Buying a Domain From a Cybersquatter

Nevo writes "A partner and I are in the planning stages of a business. We've decided on a name that we'd like to use but the domain name is already registered. The owner has a single 'search' page up (similar to the one at www.goggle.com)... clearly not a legitimate business interest, but since we don't own a trademark on this name it doesn't qualify as bad faith, I don't think. Does anyone have any experience buying domains from these operators? Do you have any advice on how to approach the owners of these domains to get them at a reasonable cost?"

Comments

Financing Options Available

[shoemakc]

I was at a wedding over the weekend and one of the people at our table was talking about how their son runs a fairly profitable business in providing capital specifically for the purchasing of domain names. I can't recall if the business model involved a fixed interest rate, or a percentage of income, but it's the sort thing i never thought you could finance. I wonder how long before they start packaging them and selling them as securities on Wall Street :-)

-Chris

Ideas

[Max Romantschuk]

One option already noted is giving a reasonable offer and sticking with it.

Another option is simply asking for a quote, but don't for the love of god tell them you're planning a business. Rather just send an informal message in the style of "I think $domain is a cool name, yadda yadda...".

Personally I'd opt for trying to figure out a name for the business that's not taken. Nonsense words that are easy to learn and not profanity in major languages are good bets.

Don't play by their rules.

[KyroTerra]

My boss received an e-mail from a cybersquatter that sought to sell us a URL that was very similar to a URL we currently owned. My boss, being the URL hound he is asked me to purchase it. I offered the squatterâ(TM)s auto-bid website $50, which it automatically turned down and told me I had to offer a minimum of $500. I walked from the deal, only to receive an e-mail an hour later from the squatter, agreeing to my $50 bid.

Re:It's not going to happen

[_Hiro_]

I offered to cover a squatter's registration costs, $10/month hosting costs since he purchased the domain, and a 10% premium for the domain. This worked out to $120-ish.

He laughed at me and said he got that much profit a year out of letting the domain just sit and serve ads.

So we went and bought .band, .info, and .net instead for less than $120.

Squatter

[mseeger]

Hi,

I had to solve such a problem once for a customer of us. A domain expired by accident and fell into the hands of a domainsquatter. The poor ex-owner had already advertisement material printed with his domain name on it. Damages would have ranged at about 10K$.

The problem: If a german company tries to purchase the domain, the prices tend to skyrocket (probably the same for US companies). So we created a fake russian student (not very rich) who wanted to use the domain for his private web site. He had a russian email address, had a small home page with his russian ISP etc. This way with a little negotiation, we managed to purchase the domain at a very reasonable price.

You have to be careful to become the owner of the domain. At first they tried to "lease" the domain to us by just setting the records. But it was completely in accordance with our virtual pesonality to display some paranoia and insist on a complete domain transfer.

Sincerely yours, Martin

Re:Unfortunate

[networkBoy]

So the flip side:
I have a client that is three years past due on paying me for hosting & registrations...

(yeah, I know, shame on me mostly).

Anyway, yes she's three years past due on 5 active domains (all redir to one site). I've been covering her, but in reality I'm planning on taking all but one domain and "parking them". Nice older gal, trying to make some money selling artwork. I'm willing to charity case one domain for her, but not five.

Now the million dollar question:
Am I a sleeze for parking the other four domains and trying to sell them? (I think not).
-nB