Domain name sales totalled $84,431,965 through Sedo in 2011, the company's 2011 Annual Domain Market Study that includes a review of the fourth quarter. However this was a significant drop on the 2010 calendar year when there was $101,438,953 in sales, a drop of $17,006,988. However it should also be noted that the $13 million sale of sex.com was included in 2010 figures.

Reflecting the drop in sales value, the total number of domain names sold also dropped to 39,951 from 43,499 in 2010. The declines could at least in part reflect the ongoing global financial crisis.

As expected, .COM domain names dominate the sales for the year, accounting for 44 per cent of all sales, while .DE came next accounting for 18 per cent. Third with six per cent of sales was co.uk then .NET (5%) and .EU (4%).

When looking at statistics provided by Verisign and HosterStats, the sales for .COM domains were also in proportion to their global share of registrations, with .COM accounting for around 44 per cent of all registrations using figures for the end of the third quarter in 2011. However .DE accounted for around 6.5 per cent of registrations.

Sedo also reports .CO and .ME entering the top ten sold top TLDs for the very first time, which they believe supports the case for new gTLDs and their potential for success. While these newer extensions increased in value, the traditionally strong .COM also increased, demonstrating that while there is promise for newcomers, .COM domains will retain their value.

Interestingly, the country with the most buyers of domain names through Sedo was Germany with 27 per cent of all buyers, followed by the United States (24%) and the United Kingdom (11%). Sedo's German origins would have an impact here, but nonetheless it is still surprising as Sedo has a significant presence in the US.

The report also shows the most common sales types are marketplace negotiations (offer/counter-offer), which accounted for 40 per cent of all sales for the year, while Buy Now sales accounted for 30 per cent of sales, up from 25 per cent in 2010. Sedo notes a strong growth in Buy Now sales can be traced to the growth of the promotion of the SedoMLS Promotion Network. And Buy Now could become the dominant form of domain purchase soon as in the fourth quarter this type of sale accounted for close to 40 per cent of all sales.

The continued increase in Buy Now sales, as well as growth in median prices for sales made over the SedoMLS Network, reveal a shift in end user behaviour. More buyers are interested in fast domain purchases, as well as the ability to purchase premium domain names from a recognisable environment, such as their preferred registrar.

"This year we saw domain buyers increasingly turn to sources like registrars to purchase their domains, so we're excited to be playing a key role in providing these buyers with the greatest choice of domains names," said Liesbeth Mack-de Boer, Chief Sales Officer at Sedo. "SedoMLS places sellers' domains in front of millions of potential new buyers, and our goal for 2012 is to make buying a domain as easy as registering one for the first time."

Almost half (47%) of all sales were sold in the price range up to $500, while 38 per cent of sales were in the $500 to $2,500 category. While the $2,500 to $5,000 category was next (8%), the proportion of sales in the $50,000 and up category accounted for four cent of sales, edging out the remaining two categories combined.

Length of a domain name is also an important characteristic, and it was domains with eight characters that were the most popular with 3,500 sales, including Sedo's biggest sale of 2011, gambling.com. There were over 3,500 domain names sold for domains with over nine and ten characters as well.

Average prices for various TLDs were mixed. The average price for .COM dropped, largely due to the record breaking sex.com sale, from $3185 in 2010 to $2775 in 2011. However .NET sales were stable, .ORG dropped dramatically from $2217 to $1289 and .INFO increased from $795 to $990.

Among the top six ccTLDs there was again no consistency with average prices of .DE domains increasing slightly from 2010 to 2011 ($1514 to $1530), while .AT domains increased from $1000 to $1177. But .FR more than halved in the average sale value from $6768 to $2386 while co.uk also dropped significantly ($2008 to $1273). Sales of .EU domains increased from $706 per domain to $1169.

Median sales of domains showed more consistency, as .COM showed a steady increase, with the median price of domains increasing from $550 to $650. There were decreases in the median value of .NET ($590 to $555) and .ORG ($591 to $510), while there were increases for .BIZ ($407 to $424) and .INFO ($416 to $418).

Among the abovementioned ccTLDs, the median prices increased for all with the exception of .DE. The .FR domains continued to have the highest median price of all reported TLDs as it has done for the last three years, with an average of $1075 per domain.

To download the full Sedo 2011 Annual Domain Market Study, see:
sedo.com/fileadmin/documents/pressdownload/Q4_2011_DomainMarketStudy_US.pdf

For ICANN’s New gTLD Program, a range of “Rights Protection Mechanisms” (RPMs) has been established. Prior to any new gTLDs being approved and becoming operational, these new gTLD RPMs include pre-delegation objection procedures described in more detail on the Center’s dedicated portal: Legal Rights Objections under ICANN’s New gTLD Program – Filing a Legal Rights Objection at WIPO: What You Need To Know.

In addition, ICANN has established a range of mechanisms available for use once a new gTLD has been approved and becomes operational, including a Trademark Clearinghouse (for use with Sunrise periods and Trademark Claims services), a Uniform Rapid Suspension system (URS), and a Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP). The existing Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) will also apply to all new gTLDs. A WIPO summary of each such RPM follows; policy background is available in the overview of WIPO Observations on New gTLD Dispute Resolution Mechanisms.

Trademark Clearinghouse

The Trademark Clearinghouse is a centralized database of verified data on registered (or court-validated, or treaty-protected) trademarks. The Clearinghouse is intended to minimize burdens on bona fide trademark owners by allowing them to deposit, for a (yet-to-be-determined) fee, their trademark data with one centralized source, rather than with each new gTLD registry; new gTLD registries will be able to retrieve such centralized data from the Clearinghouse.

The Clearinghouse is not itself an RPM, but rather facilitates use of RPMs such as Sunrise registration periods (during which trademark owners can purchase domain names before the general public, usually for a premium fee), Trademark Claims services (notice to a prospective domain name registrant of a potential conflict between the domain name and an existing trademark, with a notice to the trademark owner if the domain name is registered following the registrant’s representation of non infringement), and URS proceedings (described below).

It is important to note that, as adopted by ICANN, Sunrise periods (available for at least 30 days) and Claims services (available only for 60 days) are limited to exact matches of a domain name to a word mark, i.e., these services will not cover typos or "mark + term" scenarios.

URS

The URS is intended to be a lighter, quicker complement to the existing UDRP. Like the UDRP, it is intended for clear-cut cases of trademark abuse. Under the URS, the only remedy which a panel may grant is the temporary suspension of a domain name for the duration of the registration period (which may be extended by the prevailing complainant for one year, at commercial rates). Initial URS timelines, at least from filing to a determination, are similar to those of the UDRP; also, the URS substantive criteria mirror those of the UDRP (but with additional registrant defenses).

It is important to note that, as adopted by ICANN, once a determination is rendered, a losing registrant has several appeal possibilities (from 30 days up to one year); trademark owners may consider this in deciding whether to use the URS or the UDRP, which provides a transfer, and thus does not carry a monitoring burden with it. (Either party may file a de novo appeal (for a fee) within 14 days.) There are also penalties for filing “abusive complaints” which may result in a ban on future URS filings.

PDDRP

The PDDRP is an administrative (court alternative) option for trademark owners to file an objection against a registry whose “affirmative conduct” in its operation or use of its gTLD is alleged to cause or materially contribute to trademark abuse. In this way, the PDDRP is intended to act as a higher-level enforcement tool to assist ICANN compliance activities, where rights holders may not be able to continue to turn solely to lower-level multijurisdictional enforcement options in a vastly expanded DNS.

It is important to note that, as adopted by ICANN, the PDDRP involves a number of procedural layers, such as an administrative compliance review, appointment of a “threshold review panel,” an expert determination as to liability under the procedure (with implementation of any remedies at ICANN’s discretion), a possible de novo appeal (under the same process), and further appeal to arbitration under ICANN’s registry terms. Beyond this, any PDDRP remedy specifically excludes third-party-registered second-level infringing names (which may have been the basis for filing the PDDRP case), and requires specific bad-faith conduct including profit from encouraging infringement in addition to “the typical registration fee.” Also, attorney fees are available against complainants only.

UDRP

The UDRP is an out-of-court dispute resolution mechanism for trademark owners to resolve clear cases of bad-faith, abusive registration and use of domain names. The UDRP applies (by contract) to all domain name registrations in ICANN-approved gTLDs (e.g., .com, .net, .org). The UDRP or a variant also applies to a number of ccTLDs (more information). Standing to file a UDRP complaint is limited to trademark owners, who must demonstrate their rights. To prevail in a UDRP complaint, the complainant must further demonstrate that the domain name registrant has no rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name, and that the disputed domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith. In the event of a successful claim, the infringing domain name registration is transferred to the complainant’s control.

More detailed UDRP background information is available in the WIPO Center’s publication: The UDRP and WIPO – INTA Conference Paper 2011, and on the Center’s UDRP resources page.

Complementing the WIPO UDRP Search Facility are a Legal Index of WIPO UDRP Panel Decisions and a globally used jurisprudential overview of UDRP cases available in the Center’s WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, Second Edition ("WIPO Overview 2.0").

This WIPO announcement was sourced from:
wipo.int/amc/en/domains/rpm/

Sedo and the .ME Registry partnered to hold an exclusive auction of premium .ME domains.The auction on Sedo.com doesn't end until Thursday,but already 50% of the domain names have bids . 100 of 178 .me domain names have bids at the time of writing.

The top bid so far is for NewYork.me at $3,400.Venture.me isn't far behind at $2,550.

The auction include a wide range of premium .ME domain names,such as :

Hotel.Me
Singles.Me
Boats.Me
Yoga.Me
Creditcard.Me
Gift.Me
Movies.Me
Webhosting.Me
Friends.Me

This isn't the first time Sedo and the .ME Registry partnered to sale .ME domains.Sedo has brokered the sale of more than 1,000 .ME     domains,totaling about $2 million.Premier .ME domain names brokered by Sedo so far,include Business.me,sold for $40,000 and Join.me,sold for $45,000 .

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat
(gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details.

Whether you plan to participate in the upcoming ICANN meeting in Costa Rica remotely or in person, you're invited to a quick reminder of the background and current status of each major policy issue currently under discussion in ICANN.

The ICANN Policy Staff will provide a briefing on Thursday 1 March at 13.00 UTC and Thursday

1 March at 20.00 UTC, summarizing policy issues across the different ICANN Supporting Organizations, namely the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and Address Supporting Organization (ASO). Amongst other topics, updates will be provided on:

• Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy
• RAA Improvements
• Consumer Choice, Competition and Innovation
• Study Group on Use of Names for Countries and Territories
• Framework of Interpretation Working Group for the delegation and re-delegation of ccTLDs
• Joint DNS Security and Stability Analysis Working Group
• Participation and Engagement activities in Costa Rica

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones. Each session, scheduled to run for 90 minutes, will be conducted in English only. The meeting will be run in Adobe Connect with a slide presentation along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of each session. During the course of the webinar, questions may be submitted using the chat function of Adobe Connect. If you are not able to participate in either of the live sessions, the recording of the session will be made available shortly after the meeting. The policy staff is always available to answer any questions that you email to policy-staff@icann.org.

In order to participate, please RSVP via email to the GNSO Secretariat (gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org) to receive the call details. Please indicate which call you would like to join, Thursday at 13.00 UTC or Thursday at 20.00 UTC (to convert those times into your local time, see: www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html). We will send you an e-mail reminder before the event with log-in and dial-in details. Please DO NOT RSVP to any other ICANN staff members e-mail address.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-03feb12-en.htm

Monday February 6th 2012 at 3pm PST / Monday February 6th 2012 at 6pm EST / Tuesday February 7th 2012 at 10am AEST

ARI Registry Services, a leading global provider of technical services for new Top-Level Domains, will host a special free webinar this Tuesday 7 February highlighting the implications of .brand for the corporate world.

The webinar will be one of the last opportunities for interested parties to gather valuable expert advice and ask questions about the program before ICANN closes the application window on 12 April 2012.

For those unfamiliar with the program, it will allow companies to apply for their own branded slice of Internet real estate which will deliver clear marketing and advertising benefits, such as improved online brand recall, potential Search Engine Optimisation benefits and a more intuitive consumer experience with easy to remember domain names.

The webinar will be hosted by Adrian Kinderis, a leading authority on the new Top-Level Domain program and CEO of ARI Registry Services. Mr Kinderis was a member of the ICANN advisory council which helped establish the program and he has unrivalled knowledge of the opportunities and risks associated with it.

To secure your place, please register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/936400350

Webinar agenda - Moving from .com to .brand:

By attending this exclusive webinar, you will:

• Gain an insight into TLD utilisation and implementation
• Unveil both the risks and opportunities presented by this revolutionary transformation
• Gather crucial knowledge that will determine if .brand is right for you
• Understand the options available to business with respect to brand protection
• Discover the key components required for building a successful application before it's too late

This ARI Registry Services news release was sourced from:
www.ariservices.com/news-webinar_understanding_.brand_for_your_business.php