Domain Glossary
27 terms matching your filter
ACPA (Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act)
A US federal law allowing trademark owners to sue cybersquatters for up to $100,000 per domain.
Category Killer Domain
A domain that defines and dominates an entire industry category — the most valuable domain type.
CHIPS Domain
A pronounceable four-letter .com domain favored by Chinese investors — vowel-consonant pattern combinations.
Common Law Trademark
Trademark rights based on actual commercial use, without formal registration — can support UDRP claims.
Decentralized Website
A website hosted on IPFS and accessed via a blockchain domain — censorship-resistant and decentralized.
DMARC
An email security policy that instructs receiving servers how to handle emails that fail SPF/DKIM checks.
DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions)
Cryptographic extensions that verify DNS records haven't been tampered with — protection against spoofing.
Domain Fund
An investment fund that pools capital to buy and manage domain portfolios — like a REIT for domains.
Domain Tasting
An old practice of registering domains for free using the 5-day grace period refund policy — eliminated by ICANN in 2009.
ENS DAO
The token-holder governance body that manages the ENS protocol and treasury.
ENS Resolver
The smart contract that looks up records (wallet address, website) for an ENS name.
EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol)
The protocol registrars use to register and transfer domains, and the source of transfer auth codes.
Glue Record
A special DNS record providing a nameserver's IP address when the nameserver is within the domain it serves.
Handshake (HNS)
A decentralized blockchain protocol that allows anyone to own a TLD on a distributed root zone.
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority)
The ICANN body that manages the DNS root zone, IP address allocation, and protocol registries.
In Rem Action
An ACPA lawsuit filed against the domain itself when the owner is unknown or outside US jurisdiction.
IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)
A decentralized file storage protocol used to host censorship-resistant websites pointed to by Web3 domains.
Legitimate Interest (Domain)
A domain owner's valid right to a domain that defeats a UDRP complaint — includes bona fide business use and descriptive names.
NAF (National Arbitration Forum)
An ICANN-accredited UDRP dispute resolution provider, second only to WIPO in case volume.
Price Anchoring
A negotiation tactic where the first price stated sets the psychological reference point for the deal.
RDNH (Reverse Domain Name Hijacking)
When a trademark holder abusively files a UDRP complaint against a legitimate domain owner to steal their domain.
Root Zone
The top of the DNS hierarchy listing all TLDs and their nameservers — managed by ICANN/IANA.
SOA Record (Start of Authority)
The first DNS record in a zone file — contains administrative data about the domain's DNS zone.
URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension)
A faster, cheaper UDRP alternative for new gTLDs — results in suspension rather than transfer.
Vickrey Auction (Handshake)
Handshake's blind second-price auction system for TLD registration — winner pays the second-highest bid.
Wildcard DNS
A DNS record using * to match any subdomain that doesn't have a specific record.
Zone File
The file on a nameserver containing all DNS records for a domain.