On the eve of its blockbuster IPO, social networking giant Facebook has found the time to file a formal complaint with the World Intellectual Piracy Organization (WIPO) in an effort to get the domain name facebook.info transfered over to them.

Facebook.info was originally secured back in 2004, and is currently registered to a NYC resident named Igor Dolgalev.

Currently, the site hosts some sort of Twitter-powered message board (the irony!) and a spam-infested forum. We’re going to go ahead and suggest you don’t visit the site, at least for the time being. Our educated guess is that a WIPO panel will soon decide that the domain name belongs to Facebook, and that it will be transfered over to them before you can say the word ‘cybersquatter’.

This isn’t exactly the first time Facebook has filed a dispute over a domain name. In fact, the company quite actively tries to get domain names transfered over to them.

In the past, the company filed disputes over domain names like Facebok.com, Facebook.me, Facebook.nl, Facebook.es, Face-book.com, Facebook.com.au, FacebookDeveloper.com and, yes, KillFacebook.com.

Related: Google wins a whopping 763 domain names

The rebranding process for Android Market is in high gear after Google announced this week that it would now be referred to as “Google Play“. All of the content that is currently available from Google will be available under this umbrella.

Here’s what the company had to say about the change on Tuesday:

Today we’re eliminating all that hassle with Google Play, a digital entertainment destination where you can find, enjoy and share your favorite music, movies, books and apps on the web and on your Android phone or tablet. Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again.

There’s one more thing Google is going to need before the transformation is complete though, and that’s the domain name GooglePlay.com. The domain is currently owned by a resident in Japan and the search giant has just filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum to seize it, according to a report by Fusible.

Even though Google only filed a trademark for the name the day before Google Play was announced, it does include Google’s main trademark and company name, so it shouldn’t be a long process to get the domain from its current owner.

Google Play currently sits at http://play.google.com, but is most certainly missing out on a lot of traffic from those who are entering GooglePlay.com into their browser.

The company is getting really good at winning domains, having just scored 32 squatted domains that infringed on various trademarks that it owns.

For Google to win the rights to this domain, there has to be one or more infractions of ICANN’s guidelines:

(1) the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights
(2) the owner has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name and;
(3) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

Needless to say, since the domain currently is an ad-farm and isn’t a part of Google itself, this should be yet another win for the company.

When you’re a company as big as Google, protecting your trademarks is apparently a full-time job. Last week we reported that Google had won 32 domains that were clearly registered by other parties to trick unsuspecting web surfers as they accidentally typed the wrong URL.

The majority of the domains seized last week were various misspellings of “Google”, but the company is also going after typo-squatted domain names having to do with YouTube as well. At the beginning of January, the company was able to secure five of those close misspellings, but still haven’t gotten all of the domains that it feels it should.

According to Fusible, Google is attempting to gain control of an additional 13 domains that it claims infringes on the YouTube trademark. The only problem is that these domains were registered before the YouTube trademark went into effect. That fact is going to make the fight tougher for Google to win the domains.

Google has submitted a new filing with the National Arbitration Forum in yet another attempt to get the following domains turned over:

tyoutube.com, youstube.com, youtbue.com, youttube.com, youtubenaruto.com, youtubr.com, youtubube.com, youtubve.com, youtune.com, yoututbe.com, youtuube.com, youyube.com, and yutub.com

Domain squatting can be a lucrative business to get into, especially when you have a common misspelling of a huge brand name. For example, when you visit “youstube.com” you’re presented with the following advertising scheme:

These types of campaigns can make thousands of dollars for companies who scoop up commonly misspelled domains in bulk with little or no involvement or support needed once the advertisements are in place.

Google will continue to fight for these domains and claim that users of its services are being purposely tricked into participating in click-schemes that never result in getting anything for free like the sites claim.

Those pesky .xxx domain names are causing issues again. Last month, we reported that someone not directly linked to the Pope registered vatican.xxx, and The Vatican was eager to gain control of the domain.

This time around, someone has decided to register RichardBranson.xxx and potentially hold it for a Sir’s ransom. The .xxx domains just went on sale last December and it seems like squatters are buying them up in hopes of selling them back to their rightful owner. Virgin filed an official dispute with the National Arbitration Forum in hopes of seizing control of the domain.

While it’s clear that disputes over registered trademarks and copyrights are no-brainers, it will be interesting to see how a dispute over someone’s name, one that could be shared by many, will turn out in the eyes of the NAF.

It appears that it’s someone’s job over at Virgin to protect all of the companies IP online, as a spokesperson shared this comment with the BBC:

We spend a lot of time protecting the Virgin brand and the Richard Branson name and increasingly this takes us online. We do see this as a growing problem with the changes to top-level domains and we not alone.

We’ll keep an eye on how this one turns out, and we’re sure to hear more stories like this since ICANN has rolled out the application process for new domain extensions again.

What do you think about the .xxx squatter? Are unregistered domains fair game, or should they have to give Branson his sexy domain back? Tell us in the comments!

Yesterday was MoveYourDomainDay, and while we don’t know how effective of a boycott it was, we do know that Go Daddy has lost more customers than usual in the past week.

Even though Go Daddy has more domain name transfers coming in than it has going out, the company still wants to remind you that it opposes SOPA every chance they get.

Before you can move your domain, you must unlock it with Go Daddy. When you try to do so, you’re welcomed with a message and link:

The link goes to Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman’s statement from yesterday:

Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.

While Go Daddy might be seeing a lot of domains being transferred to it, the ones leaving them can do unknown monetary damage, since it’s not known how many times those domains would have been renewed while managed by Go Daddy.

When one company steps in poo, another company sees an opportunity. Since Go Daddy hasn’t had the best week ever with PR, one domain registration company wants to capitalize on it.

Namecheap has been going after Go Daddy companies for the past few days with rabid ferociousness, publishing its own stance on SOPA, in which it says it is absolutely against the act and everything it stands for. Go Daddy on the other hand, supported the act, and then retracted its position.

Richard Kirkendall, Namecheap CEO, made this statement last week:

While we at Namecheap firmly believe in intellectual rights, SOPA is like detonating a nuclear bomb on the internet when only a surgical strike is necessary. This legislation has the potential to harm the way everyone uses the Internet and to undermine the system itself. At Namecheap, we believe having a free and open Internet is the only option that will continue the legacy of innovation and openess that stands for everything we all value in our modern society.

In its efforts to get as many Go Daddy customers to transfer to its service as possible, the company and its seems to have hit a snag and is crying foul. In a post today, the company claims that Go Daddy could be purposely blocking transfers away from its service, which as Namecheap points out, is against ICANN’s rules.

Here’s what Namecheap had to say on the matter:

We wanted to give our customers a quick update on the status of domain transfers associated with one of our competitors, GoDaddy.

First, we’re very sorry that some of you in the past 24 hours have experienced delays in transferring domains over to us.

As many customers have recently complained of transfer issues, we suspect that this competitor is thwarting efforts to transfer domains away from them.

Specifically, GoDaddy appears to be returning incomplete WHOIS information to Namecheap, delaying the transfer process. This practice is against ICANN rules.

We at Namecheap believe that this action speaks volumes about the impact that informed customers are having on GoDaddy’s business.

It’s a shame that GoDaddy feels they have to block their (former) customers from voting with their dollars. We can only guess that at GoDaddy, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Don’t worry – each and every transfer request will be processed manually by our team. Every request will go through. We won’t rest until everyone who wants to join the Namecheap family can do so!

That’s a pretty wild accusation if you ask me, but with Go Daddy customer service reps calling customers in hopes that they stay, I wouldn’t put it past them. However, this could easily be a PR stunt in and of itself. When a competitor makes a misstep like Go Daddy did, it would be stupid not to pile on to make a profit.

We’ve reached out to Go Daddy PR on the matter, but have yet to hear back. We’ll most certainly keep you updated.

UPDATE: Go Daddy PR has responded to us with the following statement:

Namecheap posted their accusations in a blog, but to the best our of knowledge, has yet to contact Go Daddy directly, which would be common practice for situations like this. Normally, the fellow registrar would make a request for us to remove the normal rate limiting block which is a standard practice used by Go Daddy, and many other registrars, to rate limit Whois queries to combat WhoIs abuse.

Because some registrars (and other data gathering, analyzing and reporting entities) have legitimate need for heavy port 43 access, we routinely grant requests for expanded access per an SOP we’ve had in place for many years. Should we make contact with Namecheap, and learn they need similar access, we would treat that request similarly.

As a side note, we have seen some nefarious activity this weekend which came from non-registrar sources. But, that is not unusual for a holiday weekend, nor would it cause legitimate requests to be rejected. Nevertheless, we have now proactively removed the rate limit for Namecheap, as a courtesy, but it is important to point out, there still may be back-end IP addresses affiliated with Namecheap of which we are unaware. For complete resolution, we should be talking to each other — an effort we are initiating since they have not done so themselves.”

-Rich Merdinger
Sr. Director of Product Development – Domains
Go Daddy

It’s going to get worse before it gets better for domain registration company Go Daddy. Yesterday, we reported that Go Daddy had reversed its decision to support SOPA. Its customer service reps are even taking to the phones to beg you to keep your domains with the company.

It looks like these PR moves to save face, and business, are completely futile. According to TheDomains, 21,054 domains were transferred away from Go Daddy on Friday alone. At $6.99 a pop, that would make for a loss of $147,167, not taking future renewals into account. The day before wasn’t a good one for the company either, with 15,000 people taking their domains elsewhere. That means that even though Go Daddy changed its stance, people have had enough.

The stats from DailyChanges show that the transfers away from Go Daddy have been increasing all week. Here are the number of domains moving away from Go Daddy this week alone:

Monday (8,800)
Tuesday (13,000)
Wednesday (14,500)
Thursday (15,000)
Friday (21,054)

Just a suggestion, perhaps Go Daddy should write about SOPA and leave the comments open, that way customers can reply. I’m starting to run out of /facepalm photos, so it better do something to repair its relationship with customers.

Oh, and by the way Go Daddy…we know that you’re exempt from SOPA, and that you haven’t even officially changed your stance with Congress.

If you’re not sure what the Stop Online Piracy Act is, read SOPA For Dummies

According to a report by Ars Technica, Verisign submitted a request yesterday asking for the power to scan sites for malware and to shut them down when it sees fit. It would also like the ability to shut down a domain name at the request of law enforcement.

Verisign of course operates a huge part of the internet networking infrastructure including top-level domain names like: .com, .net, and .name.

Verisign says:

All parts of the internet community are feeling the pressure to be more proactive in dealing with malicious activity

ICANN has recognized this and the new gTLD Applicant Guidebook requires new gTLDs to adopt a clear definition of rapid takedown or suspension systems that will be implemented.

The full request submitted through ICANN’s Registry Services Evaluation Process on October 10th can be viewed below.

It’s not just malware Verisign is worried about. Apparently the company has been piloting a program with cyber security experts to seize domain names that are harboring malicious content or have broken the law in some way. These takedown procedures would include a “protest” capability for those who feel that their domain name was taken in error.

Do you feel like this is a new government way of controlling the internet with Verisign at the lead? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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