Watching The Top Feline Domain At Auction

Earlier this year, the domain name dog.ai sold for $100,000.00 on Dynadot’s .Ai Registry Expired Auction. The auction is for dropped/expired .ai domain names and is controlled by the .Ai registry. Now we are about to witness dog.ai’s feline counterpart – cat.ai – go under the hammer in the November auction currently happening now on Dynadot. 

The .ai namesake is the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. This registry is not new and the .ai ccTLD has been around since 2009.  The registry itself can be found at Zenaida.Cate.Ai.

Needless to say, the Artificial Intelligence (Ai) community quickly adopted this extension as their own. And just how popular has the .Ai extension become? As of June 14, 2023 the total .ai domain names registered was 248,609. Fast forward to October 2024 and number of .ai domain names registered has more than doubled to 533,068.

It is important to point out a few caveats about the expired .ai auctions.

Perhaps the number one problem with these .ai auctions is non-paying bidders. And they are frequent. Since I monitor and bid in these auctions, I have seen many repeated listings for domain names. This becomes quite evident when I lose a domain name auction (or drop out of the bidding) only to see that name resurface the following month. An example is the domain name muslim.ai, which originally sold in the October 2024 ending auction. That name is again listed in the November 2024 ending auction (current) indicating the winner of the auction did not make payment. Previous hotly contested domains like fc.ai, estate.ai, and pit.ai were also relisted due to non-paying bidders (to name a few). Interestingly, from my observations and calculations, when such names are re-auctioned, those subsequent winning bids are significantly lower compared to the previous winning amounts – in one case as much as 80% lower. To me, however, it remains unclear how non-paying bidding can even happen in these auctions since bidders are required to deposit funds in order to bid. During the auction, if my funds are do not to cover my bids on the names I am bidding, I have to deposit additional funds. Could it be that bidders are using fraudulent or stolen funds? I do not know the answer to that. 

Equally frustrating is the auction ruling that if a bid is placed within the final hour, then the 60 minute clock is reset. In other words, if I am watching the clock tick down and I am about to win, if someone places a bid with 3 seconds remaining, the clock is reset to 60 minutes. How long can this go on? I guess in reality it would be an infinite amount of time. I have seen many still going on the following day. Whoever these people are that can stay on for nearly 24 hours entering last second bids, I congratulate you. I, for one, refuse to do this.

There are some other cautionary points to make especially on the legal aspects of these .ai domains. While there may appear to be some juicy gems of domains in the .ai auction, the registry has reportedly been known to take away domains from owners if there are conflicting TM’s (trademarks). That possibility is specifically mentioned on the Zenaida.Cate.Ai website’s FAQ: 

What are the rules for using AI domains?
The usage must not violate the laws of Anguilla. In particular, fraud is against the law. For example, any domain that is trying to trick users into thinking they are at another website so they will enter their user name and password is committing fraud. The domain will be either removed or given to the people who own the domain that was being impersonated so they can put up a warning or any info they want.hat are the rules for using AI domains?

Even if you were to manage avoiding having a name taken by the Registry, you still might not escape getting a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).  The name will then go through the process of a review panel where the deciding factor can be either one or three panelists ruling the outcome. This can be a costly endeavor in paying for legal fees for representation. So it is good to steer away from those heavily trademarked names like Visa, Google, and so on (one such name in this same auction is Boeing.ai).

In gathering information for this article, I came across this video from Giga.Law entitled Ai and Domain Name Disputes. There is a great accompanying video from legal expert Doug Isenberg. Doug released this video in May 2023 when the .Ai domainsphere was heating up. He specifically discusses trademarked .Ai domain names. If you are a domain name investor (or think you want to become one) it is well worth the six-and-a-half minutes to watch this video below.

Here are some facts about the .ai (Anguilla) registry:

Domain registry platform: Zenaida.Cate.ai, or Zenaida
Authority: WHOIS.AI is the authority in charge of managing the .ai extension
Registration: The minimum registration term is two years, and the minimum renewal term is also two years
Character set: The character set for .ai domain names is A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and hyphen
Transfer: .ai domains can be transferred to any desired registrar
Auction: Expired .ai domains are auctioned every ten days
Suspension or revocation: A .ai domain can be suspended or revoked if it’s involved in illegal activity
Regulations: The Anguilla government regulates .ai domains, and controls the cost for buyers

By the way – Zenaida (Doves) is the National Bird of Anguilla.

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