World Association of Domain Name Developers, Inc. names New Executive Director

Boca Raton Florida 7/9/07

The World Association of Domain Name Developers (WADND) has named John Epp Executive Director of Operations administering the company’s operations which includes the domain industry’s premier event, T.R.A.F.F.I.C Conference and Expo, bringing together domain owners and investors from all over the world in an exclusive gathering for education and profit. In his role, Mr. Epp will work with T.R.A.F.F.I.C co founders Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu to define mission critical and strategic planning goals for the growth and success of WADND and the T.R.A.F.F.I.C forums. Mr. Epp brings a wealth of success and accomplishment from multiple industries including the Internet and main stream corporate environments.

“I have known John for 10 years and he brings a set of unique talents to help launch T.R.A.F.F.I.C. into the next phase. His credentials make him qualified to introduce T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and the Domain Industry to other vertical markets and make it a more corporate friendly show.” –Rick Schwartz, President, CEO, Co-founder

“We believe that John Epp is perfect for the position of steering this vibrant and exciting industry forward. His expertise and acumen concerning both the domain channel and the needs of the corporate world will turn the volume of buzz up a notch and serve us well.” –Howard Neu, Secretary and COO of the company.

“I’m excited about joining the Team at WADND. Rick and I have a long history of working together on numerous successful projects and I look forward to making the company and specifically T.R.A.F.F.I.C., a growing and valuable entity to the Domain community. The opportunities for the future of the industry are incredible and I look forward to our continuing to form and grow strategic alliances that will add to the growth and success of the industry as a whole.” -John Epp

Mr. Epp brings 25 years of business management experience to the position and has had a wide range of success in multiple Industries throughout his career. His corporate background includes many years of success as National and Regional Manger positions for Customer Support in both Siemens Ag and IBM corporation. In those positions he has garnered numerous awards for his contributions to both companies. He has been a successful real estate investor growing and founding companies that have controlled Millions in property valuation. He has also been a successful Internet Entrepreneur founding and building a retail aggregate company specializing in behavioral and contextual marketing offering a large affiliate base the ability to garner revenue generated though product up sell opportunities.

The World Association of Domain Name Investors, Inc. is a closely-held Florida corporation with its offices at 1152 North University Drive, Pembroke Pines, FL 33024. It has successfully produced eight T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conferences and Expos (TargetedTraffic.com) from New York City to Silicon Valley and has instituted, in partnership with Moniker.com, Inc., live domain auctions that have seen in excess of $25,000,000 in domain names changing hands. It presently has T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conferences scheduled for October 2007 at the Westin Diplomat Resort in Hollywood Beach, Florida and February, 2008, at the beautiful Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hamburg entrepreneur Daniel Giersch has won a legal dispute with Google concerning the ”gmail.de” domain name and brand. Giersch has owned the domain since 2000, which predates Google’s Gmail brand. Google’s freemail service has been called Googlemail in Germany for a long time, because they have not been allowed to use the “Gmail” name. Giersch operates an email and postal mail service under gmail.de and he also owns the trademark for “Gmail” in Germany.

Google wants to use this domain for their own German email service, but I guess Google will now have to make a very high offer for this domain name if they want to become its new owner, because Daniel Giersch does not really want to sell it:

“I have made it clear since the beginning that I will never sell the name. It is my sole intention to realise my idea for a hybrid mail system. I am absolutely convinced of its success. Neither “G-mail” nor myself are for sale.”

Jay Westerdal reports that iPhone.com has been sold to Apple by Michael Kovatch for a price in the seven-figure range. Mr. Kovatch had registered the domain back in 1995, well before Apple registered the iPhone trademark.

Details can be found on Jay’s blog at DomainTools.com.