Clek Media Inc. has apparently brokered the largest dot com sale in history of FUND.COM to Meade Technologies, currently Fund.com Inc. (OTCBB: FNDM) This sale knocks off the previous record holder BUSINESS.COM for $7.5 million in 1999. Speculators of the domain industry have argued the high price of this domain, yet only recently has the true value of Internet real estate become obvious.

However this sale also could be showing signs of just how weak the US Dollar has become. Offshore companies have more money to spend with American currency dwindling, and it is throwing off the market. Not only that but this sale could just be inflated as a marketing ploy, something the domain industry loves to pull off. Honestly I think the name is weak, and the plural FUNDS.COM would be worth significantly more (but still not 8 or even 7 figures.)

CNN Money has rightfully noted the sale of SEX.COM in 1999 for a reported $12 Million, yet this deal had been benched and the original registrant sold to ESCOM LLC in 2006 for an undisclosed price. Which still leads me to believe that sale was more than likely over $10M.

May 2002 Addidas.com WIPO Adidas-Salomon AG v. Legueret Dominique

In 2005 addidas.com was bought for $13,009 from Enom’s Club Drop . Then Received a WIPO Adidas-Salomon AG v. Jim Yoon / Yunkook Jung

2008 addidas.com was aquired through snapnames by ”ever ready domains” yet apparently is still pending payment as the nameservers are in interim:

NS1.INTERIMNAMESERVER.COM
NS2.INTERIMNAMESERVER.COM

What this means I guess is the WIPO process can be used as long as a trademark is relevant. A company like Adidas can easily spare the legal retainer and UDRP fees. It is however quite irresponsible of Adidas to let the name expire not once, not twice, but three times. Unfortunatly they are just throwing money down the drain, and nothing is being accomplished except more lawyers being paid (yawn.)