Is .Uno The First Cybersquatting Registry? (TedCruz.uno, HillaryClinton.uno, MittRomney.uno)

Is .Uno The First Cybersquatting Registry or are they just running a cheap PR trick to draw attention to their New gTLD?

I noticed that Dot Latin LLC, the .uno registry, used the 1API registrar to buy 65 .uno domains on the first day of general availability yesterday. They got domains like HillaryClinton.uno, TedCruz.uno, PaulRyan.uno, MittRomney.uno and MichaelBloomberg.uno.

.Uno didn’t do so well in their first day of general availability with fewer than 1000 domain name registrations.

I am not sure if they bought the domains to protect these people and organizations but this is a somewhat strange list of domains.

Here is the complete list of 65 domains:
mittromney.uno
perry2016.uno
philadelphiaunion.uno
darrellissa.uno
michaelbloomberg.uno
michaelmccaul.uno
cuomo2016.uno
rnc.uno
mlssoccer.uno
rickscott.uno
chicagofire.uno
newenglandrevolution.uno
bush2016.uno
ricksantorum.uno
rickperry.uno
bobbyjindal.uno
portlandtimbers.uno
montrealimpact.uno
dcunited.uno
omalley2016.uno
cruz2016.uno
ryan2016.uno
houstondynamo.uno
hillaryclinton.uno
losangelesgalaxy.uno
marcorubio.uno
joncorzine.uno
johnkerry.uno
joebiden.uno
martinomalley.uno
jindal2016.uno
jebbush.uno
randpaul.uno
futbolclub.uno
clinton2016.uno
rubio2016.uno
chrischristy.uno
sanjoseearthquakes.uno
fcdallas.uno
columbuscrew.uno
biden2016.uno
torontofc.uno
coloradorapids.uno
santorum2016.uno
walker2016.uno
enterprisebank.uno
vancouverwhitecaps.uno
vancouverwhitecapsfc.uno
christie2016.uno
realsaltlake.uno
algore.uno
paulryan.uno
paul2016.uno
arnoldschwarzenneger.uno
seattlesoundersfc.uno
seattlesounders.uno
andrewcuomo.uno
dnc.uno
newyorkredbulls.uno
sportingkc.uno
sportingkansascity.uno
desiree.uno
chivasusa.uno
scottwalker.uno
teaparty.uno
tedcruz.uno

The .Uno registry had already registered 87 of the allocated 100 domains that ICANN allows them to reserve and register before general availability for the registry’s operations. They got domains such as:
domains.uno
latin.uno
number.uno
spanish.uno
bbb.uno
dot.uno
first.uno
espanol.uno
viva.uno
buy.uno
mcdonalds.uno (???)
godaddy.uno (???)

Have they messed up sunrise registrations and registered the mcdonalds.uno and
godaddy.uno in their own name instead of the owner’s name? Go Daddy registered Afternic.uno during sunrise. I would love to get a comment on this matter from Dot Latin LLC.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

34 comments

  1. Konstantinos ~ Your article couldn’t be further from the truth and is grossly misleading. Do your really consider this article “credible” reporting? The above names were reserved on behalf of the rightful owners so others wouldn’t cybersquat on them. As you’re most likely aware, few have filed with Trademark Clearinghouse and these registrations serve to protect the names of the brands or rightful owners on their behalf. Should they wish to claim their respective names, we will provide them free of charge. Further, Dot Latin LLC is not aware of any UDRP/URS complaints against the registry for any of these domain names. Under ICANN policy, registry operators are allowed up to 100 promotional names to delegate, of which Dot Latin has only registered 87. Additionally, Dot Latin LLC has received permission from brand owners for every site that is live.

    I don’t know what zone file you’re accessing but .UNO has over 4,000 domain names registered to date, not the “fewer than 1000 names” you indicate above.

    It’s also worthy to note that you didn’t even bother to contact Dot Latin LLC to obtain any facts related to these names before taking it upon yourself to publish incorrect information and ask for comments at the end of the article. This article is very unprofessional and is anti-new gTLD. If you wish to restore credibility, we would suggest revising your article to at least be factual and not fabricated.

    • I said that it could be you registering domains to protect owners.
      But that is very small list that make me wonder what the actual purpose is.

      The fewer than 1000 was from your first day on general availability.

      I didn’t contact you because 99% of the times nobody cares to reply.
      Anyway there is nothing fabricated in this article and I still don’t understand why you registered this very small list of domains out of thousands or hundreds of thousands possible domains.

      Also my article subject has a question mark and I welcomed your comment which I approved.

      BTW you have less than 1200 domain names registered today according to zone files.

    • Also most of first last name combinations are not protected by trademark law.
      Also nobody asked you to protect them. Especially those from this arbitrarily list of very few domains.
      Who said anything about UDRP/URS? This is just 3 days since you registered these domains.

      I am sorry but this seems like a cheap PR trick. “We have “reserved” HillaryClinton.uno that we can provide to Hillary Clinton free of charge”.

      I am not anti-new gTLD. I just don’t like what you did.

    • Why did you register mcdonalds.uno and godaddy.uno?

  2. Konstantinos ~ We had permission to register mcdonalds.uno and other trademark names from the rightful trademark owners and they were used in demonstration at Beyond the Dot in Washington D.C. a few weeks back by our CEO.

    In looking ahead, the Hispanic vote will significantly impact the 2016 presidential elections in the U.S. and for those candidates wishing to engage and/or reach the Hispanic voter, they will be happy to have their .UNO domain names at no cost. I’m not sure what you consider “a cheap PR trick” as we have not made this information public and anyone with this information has obtained it from accessing our zone file, which in our mind is questionable acceptable use.

    We registered the political names in GA because to put them on our premium registry reserved list we would have to notify all registrars and its burdonsome for them to update their internal block lists. As far as the size of the zone file, you’re only seeing names with nameservers assigned and it does not represent all names registered. As to the zone file, we are the only registry that has not released any of our premium names for auction and will not do so anytime soon.

    Cybersquatters are a huge Industry problem and I think it speaks volumes to those that try to prevent it before it happens without charging trademark holders thousands of dollars to block their names like some other registries are doing.

    While the concept of being proactive against cybersquatters is a concept that domainers don’t understand, we have looked ahead to the future to ensure the integrity of our TLD with trademark holders in mind.

    In closing, we are not part of the 90% that don’t respond to inquiries and next time you publish an article about .UNO we would appreciate the opportunity to get the fact stated correctly.

    • You may have had permission to register mcdonalds.uno and godaddy.uno but you din’t have permission to register the other 65 domains.
      It the even that one of those people actually wants to register these domains they can’t.
      It was not your job to decide on the Hispanic vote or register those 65 domains you picked randomly. Thus the PR trick.

      .XXX did a similar thing but they did it properly. They reserved all the adult performers names and made an announcement about it.
      You didn’t reserve. You registered. You didn’t register all politicians domains but only a few you liked. And you made no announcement
      so the people don’t know anything about this and don’t know they can get their domains from you.

      You should have thought of that before you launched. This mess is giving the New gTLDs a bad name. You should have done it the proper way no matter what it took.

      From what I have seen domains without a nameserver account for about 1-2% of the domains in the zone files.

      I don’t understand what you say here: “As to the zone file, we are the only registry that has not released any of our premium names for auction and will not do so anytime soon.” What does this have to do with anything?

      BTW Donuts charges trademark holders about $10 per domain block.

      “While the concept of being proactive against cybersquatters is a concept that domainers don’t understand, we have looked ahead to the future to ensure the integrity of our TLD with trademark holders in mind.”
      Sorry but with 65 domains that is not what you did.

      I will contact you next time but bear in mind that that doesn’t change the content of my articles…

    • Desiree,
      Will Ted Cruz be offered the same deal that Hillary Clinton will be? Will Tea Party.Uno be offered to the many Hispanic Tea Party members or will you tax that domain?…….. The case could be made that you are cybersquatting, in which you mention “domainers” don’t understand. Please clarify your position. Thank you.

    • I dont think cybersquatters would touch .uno even at $.99 registrations.

  3. Why do famous celebs get special treatment, and free domain names, if anyone can afford to pay for them, they can!

    Now .uno is the leading political party for the 2016 hispanic vote collections, lol this is funny, how many of them are even registered to vote? Nobody even bothered to announce .uno launched.

    I am sure the main political parties have Spanish language options on their websites, and .uno is another wasted extension. You have to give them away for free, because these companies do not feel these domains are worth paying a few bucks for, very sad.

    You may have 3000 names reserved, or so called protected, but your registrations are serioulsy lacking. .uno missed the boat onto the next 1000… so long

  4. Aaron ~ As previously stated, the names will be given to the respective brands / owners at no cost with no strings attached. As far as Domainers go, they profit based on the sale of domain names they scoop up. I’m confident that’s why domainers don’t appreciate our efforts. I haven’t met a domainer yet that takes any preemptive effort to thwart cybersquatting. I’ve found just the opposite.

    Konstantinos ~ Unfortunately, we can’t register every name under the sun and we can’t force trademark holders to register with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH). Much work still needs to be done to educate brands about the benefits of filing their trademarks with the TMCH and registering during the Sunrise periods to prevent cybersquatters. Frankly, we would have preferred the brands to register these names themselves in the Sunrise period but the fact of the matter is that they didn’t. We would rather do something than nothing at all to prevent cybersquatters. In turn, it will save the brands that we have secured thousands of dollars in litigation or URS proceedings to try and get them back.

    • Does the registey, and the domainer model not clone each other’s end result?

      Did you create the names out of thin air, what exactly are you selling them for, to get presidential votes, or to profit? Hypocrite

    • I am not sure what preemptive effort you want domainers to make… I don’t understand why we must protect others…

      I am sure you would prefer that every mark holder registered a .uno. More money for the registry.
      65 domains is nothing compared to the 20000+ marks in TC.
      This only shows some favoritism and opportunistic methods towards the 2016 election.

  5. Sadly:

    Yesterday they had 65 registrations TOTAL
    (now 1000 + or -)

    and it appears every single one was from cyber-squatters!

    Not even Spanish domainers are interested.

    Konsta: Thanks for Keeping it real.

    • Don’t waste your time with .uno, the management vision shows by their choice of words on this thread clearly show how closed minded they are. They are just mad they are not getting an registration love.

      Maybe you should rebrand to .cero?

      Let me know when the bankruptcy sale happens, I need some new office furniture

  6. If dot uno was trying to run a reputable domain registry, they would release all those names, tomorrow. This is a political-power-move and stinks. No bueno amigos. Your decision was bad, your explanation was weak. It was a bad idea. If your intent was fair, you would hold the names of all politicians, not only the ones you want to protect and control. For the politicians whose names you did not reserve, is it OK to “squat” on those names? Its simply unfair and does not offer equal consideration to those you claim to be concerned about. Fix it.

    • You are correct. The only way to fix this is to release the domains ASAP.

      BTW this is not a political new gtld. This move makes no sense whatsoever.
      Why not register domains for Latino athletes or actors as well?
      Except that .uno is trying to play the “elections” card as they don’t see any other way for the string to succeed.
      Sorry .uno.

    • They believe that .uno will be the internet for the Latino world and thru this medium they will attempt to control the message to the Hispanic voters. This move is such a dumb business move, it is obviously politically motivated and ill conceived. Seems like Dot uno has been betrayed by their motive. It reminds me of these fake non profits set up by the Koch bros, just to peddle a political agenda. Smells bad. It will be hard to stop that stench from getting to the main stream media.

  7. I wanted numero.uno but alas, it’s reserved. WHOIS doesn’t work properly.

  8. Acro ~ You may want to check ICANN’s SLD block list related to name collision. Nobody can register numero.uno! http://www.icann.org/sites/default/files/tlds/uno/uno-apd-list-05nov13-en.csv

    • It is not the registrant’s job to check ICANN and registry documents so they can register a domain.
      Fix your whois so that it states that the domain is not available.
      In whois terms “Not found” means available to register.

      And please .uno and all the other registries stop doing this.
      This is not just ICANN’s fault.
      Even if the domain was NOT in the collision list it would have been a reserved domain.
      Please no more bullshit.

      • Number.uno is reserved Dot Latin LLC, I would assume for the number.uno political party, I wonder if Desiree Hamburger is running in those elections?

  9. They hope to capitalize on the US election of 2016. They clearly want media and well known candidates to use this extension. They are also playing the “race card” while doing so. This is what happens when the CEO of UNO pals with political hacks such as Jim Messina, who famously missed the opportunity to secure the term “Organizing For Action”…….This is the most one sided extension available and makes a mockery of the new GTLD’s and domain investors…… UNO what? I won’t be buying “nada” after seeing all this…..adios amigos……

  10. of course numero.uno is reserved by registry
    its like bon.voyage / casino.vegas / stock.trade / news.today
    its the first word everybody is thinking on

  11. “I am not sure if they bought the domains to protect these people and organizations but this is a somewhat strange list of domains.”

    Interestingly, all the domains fall into one of just a few distinctly defined categories:

    ~~~ Political Parties ~~~
    Dnc
    Rnc
    Tea Party

    ~~~ Politicians (2016) ~~~
    Biden 2016
    Bush 2016
    Christie 2016
    Clinton 2016
    Cruz 2016
    Cuomo 2016
    Jindal 2016
    Omalley 2016
    Paul 2016
    Perry 2016
    Rubio 2016
    Ryan 2016
    Santorum 2016
    Walker 2016

    ~~~ Politicians ~~~
    Al Gore
    Andrew Cuomo
    Arnold Schwarzenneger
    Bobby Jindal
    Chris Christy
    Darrell Issa
    Hillary Clinton
    Jeb Bush
    Joe Biden
    John Kerry
    Jon Corzine
    Marco Rubio
    Martin Omalley
    Michael Bloomberg
    Michael Mccaul
    Mitt Romney
    Paul Ryan
    Rand Paul
    Rick Perry
    Rick Santorum
    Rick Scott
    Scott Walker
    Ted Cruz

    ~~~ Corporate^ / Misc ~~~
    Enterprise Bank
    GoDaddy
    McDonalds^
    Desiree

    ~~~ Professional Football (Soccer) Clubs ~~~
    Futbol Club*
    Mls Soccer**
    Chicago Fire
    Chivas Usa
    Colorado Rapids
    Columbus Crew
    Dc United
    Fc Dallas
    Houston Dynamo
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Montreal Impact
    New England Revolution
    New York Red Bulls
    Philadelphia Union
    Portland Timbers
    Real Salt Lake
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Seattle Sounders
    Seattle Sounders Fc
    Sporting Kansas City
    Sporting Kc
    Toronto Fc
    Vancouver Whitecaps
    Vancouver Whitecaps Fc

    ^ “We had permission to register mcdonalds.uno and other trademark names…”
    * Generic soccer domain
    ** MLSSoccer.com is the Major League Soccer website

  12. Yesterday they added:

    86 new regs (eighty six) .UNO

    67 .Sexy

    8 (EIGHT) .Tattoo

    Stop BS’ing domainers this ain’t the year 1999, Frank are you listening? get down from your pedestal and come to the trenches (12 USD registration fees?)

    Hundred and hundreds more New gTLDs coming….

    • .Uno is doing as I expected.
      .Tattoo is doing far worse.
      I expect other new gtlds with great expectations to crash: .Buzz, .xyz, .horse.
      I don’t understand how they can expect to compete with .web .online or even .tips or .today.

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