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Pre-Selling Domain Names?
Allnighterking asks: "Within the last 24 hours I've been the unwitting victim of a new practice by any number of domain registrars. The concept of pre-selling domain names before they expire. Go to any of the more popular domain registrars and start searching for domain names. You will find dozens of them for sale -with the date they will expire clearly listed-. In my case yes, I was negligent in not renewing. I also did not receive notice that it was to expire either. The day after it expired (or more like 8 hours after). I found out that I was no longer the owner of a domain I've owned for over 3 years, that this domain is now the 'property' of a domain squatter selling google adds on my hard earned search engine status. What can be done? Do we have any recourse?"
"Perhaps this is just another case of ICANN , you can't.
Apparently, the sale of expired domains is big business. See this google search for more. It leaves one to wonder what would have happened a few years ago when Hotmail expired. Would Microsoft have been stuck? Or would they be doing what I've been asked to do: pony up 20k to get my domain back!"
Apparently, the sale of expired domains is big business. See this google search for more. It leaves one to wonder what would have happened a few years ago when Hotmail expired. Would Microsoft have been stuck? Or would they be doing what I've been asked to do: pony up 20k to get my domain back!"
Register your domain with a reputable registrar, one that either auto-renews or reliably tells you when it's about to expire, and you won't have any problems.
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Our business name is "ICW International" and they stole icwinternational.com from us by refusing to let us pay to renew it, even before it expired. Now it's still under their ownership, but they've turned it into ads. Their phone support has refused to help us. They'll give it back for several hundred $, but they've cost us a great deal more over their rotten, criminal business practices.
I believe there's a Federal law prohibiting squatting. That is, if you either have a trademark or lose a site, then you can buy the domain name for the regular registration site. This was a big deal a few years back.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
Actually, they only ponied up $500 when they fucked up and let passport.com expire 6 years ago...an event that made hotmail.com very useless: Read about it here
I'm trying to purchase a domain from a domain squatter. He's just putting up a GoDaddy ForSale sign, but he doesn't know the first thing about selling a domain. I've offered him $300, which I think is a fair price, but he's holding out for a multithousand dollar offer, which is extremely doubtful, considering the domain name. (not posting the domain name so he isn't warned) Anyway, to keep On Topic, try using Snapnames.com to retrieve the domain when it expires, or try suing them. There is a law (see below link) that bans cybersquatting: http://www.gigalaw.com/library/anticybersquattinga ct-1999-11-29-p1.html
Here is a quote from an excellent article from Mike Davidson's Blog where he talking about how domain names expire:
"Contrary to popular belief, domains do not expire when they say they do. If the owner of a domain does not renew by the expiration date of the domain, the domain goes into "expired" status. For 40 days, the domain is in a grace period where all services are shut off, but the domain owner may still renew the domain for a standard renewal fee. If a domain enters this period, it is a good first indicator that it may not be renewed, but since the owner can re-register without penalty, it can also just be a sign of laziness or procrastination.
After 40 days are up, the domain's status changes to "redemption period". During this phase, all WhoIs information begins disappearing, and more importantly, it now costs the owner an additional fee to re-activate and re-register the domain. The fee is currently around $100, depending on your registrar. When a domain enters its redemption period, it's a good bet the owner has decided not to renew.
Finally, after the redemption period, the domain's status will change to "locked" as it enters the deletion phase. The deletion phase is 5 days long, and on the last day between 11am and 2pm Pacific time, the name will officially drop from the ICANN database and will be available for registration by anybody."
If you own a trademark to the name
If you've been using it for 3 years, and it's directly (or obviously) derivable from your business name then it doesn't need to be registered as a trademark to get the same protections under the law.
A trademark can be either registered with the PTO or it can be a commonly used word, phrase or graphic that people commonly associate with your business. Your domain name, being in use for over 3 years, would be commonly associated with your business by people who know of or use it.
Send the new owner a harsh letter demanding some untold number of millions of $$$ for illegal use of your trademark.
You'll win if you get to court. If it was sold off within less than 8 hours and the new owner is only displaying ads on it, it sounds like they were just waiting for it to expire, or did actually pre-buy it while you were still using it...
That is ILLEGAL! Take it to court!
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