Author name: fairwindsp

Josh Bourne ⬥ 9 February I’ve been asked several times about Paul Stahura’s blog post in CircleID. Long story short, Paul Stahura of Demand Media claims his analysis proves that “there is no economic incentive for an applicant to obtain a TLD for the sole purpose of making money from defensive trademark registrations.” This reads […]

Josh Bourne ⬥ 23 January According to the World Bank’s 2007 report, the top-ten world GDP rankings (in millions of dollars) are as follows. Note that I have put the extension most associated with the country alongside its GDP: 1 – United States: 13,811,200 (.COM*) 2 – Japan: 4,376,705 (.JP) 3 – Germany: 3,297,233 (.DE)

Josh Bourne ⬥ 16 January In the domain name space, the rules coming out of ICANN are being set by a few constituencies at the expense of all online users. There is a perception that ICANN sets policies democratically and, to an extent, they do—ICANN’s constituencies often heavily impact policy. However, the kingdom of ICANN

Josh Bourne ⬥ 10 January iA little-known wave of massive-scale online infringement called affiliate fraud is gathering steam on the Internet. Affiliate fraud earns cybersquatters 50-100 times the fee per action of pay-per-click (PPC) sites and targets brand owners–all undetected. Some brands offer affiliate programs, which allow Web site owners to post links and banners

Josh Bourne ⬥ 31 December Bloomberg News recently reported that Verizon won $33.2 million in a lawsuit against OnlineNIC, an Internet services company, that it claimed had registered hundreds of domain names with Verizon trademarks. Evidently, Verizon’s brands weren’t the only ones targeted. Nearly a million cybersquatted domains were identified, and they included many of

Josh Bourne ⬥ 23 December I recently received an email from the comScore mailing list that was penned to explain the “right measures of advertising effectiveness.” According to the email, the value of ad placement should be measured by the views it garners, not just the clicks; after all, the fact that an Internet user

FairWinds Partners ⬥ 19 December This past Monday wrapped up the first comment period on one of the major domain policy decisions of 2008- the potential launch of an unlimited number of TLDs and its process as outlined by the Draft Applicant Guidebook. FairWinds posted its comments on the Guidebook, and hopes that ICANN will

Liz Sweezey ⬥ 7 December I don’t know if any of you in the US have seen the infomercial on TV for Snuggies—“the blanket with sleeves!”—but it’s a pretty entertaining video that features some great marketing gems: “Blankets are OK but they can slip and slide, plus your hands are trapped inside.” Infomercials have a

Josh Bourne ⬥ 3 December Nominet Woes Reflect Common Internet Governance Troubles Here’s a question for readers- is the current quasi-governmental “public interest” model of Internet governing bodies working for the domain space? Let’s take Nominet as an example. Although Nominet—the nonprofit company in the United Kingdom that owns and operates the country code Top

Josh Bourne ⬥ 26 November From conversations surrounding this new TLD launch, it appears that some people do not understand the total investment required to become a new registry. Brands cannot just pay the application fee for a branded or generic TLD and get operational privileges for it- actually using a TLD for Web sites,

Josh Bourne ⬥ 16 November Another bit of information being spread through word of mouth around Boca is that many brand owners are seriously considering not participating in defensive sunrise registrations in the anticipated new TLD rollout. It may be that these brand owners are making decisions based on consumer behavior and past TLD launches-

Josh Bourne ⬥ 14 November I’m currently at the INTA Leadership Meeting in Florida and as promised, the event is proving to be an excellent opportunity to exchange thoughts and discuss issues with industry leaders. I’ll just take a moment here to share some of the information that has come my way. As some of