Author name: fairwindsp

Phil Lodico ⬥ 21 May ICANN claims that the roll out of new TLDs is designed to encourage healthy competition in the domain name space, but the organization has repeatedly failed to provide evidence that substantiates these claims. Furthermore, ICANN has not put forth any evidence to suggest that the new TLDs will be even […]

Josh Bourne ⬥ 14 May It seems like everyone is feeling the economic crunch to some degree. The New York Times reports that even though there are encouraging signs in the economy, the latest disappointment in retail sales signal that people remain cautious. In down markets, individuals and companies alike look for new opportunities to

Josh Bourne ⬥ 29 April Southern Company (Southern), a Fortune 500 company that provides energy related services in the South, filed for an injunction against Dauben, Inc, a corporation that owns over 600,000 domain names, to suspend its use of the domains sotherncompany.com and southerncopany.com. Southern, which is a Fortune 500 gas & electric utility,

Phil Lodico ⬥ 27 April We’ve talked a lot about the governance issues in ICANN, but it’s trickier to discuss ways to go about fixing these issues. For example, if one of the problems is that there’s no accountability in the current system, how do we go about creating oversight? Should that oversight come from

Josh Bourne ⬥ 17 April From conversations that I’ve had, the following description of the ICANN supply chain tends to set off some light bulbs and pique interest:   If you look at this chain and then remember that the GNSO (a major policy development entity in ICANN) was recently restructured to favor the wholesalers

Josh Bourne ⬥ 9 April As I was riding in a taxi in London, I noticed this ad for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile: The tagline of the campaign is “Just because you have a desk doesn’t mean you have to sit at it” and the domain name on the ad is “StartDoingMore.co.uk”. The program is using

Phil Lodico ⬥ 7 April If you read the FairWinds Weekly News Brief, you’ve likely noticed that companies such as Facebook and SecondLife are often in the news in our Web 2.0 section.  The trick is determining whether these new platforms will continue to gain steam and pinpointing how they can be used in a

Phil Lodico ⬥ 31 March The Technology Policy Institute (TPI), a Washington-based think tank that is focused on “the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation in the United States and around the world,” recently released a study on ICANN titled “ICANN at a Crossroads: A Proposal for Better Governance and Performance.” The study

Phil Lodico ⬥ 19 March The issue of new TLDs is not only limited to conversation within the domain industry or among brand owners; the questions, considerations and problems that insiders have been discussing for months has blown up into a massive discussion that includes major communities and popular public figures. Many of you have

Josh Bourne ⬥ 6 March I’m spending the remainder of my trip to Switzerland visiting some old and new friends with my colleague Katie Richards, who recently joined FairWinds full-time to head our operations in Europe. One of our last stops was in Geneva, where we got a great view of the impressive Jet d’Eau

Josh Bourne ⬥ 5 March Last time I was in Switzerland was in October, and now business brings me back to the country right in time for Basel’s Fasnacht carnival. The carnival, which starts on the Monday after Ash Wednesday (at 4:00am!) and lasts for three days, is quite a sight: Participants wear masks and

Josh Bourne ⬥ 23 February WIPO recently published a valuation method document written by Kelvin King, founding partner of Valuation consulting, which states, “the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and intangible assets in business is insufficiently understood.” Domain names are not trademarks, but they are among those misunderstood, intangible assets that few people know