Today: Appraisal of Going.us / .BEST Only $1.29 / Caliente.tv sold for $15,000! / and More…

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today:

Buying your best coffee domain – Budget: Up to $150.00 – Be sure to check your portfolio for one of these coffee related domain names that meets this buyers specified criteria. If you have one they like, it could make you some quick pocket cash for the weekend.

Appraisal of Going.us – This is an interesting five-letter dictionary-word .us ccTLD. With all the immigration talk in the news for the United States of America, do you think a doing like this one has some value in today’s market?

ICANN demonstrates its hypocrisy over .ORG renewals, with cost savings for EBERO contracts – If you like to follow the latest on ICANN coverage and changes, this might be an interesting discussion about .org to follow.

.BEST Only $1.29 – If you have been on the fence about investing in or registering a new gTLD .best domain name, this $1.29 coupon promotion might come in handy.

Caliente.tv sold for $15,000 – It’s always nice to see another .tv ccTLD sales report. These .tv’s just keep cranking out sales this year. Take a look at what this sale report talks about.

Social media’s positive effect on domain sales – Have you ever used or experienced the positive effects of social media when it comes to getting more exposure to your domain name assets? Take a look at what some domain investors are saying about it.

It’s not just possible but actually *probable* that at one point or another, you’ll have to defend yourself against a company that, instead of just buying the asset it wants from the existing owner, decides to bully him/her out of it.

Maybe because they decide your asking price is too high.

Perhaps because they’re not happy with how the negotiations have been going.

Or it might just be a case of “trigger-happy end user”… who knows!

And, frankly, bullying people can be extremely effective when it comes to potential legal battles, because the proverbial barrier to entry can end up being quite high, a bit of a paradox in light of the fact that domaining is (in)famous for being an industry with a very *low* barrier to entry.

Now fighting your average UDRP is not something that’s going to cripple you financially but even so, hiring a lawyer to craft a carefully-worded response is going to cost you a decent chunk of change… especially if you go with someone who has meaningful IP experience, preferable domain-related experience.

If you’re unlucky and your panel decides against you, things become a LOT more tricky.

You see, UDRP decisions are not set in stone. You can attack them in court but this, of course, means that you’re in for a potentially expensive legal battle and this is the part where a lot of domainers would just give up. If you win, you can be properly compensated but the legal system is far from perfect… so even if you give it your best shot, you might not 🙁

The main and only purpose of this post is making it clear that even in an industry like ours, where everyone with a few dollars and a dream can participate, there can be occasional hidden costs… and among them, legal costs can be quite debilitating.

If the domainer who has to deal with all of this is anything but legally sophisticated, it just makes matters even worse. Kind of like a strong punch which takes you completely by surprise. What happened? Why did this happen? What next?

I wish I had an applicable solution other than “make more money” but, unfortunately, I just don’t. The best I can do is bring this problem to your attention or, if you will, on your radar. Where you take things from here is entirely up to you!

Oh and if you haven’t come across the abbreviations I’ve used before:

RDNH = Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

UDRP = Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy

IP = Intellectual Property

Interview Texts of Tim and Trey’s Interview are Coming Soon.

Met Trey at ICANN New Delhi. Will post text of the whole interview.

Skenzo organized this trip to Taj Mahal and it was totally awesome. I have been up since 4 AM today and am dead-tired. Have to be up again at 7 AM tomorrow for the official opening of the event.

During the trip I had a long chat with Divyank Turakhia – President and Director, Skenzo – about Skenzo and Domain Industry in general, would post about that later.

A lot of faces from the domain industry were accompanying me on the trip, including –

1. Peter Stevenson, Fabulous.com
2. Troy, dotMobi
3. Paul Stahura, Enom.
4. Mattias Schonherr, Sedo
5. Bart Vastenburg, SIDN (.nl)
6. Alexa A.S. Raad, PIR (.org)
7. Annebeth Lange, Norid (.no)
8. Elmar Knipp, Knipp Medien und Kommunikation GmbH
9. Amy Mischler, dotMobi

… and over 60 more people!

It was fun meeting all of them and I will be catching up with them tomorrow for more discussions about domain industry.

Anyway, here are some pics.

Stay tuned for more.

I left Jaipur today morning and reached Delhi for ICANN New Delhi. Jaipur-Delhi is a frequent transit for me but this particular trip was different as my driver insisted that I stop by his village — which was on the way.

Take a look at what I shot!

Anyway, I am off to hit the hay. I will be going for an Agra trip tomorrow. Conference starts the day after. Stay tuned for some great pics and coverage.