Many claims in Sendori’s patent applications are denied.

Sendori, a domain name advertising service acquired by IAC in January, has hit some major roadblocks on patents it filed.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has sent a final notice of rejection (pdf) on a number of claims in Sendori’s application for “Domain Name Marketplace”, publication number 20080189192. It has also rejected a few of the claims in “Electronic Marketplace Used to Lease Domain Names and Redirect Web Surfers from Leased Domain Names”, publication number 20070260518.

Sendori provides a marketplace where advertisers can bid on redirects from domain names. For example, an advertiser that operates a video game store online could buy redirects from VideoGames.com.

The major issue Sendori is hitting is that the basic concept of its business was the same as a shuttered Advertising.com service called VisitorBid. When Sendori had its coming out party several years ago, I remember asking Sendori founder Ofer Ronen how his service was different from the one Advertising.com shuttered. He explained that it integrated better with domain owners’ portfolios (e.g., offering an API). That was probably the case, but trying to patent all aspects of the service should certainly be met with resistance.

Sendori still has a chance to reply to the final rejection.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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2. GoDaddy Files Patent for Filtering Ads on Trademark Domains
3. Yahoo Stats Delay Hits Domain Parking Companies

Many claims in Sendori’s patent applications are denied.

Sendori, a domain name advertising service acquired by IAC in January, has hit some major roadblocks on patents it filed.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has sent a final notice of rejection (pdf) on a number of claims in Sendori’s application for “Domain Name Marketplace”, publication number 20080189192. It has also rejected a few of the claims in “Electronic Marketplace Used to Lease Domain Names and Redirect Web Surfers from Leased Domain Names”, publication number 20070260518.

Sendori provides a marketplace where advertisers can bid on redirects from domain names. For example, an advertiser that operates a video game store online could buy redirects from VideoGames.com.

The major issue Sendori is hitting is that the basic concept of its business was the same as a shuttered Advertising.com service called VisitorBid. When Sendori had its coming out party several years ago, I remember asking Sendori founder Ofer Ronen how his service was different from the one Advertising.com shuttered. He explained that it integrated better with domain owners’ portfolios (e.g., offering an API). That was probably the case, but trying to patent all aspects of the service should certainly be met with resistance.

Sendori still has a chance to reply to the final rejection.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. IAC’s Ask Acquires Sendori
2. GoDaddy Files Patent for Filtering Ads on Trademark Domains
3. Yahoo Stats Delay Hits Domain Parking Companies

Vulture.com now forwards to popular blog at New York Magazine.

New York Magazine has acquired the domain name Vulture.com for its popular entertainment and culture blog Vulture.

A review of historical whois records shows that Frank Schilling’s Name Administration sold the domain name to New York Magazine. Records indicate that the domain was transferred to New York Magazine around September 2.

This is an interesting example of a domain purchase by a major media outlet. What makes it interesting is that it acquired a domain name for a popular subsection of its web site, not just the main site. It’s a direct navigation play. The publication has a number of popular blogs, and owns the corresponding domain names for two others: TheCut.com and GrubStreet.com. It does not own the domain for four of its other key blogs:

-DailyIntel.com (parked)
-TheProjectionist.com (owned by Warner Bros.)
-TheSportsSection.com (owned by Upper Deck, which also owns SportsSection.com)
-Surf.com (owned by household products company)

I have no doubt New York Magazine paid dearly for Vulture.com. Not only is it a good domain, but Name Administration doesn’t sell domain names for cheap.

Incidentally, Vultures.com goes on the block in New York this week for $25,000-$50,000. Rest assured that Vulture.com sold for many times that amount.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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