Patent App for “Jointly Auctioning Expiring Domain Names” — GoDaddy Files

Registrar files patent applications related to helping owners of expired domains sell them.

Domain name registrar Go Daddy has filed two patents describing a system for jointly selling an expiring domain name in conjunction with the current owner of the domain name.

United States Patent publications 2010/0106650 and 2010/0106616 describe a system whereby a deal is struck between the owners of expiring domain names and a domain seller to sell the domain names and share the profits.

The basics of the invention are:

1. Pull a list of domains expiring within a predetermined timeframe
2. Contact the owners of these expiring domains, offering to help the owners sell the domains
3. Getting the owner to agree via some mechanism (e.g. email, click-through agreement on web site)
4. Sell the domain (e.g. on GoDaddy Auctions) and share the proceeds

The two patent applications were filed on October 29, 2008 and just published today. They list Go Daddy President & COO Warren Adelman and Vice President of Corporate Development & Policy Tim Ruiz as inventors.

Application PDFs:

US20100106616
US20100106650