Flippa.com – The domain and web site aftermarket from Down Under
Flippa has become the top destination portal for buyers and sellers looking to trade domains and web sites.
Having passed the $100,000,000 mark in sales back in April, Flippa.com has attracted a large number of domain investors and it’s continuing its upwards trajectory, month after month.
The current “Flippa” trademark was granted in April 2010, and is registered with the USPTO in the following classes:
IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Dissemination of advertising for others via the Internet; Operating online marketplaces for sellers of goods and/or services; online trading services in which sellers post items to be auctioned and bidding is done electronically; business monitoring and consulting services, namely, providing information, data, statistics, analysis, and news in the field of online business. FIRST USE: 20090200. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20090200
And:
IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Computer services, namely, hosting an interactive website that allows uses to upload, store, and exchange information in the field of online business; providing online non-downloadable software for use in database management and database searching in the field of online business. FIRST USE: 20090200. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20090200
Although the Aussie domain marketplace was acquired from RareNames in August of 2008, there is an extensive story behind both the domain and the trademark.
Flippa.com was originally registered in 1999, the brain child of Adam Kidron, an entrepreneur notorious for both raising and blowing through massive amounts of venture capital.
One such start-up, Beyond Oblivion, gathered $77 million in a venture round funding by March 2011, only to fall apart and terminate its employees at the end of 2011. Beyond Oblivion burned through $32 million dollars without ever releasing a product!
Apparently, Kidron registered Flippa.com intending to use it as an electronic wager business, as the applications for “Flippa.com” and “Flippa” reveals at the USPTO – an application that was later abandoned:
(ABANDONED) IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: COMPUTERIZED ON-LINE ORDERING SERVICES FEATURING ELECTRONIC OR PAPER VOUCHERS REPRESENTATIVE OF A WAGER AND CUSTOMIZED GREETING CARDS WITH ELECTRONIC OR PAPER VOUCHERS REPRESENTATIVE OF A WAGER
Adam Kidron then let the domain Flippa.com expire in 2002, and it was re-registered in 2003 by RareNames. The rest is history.
Or is it?
Surprisingly, that’s not the case! 😀
On September 27, 1991, the application for “Flippa” at the USPTO by Canadian corporation Kellimex Canada, Inc. sought registration of the mark for “novelty item in nature of a cotton circular disk with a spring wire border for use in advertising and graphics applications.” That application was abandoned in September 1995.
So there you go, Flippa is a mark that was used before the era of the commercial Internet; another reason to use Flippa.com for your domain names! 😉
This post is 100% true!
