Two sessions this month will help applicants understand the process. Well, this is the year. For the first time since 2012, entities wishing to control their own top level domain name can apply. The window to apply is tight, however, as applications will be accepted from April 30 to August 12. Applicants need to get all of their ducks in a row, including selecting a back-end registry provider and lining up financing.

Currency swings could influence aftermarket transactions. 2025 was not a good year for the U.S. dollar. Compared to a basket of currencies, it was down nearly 10% last year. This is one reason U.S. residents investing in foreign stocks did well last year; even if the stocks didn't appreciate, they "gained" about 10% in dollar terms. This has interesting implications for the domain name business, which is very international.

NameSilo and Tucows lead gainers; Team Internet and GoDaddy saw steep declines. With 2025 in the books, here's a look at how domain name stocks performed for the year. For reference, the NASDAQ was up about 20% in 2025. NameSilo (OTC: URL.CN): NameSilo's Canadian shares followed up their 141% gain in 2024 with a 196% gain in 2025, nearly tripling in price.

Another panel finds that Google had common law trademarks shortly after launching Nano Banana AI model. Google has won another cybersquatting dispute involving its Nano Banana image-generation AI, securing the transfer of nanobananapro .com. The company filed two cybersquatting disputes shortly after launching the Nano Banana model in August 2025. It got different results: in one case, the panelist ordered…

In 2025, there was an explosion of UDRP cases filed in bad faith. 2025 was the year of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH). Before running the calculations, I had a sense that 2025 had many more RDNH findings than years past. I write about most UDRP RDNH cases, and I was writing a lot more about these cases throughout the year.

CDW did not show that registrant was targeting it with domain registration. A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found (pdf) that technology company CDW (NASDAQ: CDW) tried to reverse hijack the domain name cdw.au. The case shows the difficulty of winning a UDRP cybersquatting claim for a generic or short brand name. An Australian domain investor with a portfolio heavy in car rental and insurance domains registered the domain.

Artificial intelligence is impacting the domain industry in many ways. AI, AI, AI. You can't open a social media app or visit a news site without reading something about artificial intelligence and how it's changing the world. AI is impacting the domain business, and we will continue to see its impact in the years to come. .AI An obvious impact is what the boom is doing to Anguilla's .AI country code.

Agent Name Service could increase demand for domain names. Could AI agents use the Domain Name System to improve trust and discovery? That's the idea behind Agent Name Service, a proposal from GoDaddy. On today's show, James Bladel explains what it is and how it could become a reality. James, VP of Corporate and Government Affairs at GoDaddy, also discusses his appointment to the Internet Commerce Association's board, as well as the policy issues we should keep an eye on in 2026 and beyond.

Domain registrant acquired domains for a legitimate business. A company that provides water management solutions has been found to have tried reverse domain name hijacking. Suez International filed a UDRP cybersquatting dispute against the domain names SuezDigital.com and Suez.digital. Canadian entrepreneur Zacharias Cymbaluk registered the domains in 2022 and launched a digital consulting business called Suez Digital. The Complainant reached out to Cymbaluk in 2024, demanding that he cease using the domains.

A crypto platform, a vending machine services business, and a company offering an API for football scores bought domain names. Sedo is taking a three-week holiday break from reporting domain sales. That's a long time to wait for an end user sales report. So this week, I took a look back at two weeks in mid-November to look for domains that slipped through the cracks the first time around.

Namecheap among domain company acquisitions/fundings in 2025. The domain name business is a favorite among private equity companies because it's a recurring-revenue business with predictable renewal rates. So it's no surprise that private equity companies made more acquisitions in the domain industry this year. The big private equity transaction in 2025 was domain registrar Namecheap, which CVC Capital acquired at a $1.5 billion valuation.

.Com registry says data shows short sellers were way out of line about impact of AdSense for Domains. Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) published a blog post this week stating that data shows short sellers were wrong about the impact AdSense for Domains (AFD) would have on .com registrations. Google effectively shut down its AdSense for Domains program by the end of Q3 this year.

College filed case against a man whose last name is Davidson. Davidson College, a prestigious school in North Carolina, has lost a cybersquatting dispute it filed against the domain name davidson.one. Dominic Davidson, a New Zealand man, registered the domain name and others with his surname in them for his personal and business use. The college was concerned about confusion with Davidson One, a platform for the school's students and faculty.

Google's decision to effectively sunset AdSense for Domains is having a significant impact on the domain industry. Perhaps the writing was on the wall. In 2023 and 2024, Google made several changes to AdSense for Domains (AFD) that curtailed revenue. First, it implemented new consent requirements for visitors from the EU before they'd be presented with parked domain ads. Then, Google added restrictions for how parked page ads could be shown.

Group hopes to raise €80,000 through Kickstarter to help fund .meow top level domain. In what I believe is a first for top level domain names, a potential applicant in the next round has turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for its application. dotMeow Foundation is a Belgian nonprofit that wants to promote social inclusion, connection, and empowerment of the LGBTQIA+ community in Belgium and abroad.

WIPO panelist finds many faults in cybersquatting case. A French banking and credit firm has been found to have tried reverse domain name hijacking. La Banque Populaire Val de France filed a dispute (pdf) against the domain name vdft.com. It claimed that it has common law trademark rights to VDFT because it has marketed a real estate financing program as Val de France Transactions, or VDFT, since 2012.

After a couple of years of stagnation, .com is growing again. Other TLDs are doing well, too. At this time last year, I was writing about how domain name growth had ground to a halt. Total domain registrations across all top level domains were anemic in 2024. What a difference a year makes. According to the Q3 Domain Name Industry Brief…

Media company that uses .co domain got a "steal" on the matching .com, 404 Media, a popular technology news site, started in 2023 with a very low budget. Each of the founders chipped in $1,000, and the only domain they could afford was 404media.co. Another company was using the matching .com. But this year, after 404 Media had grown in popularity, an opportunity presented itself: 404media.com expired and was being auctioned on GoDaddy.

Panelist admonishes Complainant and IP law firm for its cybersquatting complaint. A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found (pdf) Propel Pro guilty of reverse domain name hijacking after filing an "inexplicably sloppy" UDRP. Propel Pro is launching an app that gives athletes access to coaches and former athletes for training. It uses the domain name PropelPros.com (plural) for its website, and filed the case against PropelPro.com (singular).

Three-member panel agrees bank had no reasonable basis for bringing the case. A panel has affirmed a decision denying PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.'s cybersquatting complaint against pnc.co.uk and pnc.uk. It has also affirmed that the bank's case was reverse domain name hijacking. PNC, a large bank, filed the original dispute under the Nominet Dispute Resolution Service in July this year.

Motion.io seemed like the perfect domain for this business. Turns out, it had some issues. Perry Rosenbloom thought he had a great domain to launch his business on: motion.io. But three years later, he rebranded the business to LaunchBay. On today's show, Perry explains why the company decided to rebrand. He also shares some advice for startup founders to help them avoid his mistakes.

Large finance company seeks to recover 49 domain names. Financial services company BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit (pdf) against 49 domain names that it alleges infringe its trademarks. The company filed the in rem lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia, where both the .com registry, Verisign, and the .org registry, Public Interest Registry, are located. According to the lawsuit, some of the domains are being used for scams, and others are listed for sale.

Move comes ahead of more top level domain expansion. Ethos Capital, the private equity firm that acquired a majority stake in Identity Digital in 2021, announced a new funding round for the company today. Ethos completed a continuation vehicle (CV) transaction for Identity Digital, bringing in institutional investors including TPG GP Solutions, funds managed by Neuberger, Accel-KKR, Coller Capital, CVC Secondary Partners, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) and 10 East, among others.

A bitcoin forum, a private equity company, and Delaware North bought domain names. Sedo's top public sale this week was a private equity company buying the .com to match its .co.uk domain. Here's a list of end user domain name sales that were completed at Sedo over the past week. You can view previous lists like this here. Ansor.com $56,482 - Ansor is a private equity company in the UK.

Trademark group had asked court to settle circuit split on domain registration dates. The U.S. Supreme Court has denied an appeal in a cybersquatting dispute over trx.com. Had the court heard the case, it could have had significant ramifications for how the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) is applied. Loo Tze Ming bought the domain name trx.com for $138,000 in April 2022.