Joe Devine, CEO of Cloud 8 Sixteen, Inc. Speaks at WTLA Seminar

Joe Devine, CEO of Cloud 8 Sixteen, Inc. spoke last week at the Western Trial Lawyers Association (WTLA) in Maui, Hawaii. The conference is held annually for members of the WTLA, whose membership features top-notch trial lawyers from various parts of the Western United States.

This years’ conference was held at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Maui, and the theme of the convention was “Pride, Passion & The Practice of Law”. This is the third year that Joe has spoken at the conference, and this year, he discussed the benefits of live-chat services and search engine optimization as they relate to attorneys’ practices.

For more information on the Western Trial Lawyers Association, visit their website here. For more information on search engine optimization for lawyers or live-chat services, visit www.tseg.com or www.ngagelive.com.

Joe Devine, CEO of Cloud[8]Sixteen, Inc. spoke at the Summer 2012 session of the M&L Legal Management and Marketing Seminar at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia.  His talk, titled:  “The Art of Designing Your Website for Maximum Conversion” discussed the importance of website conversion as it applies to the legal field.

Marshall Hughes and Lee Coleman have been sponsoring the M&L events since 1992, and the goal of the seminars is to allow attorneys from around the United States the chance to meet and share ideas for further industry success.  Past seminars have been held in the Dominican Republic, Aruba, and in Utah.

Joe Devine and the rest of the Cloud[8]Sixteen, Inc. family are proud to contribute to the M&L Legal Management and Marketing Seminars and look forward to future participation in such a great event.

A new internet domain extension (“.xxx”) has been created to provide the adult entertainment industry with a unique domain extension and to help the general public to easily identify and/or avoid adult content sites when searching the internet.   This release has caused quite a stir.

Some web companies have taken an alarmist position and are instructing people to take very aggressive measures to defend themselves.   And while the possibility does exist that your business name could be purchased by “squatters” and used to host an adult content website on a .xxx domain; our position is that the risk is not any greater now, than it has always been.   The addition of .xxx domains simply adds one more extension to the already long list of .com / .net / .biz / .info / .co / .me / .mobi / .tv / etc.

Even if you purchase your existing domain name with the .xxx extension – countless variations exist that utilize dashes or additional word combinations.  A few examples of this might include:

• www.yourfirmname.com / www.your-firm-name-office.com  / www.yourfirmname-office.com
• www.your-firmname.com / www.yourfirm-name.com / www.yourfirmnamelawyers.com
• www.yourfirmname-lawoffices.com etc.

There are hundreds if not thousands of combinations considering all the URL extensions and variations with hyphens.   It would be costly to fully protect against all variations.

That said, we want to inform you of this potential threat and spell out a few facts:

1. It is possible for someone other than you to register www.yourcompanyname.xxx without your knowledge.

2. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has installed a system to allow companies to block their company name if the name has been trademarked from becoming an .xxx domain before it goes on sale to the general public.  If you wish to take this protective measure, you can follow these steps:

•  If your business name has been trademarked you can block the equivalent .xxx domain from being registered during the very first registration called “Sunrise B”.  This early registration period is strictly limited to trademarked companies.  The deadline for application is October 28,^, 2011, and the processing fee is $199.99.  The registration process and additional information can be found at http://www.godaddy.com/tlds/xxx-domain.aspx
•  If you have not yet trademarked your firm or company’s name, you will still be able to apply for a defensive registration once the .xxx domains are opened to the public during the “General Availability” sessions which opens on December 6, 2011, and the fee is currently set to be $99.00.

We encourage you to consult with your own legal counsel on the legal, business, financial, and related aspects of securing a trademark to protect against any possible infringements.  If you have any questions or need assistance securing an .xxx or any other domains please contact us at 800-267-1704 to discuss this further.  Additional information about the program and registration requirements can be found here:  http://www.icmregistry.com.

Respectfully,

Joe Devine

President & CEO

Cloud [8] Sixteen, Inc.

Cloud 8 Sixteen, Inc., is proud to announce that it has been ranked by Inc magazine at #167 on Inc. 500′s “Fastest-growing Companies in America” list.  For over 30-years, Inc  has released its annual rankings of American private companies, recognizing these companies’ entrepreneurial success.

In order to qualify for the honors, a company must be privately-held (without being a division or subsidiary of another company), and should be able to show at least four calendar-years’ worth of sales. In addition, the company must have made at least $200,000 in the first calendar year and  must be able to show at least $2 million dollars in revenue in the most recent year.