Domain Name renewal scams are not new. For years owners of domain name registrations have received emails or faxes indicating one or more of their domain registrations are up for renewal.

The average business owner who doesn't pay much attention or may not even remember what registrar holds their domain registration may see the notice and believe it is an invoice. Unwittingly, that owner has just changed his registrar.

Domain Name Wire reports yet a new scam this one a bit more nefarious than just a scam switch to a new registrar. The link in the email takes you to DomainRenewal-online.com (which we assume will be shut down soon after the news spreads), offers to renew your domain for 1 year for a whopping $69.95 and provides a non-secure form for you to insert your private information.

If this isn't bad enough, after providing your private information in an open form, you are taken to another non-secure page with a framed credit card authorization.

Protect your domains and your private information by dealing only directly with your domain name registrar. Make sure that if you are asked to provide private information (such as name, address, email address, etc.) that the form is secure (indicated by a lock in the address bar). Never input credit card or other financial data in a non-secure form. Do not attempt to pass this information through non-encrypted email either.

If you receive a domain registration renewal notice which you are unsure about, either login to your domain registration account with your current registrar, or contact them with questions.

Stand-up comedian Keith Malley from Brooklyn, New York was ordered to turn over "TheSimpsonsMovie.com to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation on July 22, 2007 by an arbitrator from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Using the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) instituted by ICANN, the WIPO arbitrator found that Malley had no legitimate right to the domain name. Malley originally used the domain name for "off-color" and "sexually explicit" comedy depictions of Simpson TV characters.

When Fox contacted Malley about the domain, Malley offered to sell it to Fox for $50,000. At that point Fox inlisted the WIPO, alleging Malley's domain name registration was confusingly similiar to Fox's numerous US and global trademarks involving "The Simpsons" television show.

UDRP lists three elements of proof for claims that a domain name has been abusively registered:

The specified domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark held by complainant; the owner of the disputed domain name has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and the domain name registration is in bad faith.

The WIPO arbitrator found a bad faith registration, stating that Malley was well aware of Fox's trademarks, the registered domain name was confusingly similar to Fox's trademarks and Malley had no rights to use "TheSimpsons" since he did not have permission and did not have a connection to Fox.

Forbes Magazine ran a story in late June 2007 about the recent auction held by Moniker at the NY TRAFFIC conference.

Also listed in the article are the five most expensive web addresses which currently are: Beer.com $7 million, Business.com $7.5 million, Diamonds.com $7.5 million, Porn.com $9 million and Sex.com $12 million.

Forbes points out the generic keyword domain names can be quite lucrative, especially since online ads have been increasing by 30% a year. Many websites offering news and information operate on ad revenue collected.

As with real estate, location is also important on the Internet. In the case of the Internet, location is determined by an easy to remember web address, a generic term that people use to find information and a well developed website the keeps users returning.

It's important to note that very few domain names sell in the 6 or 7 figures; in fact very few sell for 5 figures. The unusual stories of domain names selling in the millions only highlights the fact that a well chosen domain name, appropriately developed, can and does bring a good return whether you sell it or use advertising to support its operations.

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.

A new service just opening up, SwapNames. Now you can not only offer domains for a sales price, but also offer simply to trade domain names with someone who has a domain registration which would work for your development plan.

PickeyDomains offers a service for those searching for just the right domain name. PickyDomains offers to find available domain names that are descriptive, concise and are easily remembered, using 17 domainers from United States, Canada, Russia, UK, Australia and New Zealand, with extensive experience in picking great domain names.

This service costs $50 but comes with a money back guarantee if a domain that suits your fancy doesn't appear.

Lexico Publishing Group, LLC and Answer Corp have agreed on the sales price for Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. When the sale is complete, Lexico will be $100 million richer. Answer will own domain properties which attracted 11.5 million unique visitors for the month of June 2007.

Over 85% of this traffic comes direct from end users or from people searching the word "dictionary" in search engines. The addition of these domain properties are expected increase Answer's traffic to over 22.5 million unique users each month and will enhance Answer's ability to reach Internet users without dependence on search engines.

"The acquisition of Lexico is a transformative event for us," explained Robert S. Rosenschein, Chairman and CEO of Answers Corporation. "We are excited about applying our experience in monetization to significantly increase Lexico's 2008 revenues and EBITDA. Lexico's suite of popular brands, steady direct traffic and loyal users are valuable assets that we believe will reduce our products' reliance on search engine-driven traffic. Post-transaction, we estimate that over 70% of our total traffic will now be direct from end users or people searching specifically for the term 'dictionary' in search engines. Our combined size and available ad inventory should provide greater exposure among online media buyers, which we expect will lead to increased advertising sales."

According to the press release the final sale is still contingent upon usual closing conditions and financing. Closing is scheduled for fall 2007.

Answers anticipates using the new domain name properties to cross-promote other Answers' sites.

Dictionary is the second most generic search term in search engines. Lexico's domain properties ranked #3 in the Education-Reference category in June 2007, Answers's ranked #4. With Answers taking over Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, Answers is expected to win the #2 ranking with Wikipedia the only one in front.

We found a dynamite article which will be interested to every domainer serious about running a good business and staying out of trouble.

The 10 US legal issues covered by this article are:

Domain Name Sniffing
Trademark Issues
What Entity Should I Use
What State to Legally Form Your Company
Piercing the Corporate Veil
Business or Hobby?
Donating Domain Names
Employers vs. Independent Contractors
Inaccurate Registration Information
Depreciating vs. Deducting Domain Names

The author simply states the current law on each of these issues and then discusses possible pitfalls. While the author is not offering legal advice (only an attorney you hire can do this and only after understanding the details of your specific situation and the State laws that may be involved), he certainly provides some good "heads up" advice about issues to consider.

The Domain Roundtable Conference will be held August 12-15, 2007 at the Seattle Sheraton. Registrations are already available. The Agenda is being flushed out right now.

A recent announcement states SEO Book author and Search Engine Guru, Aaron Wall will be a speaker at the conference.

This looks to be a good match since Wall will be teaching the secrets to organic rankings. Domainers will have yet another opportunity to learn more about developing domains and sustaining good search engine rankings.

The Domain Roundtable Conference plans an interactive auction which will combine both online and off-line participation on the last day (August 15th) of the conference. The auction is currently accepting domain names for the auction. However, don't submit just any ole domain name, since only the top 450 domains (according to ranking done by Domain Tools)will be accepted for auction. Most of the domains accepted will be dotcoms, with few exceptions, and all domains submitted must be worth at least $1,000, at least 3 years old, and no more than three words. Reserve prices will be one of the ranking factors, so if you are in doubt whether your domain will make the cutoff, keep the reserve price low. One and two word domains will receive higher rankings than three word domains.

Commission for domain names that sell will be only 10 percent (quite a reasonable price), which is to be paid by the seller. The buyer only pays their bid price. In fact, any seller who sells at least $50,000 worth of domains will get their conference price reimbursed!

One of the big domains up for auction at Domain Roundtable will be eTV.com. The reserve price is $899,000 but some claim the value to be at least $2M. Only 20 of the domains auctioned will have a reserve price greater than $100,000

In addition, Enom is offering new eNom reseller accounts along with $100 in Credit to the first 100 registrants to the conference.

In April and May 2007 we wrote about the financial troubles of former registrar RegisterFly. We detailed some of the woes those who had registered domains with RegisterFly, paid for renewals which didn't take place and registration owners who attempted to transfer their domains only to find them locked. Requests to unlock domains went unanswered for months and months and months. Some lost their domains through the slow procedure to remove RegisterFly as a registrar.

Now comes a rumor that another registrar is having financial troubles. Naming the registrar seems to ensure future financial troubles since many holding domain name registrations with the registrar are sure to flee just in case the rumors are true.

Yet not naming the registrar and warning their customers means that if the rumor is true, these holders of domain name registrations may lose them.

There's a grave danger in giving too much credence to rumors since competitors can start rumors to get rid of their competition.

So for now we have decided not to mention the Registrar. We cannot find any legitimate news source that confirms the rumor. The rumor appears to have grown from a discussion thread and no resources for verification were provided.

Best Practices for Corporate Domain Name Management is an excellent article for any domainer and any business interested in protecting their intellectual property.

Writer Todd Mintz gives an example of just how little attention some businesses pay to their intellectual property which in the end may cost them a pretty penny. An Indian company announcing a new product in a press release had failed to first secure the .com domain name registration. "Dave the Red Frog" from France acquired the domain name registration after reading their press release.

So it stands to reason: when bringing a new product to market, secure the .com domain name registration before making any announcements.

Next, look into common misspellings or typos of the .com which can be parked to redirect traffic to the correctly spelled domain. If you don't, someone else will!

Mintz also suggests registering generic domain names. As an example, if you bring a slimming drug to the market you might look for generic variants such as SlimDrug.com, SlimmingDrug.com, BeSlim.com, SlimPill.com. Since this is an example, all these generic domain names probably are already registered but it gives you an idea of the creative process to use.

A very important tip is to keep hold of your own domain name registrations, making sure they are registered in the appropriate name of the business and ensuring that you use a domain registry that offers a secure account. Most registrars offer automatic renewal if you provide a non-expiring credit card. You should also ensure that if you change your contact information, you update your domain name registry account. White list the email addresses of your domain name registrar if you use spam filters.

Too many businesses lack web savvy and tend to allow their website designers or web hosts handle their domain name registrations. Both of these industries either for convenience or because they are unscrupulous may register the domain name in their own name. Even a less than scrupulous employee may register the domain in their own name and when feeling under appreciated, decide to hold it for ransom. When the domain name increases in value there may be a dispute over the actual owner of the domain name registration.

Avoid these pitfalls by simply paying attention to your intellectual property rights and using these tips to ensure protection.