Issue 185 - 29th April 2005

Sunrise period for unrestricted .com.sb and .net.sb (Solomon Islands)

Previously only available to Solomon Island residents, the .com.sb and .net.sb extensions will shortly become unrestricted. A sunrise period is currently under way, until 13th May 2005, after which the domain will become available to the general public.

Trademark holders can apply for .com.sb and .net.sb now at www.netnames.com.

BenedictXVI.com domain given to charity

Rogers Cadenhead, the man who, as covered in last week's N3 Lite, registered BenedictXVI.com some weeks ahead of the announcement of the new pope's name, has donated the domain to charity. The donation, which includes the week's advertising revenue from his website, has gone to Modest Needs, an organisation which matches donors to those in emergencies requiring short-term financial support to a limit of $1000.

Froogles dispute escalates

A dispute between search engine Google and shopping website Froogles has moved up a level, with Google filing suit in federal court to block use of the Froogles.com domain. The complaint's allegation is that Richard Wolfe, owner of Froogles, illegally traded on Google's famous name and search brand for profit with a 'nearly identical' mark.

Mr Wolfe registered Froogles.com in December 2000. Google applied to register the 'Froogle' trademark for its own shopping brand in 2002, against which Wolfe filed an objection. In May 2004 Google asked Wolfe to withdraw the complaint, saying that it would not object to his continuing with the Froogles.com site. Wolfe refused the offer and Google complained to the Internet Corporation of Assigned names and Numbers (ICANN) that the Froogles name was confusingly similar to its own brand. This claim was rejected by ICANN and is still rejected by Richard Wolfe.