Mailbank/Netidentity (Score 1)

Mailbank was doing this at least two years prior to the patent application. They own common names... for example jones.com. The standard package includes, for a yearly fee, [e-mail] and http://jim.jones.com. They are now called NetIdentity. They would essentially be destroyed if asked to pay royalties. But check out the backers: "NetIdentity was founded in 1996 as Mailbank.com after the company discovered that 70% of the U.S. population shares one of only 9,000 last names. Using a computerized phone directory, NetIdentity sorted out the most common surnames and began buying them. The company is currently owned by a small group of investors including Mark Cuban, the Texas billionaire founder of Broadcast.com."