About the Personal Names Service
This domain name is part of a portfolio of domain names that was first registered in 1996 by Mailbank.com Inc., which later became known as NetIdentity, Inc. Then, and now, the business concept behind these domains is to allow multiple users to share domain names that correspond either with their personal names or their personal interests.
In June 2006, Tucows, Inc. acquired NetIdentity, Inc. and its portfolio of domain names. In addition to continuing the business of offering shared domain names, Tucows also made these shared domain names available through its large network of domain services resellers as the Personal Names Service.
In March 2009, NetIdentity’s operations were rolled into the operations of Hover, a domain services reseller owned and operated by Tucows. Like Mailbank and NetIdentity before it, Hover allows multiple users to share domain names that correspond either with their personal names or their personal interests. You can get your own personal email and web address at Hover.
The old NetIdentity slogan, "Sharing is good, sharing domains is better," speaks volumes about our philosophy regarding these domain names.
About Trademark Issues
Tucows, Inc. is a publicly traded company, one of the oldest Internet companies in the world, and the registrant of numerous trademarks and service marks for the suite of Internet services it provides. Tucows makes a practice of presenting its Internet offerings in a way that does not infringe on the rights of others.
We passionately believe that our use of each of our shared domains is a lawful and non-infringing use. The domain names that make up our Personal Names Service are critical business assets, and we will and do defend them when forced to do so.
Of course, we greatly prefer communication over litigation, so if you feel that you have a genuine trademark or other legal concern related to our use of one of these shared domain names, please write to domain_management[at]tucows.com (replace "[at]" with "@" and note the underscore) and we will be more than happy to assist you.
Please note that we have a long and successful history of defending our legitimate use of our 40,000+ shared domain names and the many clients who use these domains for their email and web address. This is the same portfolio of domain names that was reviewed and judged to be a non-infringing use of common surnames in Avery Dennison Corp. v. Sumpton, 189 F.3d 868 (9th Cir. 1999), and we continue to win UDRP claims that are filed against our shared domains.
