Snapnames patents monitoring and catching domains

[MonikerMan]

Folks - companies file patents on their inventions and technologies for reasons....those reasons are obvious and of course give companies that have come up with those inventions and intellectual property a potential legal right and advantage. That is why all the money and technology, and financial investment is made upfront and along the way.

Again nothing unethical about anything here. Moniker will not be treated any different than any other registrar on the platform. In my opinion, we run the most ethical shop in our space...period. I have worked with competitors to advance our entire industry and will continue to do so and SnapNames has made it possible for all of you to acquire names that were never on the market before. If it were another company that did this or invented the process and idea, you would be talking about them.

Look at the patents GoDaddy has filed, Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Apple. This is no different. It boils down to corporate protection and risk reduction. We will work with our customers and our partners to provide the very best platforms we can to advance our mutual interests and business together. I can assure you of that.

[Meridian66]

this process has been in place since 2003 so not sure what the surprise or where the question of ethics is coming from?

Its in relation to the information supplied in the SnapNames set of patents:

1. 7,472,160 Domain name management system and method
2. 7,418,471 Domain name acquisition and management system and method
3. 7,188,138 Method, product, and apparatus for resource identifier registration and aftermarket services
4. 7,039,697 Registry-integrated internet domain name acquisition system

[Acro]

Patents aside, I have a question on the simple fact that ICANN allows for domains not to drop through the 35+5 day cycle (or whatever the numbers are per TLD).

Does ICANN explicitly permit this practice, which gave birth to the various drop-catching services' secondary function: that of the auctioneer of pre-released domains that never enter the expiration phase, through special relationships with registrars? Or is it simply and plainly a loophole that ICANN overlooks?

[Meridian66]

Look at the patents GoDaddy has filed, Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Apple. This is no different. It boils down to corporate protection and risk reduction.

That's sadly true. In the IT world, they say its a form of protection via the threat of MAD -- Mutually Assured Destruction.

[MonikerMan]

I don't know what else to tell you all....SnapNames is the inventor and intellectual property owner of all this technology...regardless if you think it is fair or not. Most think it was a great invention and have acquired names to help their business both corporations and individual domainers.

This is how businesses and industries are created...including this one.

[Acro]

Snapnames was formed in 2000. I am sure that the process of performing multiple queries to the Registry around the time of a domain's drop time in order to register it via an API of a registrar, has been used before that time, at least as back as 1998 by individuals. It'd be interesting to see some reaction from people that did perform this process, since the patent application news are now released.

I am still waiting to see an answer to my question above, whether the pre-release process is sanctioned by ICANN.

Edit: my mistake, it's not an application for a patent, it's a patent award.

[raoul]

can someone explain me in "english is not my first language" what this patent means? From reading it 2 times it seems absurd that such "inventions" can be patentet at all

[Acro]

Raoul, it means that if you decide in the future to establish a business of catching domains about to drop, you'd have to pay royalties to Snapnames.

[raoul]

aint there a rule, that the "invention" cannot be used EVER before in a commercional way? Aint there a rule that a "invention" needs to have something innovating?

[Sheva]

Snapnames was formed in 2000. I am sure that the process of performing multiple queries to the Registry around the time of a domain's drop time in order to register it via an API of a registrar, has been used before that time, at least as back as 1998 by individuals. It'd be interesting to see some reaction from people that did perform this process, since the patent application news are now released.

I am still waiting to see an answer to my question above, whether the pre-release process is sanctioned by ICANN.

Edit: my mistake, it's not an application for a patent, it's a patent award.

Many people has used script with registrars to get domains during the drop before snapnames including my self

[Leading Names]

It still doesn't sit well with me, regardless of the legality of it all. Morally, at least, I think what SnapNames (and Moniker by association) has done is wrong. As a long time customer of Moniker, I don't like it.

I guess the worst offender in this is the system, the patent process that accepts applications such as this. As Acro pointed out, they'll soon be patient on the process of breathing... then we will all be...

Gotta love the US legal system

- Rob