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Corporate Services Fall News
As we look forward to a new year, we would like to take this opportunity to thank-you for choosing Webnames.ca and wish you a happy holiday season. Since our last update, Webnames.ca has become an accredited registrar for .mobi, answering many Corporate questions about the new top-level domain name, it's implications and compliance policies. This quarter we take a critical look at the new top-level domain name created for mobile content and whether the mobile Internet revolution is fact or fiction.
In other news, next year marks the twentieth anniversary of .ca, the symbol of Canada on the World Wide Web. With over 750,000 .ca domains names registered, it's great to see Canadian identity flourishing online. Originally conceived by John Demco, one of Webnames.ca's founding partners, we look forward to marking the .ca milestone with a number of special events.
Season's Greetings,
Webnames.ca Corporate Services
Intellectual property goes mobile
We are one month into general registration for .mobi, the new top level domain dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices, and registrations are stronger than anticipated having exceeded the 200,000 mark during the last week of October. Registrars worldwide are reporting greater interest and brisker sales of .mobi than other top-level domains released in recent years.
In accordance with best practices, Canadian companies and organizations are protecting their intellectual property by proactively registering trademarked names and brands in the .mobi extension. In addition to securing core brands, forward-thinking companies are preemptively registering related, shorter words and acronyms that are easier to type into a mobile device.
While less attractive to cybersquatters than its .com counterpart, .mobi poses as serious a threat to trademark holders as any other top-level domain launch. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reported a 20% increase in cybersquatting activity (abusive registration of trademarks as domain names) in 2005 over the previous year. The majority of disputes concerned top-level domain names, with .com accounting for 80% of cases filed. Organizations that have not registered the .mobi extensions of their trademarks and brands are putting their intellectual assets at risk.
Currently mobile browsing is far from the predictable, user-friendly experience mTLD, the registry behind .mobi, is hoping to advance through mandatory guidelines for .mobi website development. Nonetheless, major corporations across North America are beginning to optimize for a mobile audience, in anticipation of the so called, and so far unrealized, mobile revolution.
While most corporate .mobi registrations are protective, new .mobi sites are launching daily - news networks, media organizations, travel companies, financial institutions, sports leagues and service providers being some of the earliest adopters. With mobile manufacturers estimating more than three billion mobile phone users worldwide by 2009, mobile Internet access could potentially become the dominant Internet platform of the future overtaking the personal computer.
"Mobile Internet use is definitely on the rise in North America, says Robert Lewis, Marketing Director for Webnames.ca, "but for wider adoption to take place, browsing on mobile phones still needs to improve." Currently, Canada ranks fifth in mobile Internet use, behind South Korea, the US, UK, and Japan. "Last year, approximately 20% of Canadians with mobile phones used them to access the Internet," says Lewis, "In the US, this number is closer to 25%."
With four mobile phones sold to every personal computer and broadband access now available in urban centres across the globe, the consortium of telecommunications and computing giants backing .mobi (including Google, Microsoft, Sony, Nokia and Vodafone) are invested in bringing mobile browsing to the masses. With this kind of backing the future for .mobi looks strong.
More information:
Protect your intellectual property
Secure the .mobi of your business name, trademarks, and brands.
Register your .mobi name today for only $35.00 USD/year (2 year minimum).
All registrations include a .mobi compliant parking page.
For more information on .mobi, call Rupert Lindsay of Webnames.ca Corporate Services toll-free call 1-866-470-6820 ext. 108 or email corporate@webnames.ca.
Mention you received our newsletter, and Webnames.ca will send you a free 128MB .mobi memory stick.
New, powerful domain management tools for Webnames.ca Corporate customers
Powerful bulk domain management tools are now available to all Webnames.ca Corporate customers.
Under the 'Bulk Tools' tab in your Webnames.ca account you can now do bulk domain registrations, forwarding, renewals, auto renewals and dns modifications. Enter up to 50 domain names in multiple extensions. Save time and clicks.
For a personal tutorial on how to use our new bulk tools, call Michael Maan of Webnames.ca Corporate Services today toll-free at 1-866-470-6820 ext. 102
Domain Name Disputes and Resolutions
A selection of notable domain name disputes from past three months.
Choice Hotels has won disputes over choice-hotels.ca and comfort-inn.ca.
http://www.cira.ca/en/...choice-hotels.ca.pdf
http://www.cira.ca/en/...comfort-inn.ca.pdf
Wal-Mart Stores loses a dispute over boycottwalmart.com
http://www.wipo.int/...d2006-0812.html
Universal Tube sues YouTube over domain name confusion
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227061,00.html
Honest Ed's Limited wins a dispute over honesteds.ca
http://www.cira.ca/...honesteds.ca.pdf
Wrigley Canada wins a dispute over candystand.ca
http://www.cira.ca/...candystand.ca.pdf
Globe Media International Corporation loses a dispute over forsale.ca
http://www.cira.ca/...forsale.ca.pdf
Lonely Planet Publications loses, again, a dispute over lonelyplanetexchange.com.
http://arbiter.wipo.int/...d2006-0596.html
City of Helsinki wins dispute over Helsinki.eu
http://www.adreu.eurid.eu/...decision.php?dispute_id=475
The Council of Better Business Bureaus loses a dispute over betterbusinessonline.com
http://arbiter.wipo.int/...d2006-0443.html
Domain Industry News
Global forum addresses the future of the Internet
The future of the Internet was under discussion at the first Internet Governance Forum held in Athens from October 30 to November 2. The forum was organized by the United Nations to give the global community - governments, corporations, organizations and individuals - a venue to dialogue about how the Internet is evolving. A second meeting is scheduled in Rio de Janeiro for November, 2007.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/pi1750.doc.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6087174.stm
.ca domain registrations hit 750,000 and growing strong
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), manager of Canada's.ca domain, has announced that the 750,000th .ca domain name has been registered. This marks a 50% increase in the number of .ca registrations in less than two years.
http://www.cira.ca/news-releases/191.html
.mobi registry launched RFP process for premium names
The .mobi domain registry has launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) process by which it will allocate certain premium .mobi names. The first RFP is for news.mobi, ringtones.mobi, sports.mobi, and weather.mobi.
http://pc.mtld.mobi/mobilenet/release_110806.html
flowers.mobi sells for $200,000 USD in bidding frenzy
The first set of nine .mobi premium domain names were auctioned at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East domain conference in Miami, Florida on October 27th. Selling for $200,000 and $100,000 (USD) respectively, flowers.mobi and fun.mobi ranked among the top 20 domain sales for 2006, an unprecedented achievement for a newly introduced TLD (top level domain).
http://www.circleid.com/...miami/
http://pc.mtld.mobi/switched/premium.html (.mobi premium names listing)
Alarming increase in spam levels
Defying previous trends, spam email has risen sharply this fall. Reports indicate more than 89% of emails sent during the month of October were spam, with a single-day high of 96%, beating the previous record-high set last July. Typically, spam levels tend to increase during summer, then decrease as people return to work and school.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/huge_increase_spam_october/
Websites surpass the 100 million mark
A survey conducted by Netcraft, a UK-based Internet monitoring company, shows the number of websites has increased from 97.9 million in October to slightly more than 101 million this month. Blogs and small business websites are credited for the explosive growth.
http://australianit.news.com.au/...15317,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/...index.html
CIRA elects new board
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), registry for Canada's .ca domain, has announced the results of the 2006 Board of Directors election. The election took place from September 15 to September 21, 2006 on the CIRA website. 1500 CIRA members voted, electing six Directors, three from the Nomination Slate.
http://www.cira.ca/news-releases/188.html
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