANN announced the preliminary injunction issued by a Federal Court on April 26, 2007 which now gives ICANN the right to terminate RegisterFly's accreditation as soon as possible. The Court noted RegisterFly's failure to comply with its April 16, 2007 TRO (temporary restraining order).

RegisterFly was ordered under the April 16, 2007 TRO to turn over all registrant data to ICANN. ICANN contends RegisterFly failed to do so, stating that what data they did receive was incomplete and outdated.

Customers of Registerfly have been caught in the cross fire between founders Kevin Medina and John Naruszewicz. Amidst allegations of fraud and mismanagement, the company's servers were allegedly hacked and an attempt was made to move registrant data to new servers.

Customers found their domain accounts locked and were unable to move or renew their domains. Some customers contended they paid for domain renewals that didn't take place. A class action suit is said to be in the works, with many customers claiming they lost valuable domain names due to being unable to act upon the expiring registrations.

ICANN is requesting Registrars interested and financially able to become the new registrar for the approximate 700,000 domain name registrations, apply to ICANN using the outlined procedures.

In early April, 2007 we learned that the prices charged to domain registrars would be going up for top level suffixes, .com and .net managed by VeriSign.

The annual levy for ".com" will increase 7 percent to $6.42, and the ".net" fee will go up 10 percent to $3.85.

Today we learn that NeuStar Inc. who controls the top level suffix .biz will also implement a rate hike to registrars in October 2007.

VeriSign gave their reasoning for the hike, saying that their servers now receive approximately 30 billion requests a day, up for 1 billion several years back. In addition, VeriSign cites the need to additional security.

The good news is that owners of registrations can renew their registrations before the rate hikes in October 2007 and still receive the old pricing. After the rate hikes go into effect for registrars, rates to consumers will probably increase by the same percentage.

A recent flub by The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reminds us of the importance of keeping track of domain name registrations.

EPIC filed a legal challenge to the purchase of DoubleClick by Google, Inc. on April 20, 2007. The following day, the EPIC.org web site was dark, showing only a default page put up by many hosts with advertisement.

The first thought was of foul play. Perhaps EPIC.org had been hacked. Or perhaps Google did something in reprisal of the filing!

Nothing so nefarious happened. Instead, EPIC simply allowed their domain name registration lapse. Checking the Whois Database, EPIC discovered their domain name registration simply lapsed on April 19, 2007. Details of the story can be found at ComputerWorld.