Author name: fairwindsp

Phil Lodico ⬥ 7 April If you read the FairWinds Weekly News Brief, you’ve likely noticed that companies such as Facebook and SecondLife are often in the news in our Web 2.0 section.  The trick is determining whether these new platforms will continue to gain steam and pinpointing how they can be used in a […]

Phil Lodico ⬥ 31 March The Technology Policy Institute (TPI), a Washington-based think tank that is focused on “the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation in the United States and around the world,” recently released a study on ICANN titled “ICANN at a Crossroads: A Proposal for Better Governance and Performance.” The study

Phil Lodico ⬥ 19 March The issue of new TLDs is not only limited to conversation within the domain industry or among brand owners; the questions, considerations and problems that insiders have been discussing for months has blown up into a massive discussion that includes major communities and popular public figures. Many of you have

Josh Bourne ⬥ 6 March I’m spending the remainder of my trip to Switzerland visiting some old and new friends with my colleague Katie Richards, who recently joined FairWinds full-time to head our operations in Europe. One of our last stops was in Geneva, where we got a great view of the impressive Jet d’Eau

Josh Bourne ⬥ 5 March Last time I was in Switzerland was in October, and now business brings me back to the country right in time for Basel’s Fasnacht carnival. The carnival, which starts on the Monday after Ash Wednesday (at 4:00am!) and lasts for three days, is quite a sight: Participants wear masks and

Josh Bourne ⬥ 23 February WIPO recently published a valuation method document written by Kelvin King, founding partner of Valuation consulting, which states, “the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and intangible assets in business is insufficiently understood.” Domain names are not trademarks, but they are among those misunderstood, intangible assets that few people know

Phil Lodico ⬥ 27 February Since ICANN decided to proceed with the vast expansion of the domain name space, Internet users and those in the domain industry have been debating, speculating about policies and making predictions about what the Internet may look like in the years to come. Many of us are concerned about the

Josh Bourne ⬥ 19 February ICANN has opened up a public comment period for NeuStar’s request for a phased allocation process of single and two-character domains in dot-BIZ. Why? Really, who concerns themselves with dot-BIZ sites? They’re simply not used. NeuStar, where is the demand for this?  Could it be nothing more than the “restocking”

Josh Bourne ⬥ 9 February I’ve been asked several times about Paul Stahura’s blog post in CircleID. Long story short, Paul Stahura of Demand Media claims his analysis proves that “there is no economic incentive for an applicant to obtain a TLD for the sole purpose of making money from defensive trademark registrations.” This reads

Josh Bourne ⬥ 23 January According to the World Bank’s 2007 report, the top-ten world GDP rankings (in millions of dollars) are as follows. Note that I have put the extension most associated with the country alongside its GDP: 1 – United States: 13,811,200 (.COM*) 2 – Japan: 4,376,705 (.JP) 3 – Germany: 3,297,233 (.DE)

Josh Bourne ⬥ 16 January In the domain name space, the rules coming out of ICANN are being set by a few constituencies at the expense of all online users. There is a perception that ICANN sets policies democratically and, to an extent, they do—ICANN’s constituencies often heavily impact policy. However, the kingdom of ICANN

Josh Bourne ⬥ 10 January iA little-known wave of massive-scale online infringement called affiliate fraud is gathering steam on the Internet. Affiliate fraud earns cybersquatters 50-100 times the fee per action of pay-per-click (PPC) sites and targets brand owners–all undetected. Some brands offer affiliate programs, which allow Web site owners to post links and banners