Ask Slashdot: What Is the Best Way To Hold Onto Your Domain?

An anonymous reader writes: There have been quite a few stories recently about corporations, or other people, wanting to take over a domain. This has me wondering what steps can I take to ensure that outsiders know that my domain is in use, and not up for sale. In my case, I registered a really short domain name(only 5 characters) for a word that I made up. The domain has been mine for a while, and Archive.org has snapshots going back to 2001 of my placeholder page. It could be close to other domain names by adding one more letter, so there is potential for accusations of typosquatting (none yet). I have no trademark on the word, because I saw no reason to get one. The domain is used mostly for personal email, with some old web content left out there for search engines to find. The hosting I pay for is a very basic plan, and I can't really afford to pay for a ton of new traffic. There is the option to set up a blog, but then it has to be maintained for security. What would other readers suggest to establish the domain as mine, without ramping up the amount of traffic on it?

Comments

Simple...

[Anonymous Coward]

Point to a S3 bucket with the placeholder page, and use the domain for email with a service like gmail.

That will be enough to prove that you activelly use the domain for all pratical reasons.

If you try to use it for commercial reasons, then it gets a bit more tricky, because in that case there are trademarks, which may take precedence if your domain is newer then them. Also the simple fact that you use it that way may trail the lawyers on your scent...

Re:Simple...

[Anonymous Coward]

wrong "then"..

Re:Stop cyber squating

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article, you'd see he said he was using it for email.

That's not cybersquatting. Just because it doesn't have a webserver it does not mean it's not being used.

The straightforward

[ScottyLad]

This has me wondering what steps can I take to ensure that outsiders know that my domain is in use, and not up for sale.

Probably using the domain, and not putting it up for sale would be a good start.

Not all domains are used for public websites. Is this a real problem, or is your domain likely to be confused for a prominent brand? I have domains I've registered but never got round to the project they were intended for, but I don't worry that I have to justify their existence to anyone beyond paying the registration fee.

Re:The straightforward

[JonnyCalcutta]

I'd agree with this. The situations where the system is abused to steal someones domain is so rare that its not worth worrying about. If Giant Corp Inc really wanted to steal your domain you would probably just disappear one day anyway ;)

Like the parent I've had a few domains over the years - some just because they were for customer projects that never got going and I liked the sound of them. I've even been approached to sell one of them (not enough to make me part with it) but I can't say I've ever worried about justifying my ownership. If it could be confused with a prominent brand then obviously YMMV.

Re:The straightforward

[Antique Geekmeister]

> The situations where the system is abused to steal someones domain is so rare that its not worth worrying about.

What makes you think this? There are entire companies that squat potentially useful domain names, and resell them as desired. They've fallen in prominence as registration has become easier, and registrars have evolved policies to recover expired domain names more quickly. Most of them are pretty benign, and will turn the domain over to the original for what is effectively a "finder's fee". But it's a _very_ common practice.

Re:The straightforward

[Anonymous Coward]

He was referring to the UDRP process, not recovery if you absentmindedly let your registration expire.

And it's not "squatting" if there are no trademark issues involved. Simply that someone registered it before you which is perfectly fine (aka "tough cookies").

Re:The straightforward

[Anonymous Coward]

Over 15 years or so I have searched for some domain names based on my actual name (I'm a professional in health care). On a couple of occasions I found an unclaimed name using a registration sites search--I'm not going to name GoDaddy Gesundheit! I could have taken some names at that time, but waited a day. When I went back the next day, the domain names had been claimed by a company GoDaddy gesundheit! I won't name, and were offered to me for prices ranging from a few hundred $$$US on up.
Eventually I figured out that having a website cost me around $50 a years, and I probably get $10 a year in business from it. But, It helps old customers find me.

14 years

[jbolden]

You've had a domain for 14 years. You haven't abused it. You have real email traffic and some real website on it. You aren't even in the grey. I would say don't worry about it. Just don't let the domain expire.

Re:14 years

[AmiMoJo]

Unfortunately that won't stop people trying to take it off you if they want it. I get occasional offers/demands for some of my domains, for example.

It helps to be outside the US, then you can just ignore 99% of the legal threats. Make sure to avoid using a US based domain registrar, so that US courts can't force them to hand the domain over with a default judgement. Make sure you never hint at or imply you might be willing to sell. Sometimes they will offer you insane amounts of money in the hope you will bite, but it's a trap. Once you express interest they will claim you are cybersquatting and try to use the dispute resolution system to take control.

Re:14 years

[jbolden]

Well a few things..

1) USA courts rule over trademark infringement in the United States. Verizon, AT&T, Comcast... are going to go by USA court rules regarding DNS. Ultimately XYZ.com is going to point for USA customers to whatever IP addresses USA courts say it should point to regardless of what register is used as far as ICANN is concerned. A USA court is going to show some but not absolute deference to a foreign government. And for that matter ICANN is going to follow a USA court. Same as the other issues you and I have discussed.

2) Cybersquatting protection requires a trademark violation. The trademark has to exist.

3) There is nothing wrong with hinting you are willing to sell. I'm willing to sell my home for enough money and I still live here. If someone wants to pay me 130% or market (not even an insane amount) I'm out tomorrow. The fact that I would sell for over market doesn't indicate bad faith which is the other thing that needs to be proven.

This guy is acting in obvious good faith.

Re:14 years

[Anonymous Coward]

It helps to be outside the US, then you can just ignore 99% of the legal threats.

A little known fact is that you can actually ignore any and all legal threats, regardless of your location. A legal threat has no legal basis of any kind. As long as they're just threatening, they don't have a case. Once they do have a case, the only thing that is going to let you keep your domain is having more money than the other guy, and the will to spend it.

Re:14 years

[Solandri]

3) There is nothing wrong with hinting you are willing to sell. I'm willing to sell my home for enough money and I still live here. If someone wants to pay me 130% or market (not even an insane amount) I'm out tomorrow. The fact that I would sell for over market doesn't indicate bad faith which is the other thing that needs to be proven.

Hold your horses. Hinting that you're willing to sell is probably the worst possible thing you can do if a trademark owner is trying to take your domain away from you. From ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, the first example of a bad faith registration is: " circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name."

Never signal that you're willing to sell, even as a joke. The domain is your baby, and you want it forever. If they offer an amount you're willing to sell for, then take it. But never admit before then that a certain amount would get you to change your mind. When Nissan (the car company) tried to take nissan.com from Uzi Nissan (the computer store owner) who had registered the domain long before Datsun ever began using their Nissan trademark in the U.S., they asked him how much it would take for him to sell. He replied, "A million dollars. Why can't you understand I'm not going to sell." Basically he pulled a Dr. Evil. Back when the phrase "a million dollars" was first coined and the average person made a few dollars a week, it meant a ridiculously huge sum of money. But today it's not that much money.

Nissan's lawyers immediately took the first half of his statement, snipped out the context in the second half, and presented it to ICANN as evidence he was squatting the domain to extort money from the trademark owner. ICANN then decided to take the domain away from him and put it in escrow until the dispute was resolved (eventually in Uzi Nissan's favor years later, though he lost millions because he wasn't awarded legal fees). If he hadn't used that particular phrase, he might have been able to continue using the domain throughout the legal proceedings.

Read up on the UNDRP if this is something you're really worried about.

Re:14 years

[Anonymous Coward]

Well on the bright side I'm never buying a Nissan as a result of this nonsense and I tell everyone I know not to, since they're a dbag company (Infiniti as well).

Funny thing is, I'd forgotten about it but then was going to buy a G35 and remembered. Fuck off assholes.

Re:14 years

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately that won't stop people trying to take it off you if they want it. I get occasional offers/demands for some of my domains, for example.

It helps to be outside the US, then you can just ignore 99% of the legal threats.

Except that you won't be able to have a pure dot com domain. It will be dot com dot shit

Re:14 years

[AmiMoJo]

Are there any examples of US companies being able to steal domain names away from foreigners using US courts? I'm not aware of any but your scenario is somewhat plausible, but on the other hand if it happened it could easily cause the rest of the world to ignore US forced changes to DNS. The US doesn't want control of the internet to be taken away from it, especially since it would probably be given to the UN, so it has to play nice.

Best to avoid .com and other "universal but really US" TLDs.

Re:14 years

[jbolden]

Reread the comment

indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling

He clearly hasn't registered primarily for the purpose of selling since he is productively using it. Agreeing to sell property you are using and holding property for only the purpose of selling are different.

Re:14 years

[jbolden]

To the best of my knowledge no. USA courts are satisfied with the private system in place. Which is USA law, if there exists a well known private dispute system the courts tend to lend it power rather than overtake it. So as long as ICANN is responsible ICANN can run it. A somewhat related case was a mainland China owner who owns taiwan.com, was sued by the government of Taiwan and the mainland owner's ownership was upheld by USA courts.

As far as foreign courts splitting DNS. They might. I don't know how though you could take DNS away from the USA as far as the courts and USA customers are concerned. It doesn't matter if it is the UN or any other foreign registrar, domestic DNS would still need to listen to USA courts.

A word you made up?

[BasilBrush]

Which is it: a word you made up, or a well known domain name minus a letter?

Because using duck typing, I say you're probably a cybersquatter, and don't deserve help.

Re:A word you made up?

[Maritz]

I say you're probably a cybersquatter, and don't deserve help.

You really are a delight.

Re:A word you made up?

[Zocalo]

It could easily be both, in which case the differentiating factor should be which came first - the made-up word domain registration or the well known name (which could also be a made up word - "googl" and "Google", for instance). Who has the most expensive lawyers aside, the responsibility for checking for pre-existing typosquatting domains ought to lie with the company, the same way it's their responsibility to make sure their intended name doesn't infringe on any existing trademarks and servicemarks. Back in 2001 I doubt too many people were even thinking about such things though.

Re:A word you made up?

[BasilBrush]

Put your brain into gear.

1) Anonymous coward.
2) Danger of being a typo for a known brand.
3) Unwilling to spend any time on making a real website, just wants to put something there that would give him a legal argument if it came to a legal battle.

Of course he's a cybersquatter.

Re:A word you made up?

[AthanasiusKircher]

Which is it: a word you made up, or a well known domain name minus a letter?

It could be both... and even if it is the latter, that doesn't necessarily mean the domain was registered in "bad faith," which is a legal standard for cybersquatting. Are you suggesting that trademarks should extend not only to an actual trademarked name, but to all conceivable misspellings or abbreviated versions, etc.? That's not the legal standard... nor should it be. Trademarks are already a fairly broad restriction on public freedom, and they should only be extended beyond the actual name when there's an intent to deceive or to profit by confusion with the "real" name.

Because using duck typing, I say you're probably a cybersquatter, and don't deserve help.

Why? He's a guy who has had a domain for 14 years, appears to actually use it for something, and apparently any connection to a real world trademark is either so tenuous that no action has been taken so far or the trademarked name actually postdates his website, so the threat to his private website is new.

In any case, it sounds to me that it's more likely the poster is a typical Slashdot paranoid... worried about a threat that probably isn't significant.

Re:A word you made up?

[BasilBrush]

Are you suggesting that trademarks should extend not only to an actual trademarked name, but to all conceivable misspellings or abbreviated versions, etc.?

No I'm not. I'm saying that all the clues point to cybersquatter:
AC question, lack of desire to put anything there that would take any time to do, worried about bandwidth costs of having a site that anyone would visit, trademark misspelling.

It walks like a cybersquatter and it quacks like a cybersquatter.

Re:A word you made up?

[Soluzar]

It is of course possible that the name registered 14 years ago was an original word and that the "well-known domain" came later.

Re:A word you made up?

[Soluzar]

Google (googol) isn't really a made up word, though. It is word deliberately misspelled for branding purposes, and that's fine... it just isn't a made up word.

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Put your brain into gear.

1) Anonymous coward.
2) Danger of being a typo for a known brand.
3) Unwilling to spend any time on making a real website, just wants to put something there that would give him a legal argument if it came to a legal battle.

Of course he's a cybersquatter.

You are making a supposition that they are cybersqatting.

Say you registered loanow.com(I pulled this out of the air) 10 years ago, and you run your email through it. Later on, some finance company decides that Loan Now is their brand, and sets up loannow.com. Their lawyers decide that you are typosquatting, event though you registered the domain years before they had the concept to use that name. How are you a cybersquatter then?

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

It walks like a cybersquatter and it quacks like a cybersquatter.

Ummm... no? I used to own a domain name that was the screen name I used to use for games online. I had not interest in setting up or maintaining a website; however, I did use it for email for quite a while. I also used it for a couple of private services that I could get to remotely but would never have exposed to the public. Amongst other things this included SVN repos for private, personal projects and a couple of other goofy things most of which weren't actually made accessible via HTTP. Just because someone doesn't have a presence on port 80/443 doesn't mean that they aren't actively using the site.

For me, ultimately, other services subsumed my use cases and I didn't renew the domain but I had it for several years. Domain names are often used for things other than websites and using it for such (which is what it sounds like the OP is actually doing) doesn't immediately mean typo-/cyber-squatting; it probably just means they wanted a domain for their email that wasn't @yahoo.com or @gmail.com. :/

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not only possible, its even very likely, given that nearly all human-readable permutations of names are used by some zimbalabumba startup companies at one time or another, until these invariably bite the dust again due to mismanagement and having a stupid name.

Re:A word you made up?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

No, it's not that simple.

I have domains I've owned for that long with similar low usage, and I'm not cybersquatting. Not everyone who behaves differently than you is a cybersquatter.

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

It could be both... and even if it is the latter, that doesn't necessarily mean the domain was registered in "bad faith," which is a legal standard for cybersquatting

Faith cannot be measured and therefor by definition is not a standard of any kind, neither good nor bad. Anyone telling you otherwise is abusing the English language. Correct them!

Re:A word you made up?

[BasilBrush]

For fuck's sake.

1) You're not posting as an AC.
2) Presumably it's not a typo for a known brand.
3) You're not asking on Slashdot for some ruse to make it look like the domain is in use when it isn't really.

You don't look like a duck, he does. What the fuck don't you understand?

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Put your brain into gear.

1) Anonymous coward. (...)

You are so cute when you think that not being an AC is an important thing. :)

Re:A word you made up?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

You seem a little tightly wound, and rather uncivil in response to a simple statement.

Some of my domains could easily be targets for some corporation that decided they had to have a particular domain. SOme of them have virtually no content or and have seen little use, either because I stopped working on the project or haven't started it yet.

In some ways I think my circumstance is indeed similar his, but either way I don't see the need to be so unpleasant in your response if you happen to disagree.

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

If I registered gogle.com in 2001 and have been using it for 20 years as an e-mail domain with some crap landing page and no intention to sell the domain, then I'm not squatting, even though it's one letter off of Google's name. Part of a cybersquatter's "quack" is some attempt to extract money from the entity that they're copying, either by serving ads, malware, or offering to sell the domain.

Re:A word you made up?

[BasilBrush]

I don't suffer fools gladly.

Re:A word you made up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoken like the hypocrite you are stupid http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=7625891&cid=50025523

Re:A word you made up?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

In other words, you're a pompous asshole with delusions of adequacy. Got it.

Re:A word you made up?

[DrVxD]

All words are made up.

You could always point it to a blogging service

[Chrisq]

A blogging service like blogger or wordpress will let you use your domain on a blog they host. They keep security patches up to date and you just update content if and when you feel like it.

It belongs to whoever has the most money

[Anonymous Coward]

Basic economics

Re:Give me an account...

[Anonymous Coward]

You do know his mum's 95? Ewwww :(

The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

The unfortunate fact is that it really doesn't matter if you establish prior use of the domain, because arguments of this sort only arise when there's an external trademark that already has multiple millions of dollars of "goodwill" competing for the use of the domain. The typical timeline for this sort of thing is: Joe Public registers boo.com because his daughter's nickname is Boo and he wants a cool place for showing off her baby pictures. 10 years later, someone builds the persona of their dog Boo into a huge franchise, and decides that they want an internet persona. They file to push Joe Public off the domain. Because they NOW have a huge investment in "boo", they beat Joe Public's use of the term even though, had they had a trademark battle initially, he would have won through prior ownership. And it's expensive to fight these battles. I own a three-letter domain name, which I've had since the mid 1990s. Yes, I've owned this domain for 20+ years. I have had to fight off - fortunately at no great cost - a couple of people who wanted to use business names that had the same acronym as my domain. I'm getting sort of tired of it to be honest - three letter .com domains can fetch as much as $100K in the right markets, and I'd seriously consider an offer like that at this point, despite a huge load of my life being linked to that site.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

This Supreme Court will side with 800-lb Gorilla, Inc. EVERY time.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[BasilBrush]

No, that's the man bites dog story.

The typical case is that it's a cybersquatter who's either registered thousands of domains in the hope of some of them paying off. Or worse: that's got a script looking for expired domains and snatches them up, in the hope that some schmuck who accidentally let a domain expire pays to get it back.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[houghi]

If a company wants your name, there is not a lot you can do. I know an individual who owns a two letter domain name. Till now he has refused to sell it.

That said; if a company want to sue you, it will most likely be dealth with on a US based trandemark. If you want to defend it, you will need to have deep pockets to even try and hope your pockets are deeper than those on the other side.

This will mean that you need to risk all that money with an uncertain outcome.

So the best think you can do is register it as a trademark.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

This is an irrelevancy. We are not discussing cybersquatters. We are discussing the - not uncommon - case where a small entitity or individual legitimately owns a domain, and a large entity later comes and demands it because the scope of their trademark expands to include it.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

The outcome isn't really uncertain; the richer party is guaranteed to win. Basically the way it tends to break down is: The original registrant is deemed to have "abandoned" the _trademark_ because they are not "doing business" with the trademark. And the challenger can show that they have been doing business with the same trademark; they can show invoices for advertising, copies of magazine advertisements, TV advertisements, press coverage of their product showing the name, etc. In some cases, a settlement amount is set by the court to reflect that the original owner did "invest" in the name, sort of a cash reimbursement of imputed goodwill. But you're better off talking direct to the company that's challenging you and negotiating a cash price up front. ESPECIALLY once you take the bullshit factor into account - lawyers, paperwork, etc. In summary: If you're an individual fighting a corporation, you're generally screwed. This advice applies to many facets of life, really; Erin Brockovitch notwithstanding.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

The domain is dead, it's not used. It serves zero purpose. Everyone was creating domains once they could do it without going through the mess we had do twenty years ago. Most rot and revert back, those are then picked up by slurpers to sell back or flip. OP wants to cash out, admitted it, but doesn't want to make the first move, as they'll lose.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[mrbester]

Currently that redirects to a different site. Not surprising as no one with any knowledge of dotcom crashes would willingly be associated with boo.com

Re:The short answer is nothing

[spiritplumber]

1) This is my property. 2) Get off my property. 3) Stay off my property. 4) I'm calling 911. 5) It's not for the cops. It's for an ambulance for you if you don't stay off my property.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

... yeah. Castle doctrine doesn't apply to domain names, y'know. Besides, the entire transaction happens at some physically remote location. BigCo says to registrant "MINE" (just like the seagulls in Finding Nemo). Registrant hands the keys to BigCo. There's nobody for you to aim at.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

Lol. Actually I didn't go look at the domain - it was a purely hypothetical example.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

There was a mess 20 years ago? I registered my domain with Network Solutions. I was living in Australia at the time. The only "mess" I encountered was the annoyance of currency conversion fees on my credit card, both for the registration and for the hosting - I had my site hosted in the USA because at the time any hosting in Australia was (a) at the end of a very very thin pipe, and (b) cruelly expensive.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[fermion]

Domain names are a limited resource, somewhat analogous to real estate in that there are areas that are popular and areas that are not. So right now everyone wants to live in Hong Kong and everyone thinks they have a right to do so for the same price it costs them to live wherever they are now.

With domain this makes sense because there is no real issues like with real estate. There is no one who is going to have to move to another country instead of staying close to their family, so there is no push for rent controls or bans on foreign ownership. So the actual issue of a domain name is purely a matter of arbitrary convenience.

This becomes more so as we expand the TLDs. And more so, as in this case, where the owner is just casually using a domain. It is no so much a matter of millions of dollars of good will, but of exploiting the resource period. I would also say that you do not buy a domain so much as rent it. This is why I suggest to my clients that they rent/buy the domain for the longest time possible.

I think this is question is a result of either a high level of paranoia or the realization by the poster that domain name squatting is not the business it used to be. If this is a typosquatted domain, and it is a primary email address, then get another email address. If it a serious domain, get some content on it.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[BasilBrush]

The cybersquatter might be discussing that. I'm discussing cybersquatters.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

You are aware that IPv6 makes this whole discussion moot, right?

Re: The short answer is nothing

[MenThal]

Please explain how IPv6 renders domain names obsolete. Are we switching to cute hexadecimal leet speak for our new URLs after the switch? That'll be a rather geeky land grab / gold rush...

Hmm, wonder how much getting the 80.0.8.255 subnet would cost?

Re:The short answer is nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, this is absolutely correct. However, OP will not actually be able to register it as a trademark because it doesn't appear that he is using the name in connection with commerce. If you're not using it in connection with commerce, you can not trademark it anywhere. So he's out of luck. Next time he should pick a personal/family name since those are generally considered "weak" trademarks by the courts.

Re:The short answer is nothing

[spiritplumber]

BigCo has an address. I have a robot army. ;)

Re:The short answer is nothing

[larwe]

"With domain this makes sense because there is no real issues like with real estate." Are you freebasing? If you are claiming that there is no real, monetary, physical cost and qualitative disruption associated with somebody effectively claiming eminent domain and uprooting you off a domain name - then you haven't thought this through.

Re:Give me an account...

[Anonymous Coward]

Any port in a storm...

Be rich

[Anonymous Coward]

On the off chance that anyone important wants your made up word badly enough, they'll just throw money and lawyers at you until you cave (shouldn't take long). So stop worrying about things you can't control.

Use it.

[pubwvj]

Actively use the domain.
Get your email via the domain.
Have a nice web page there like a blog.
Sell something through the domain, web page and blog.
Have ads from Google ads and such on the domain's site.
Trademark the word.
Copyright the logo with the word embedded.
Keep it all active.
None of this needs to be expensive and it shows that you are actively using it. Then if someone sues you for it you can easily defend yourself and sue back for damages.

Re:Use it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't understand. A simple static webpage saying: "this domain is not for sale" should be enough.

Re:Use it.

[Marginal Coward]

Likewise, if he isn't really committed enough to the domain to do all that then he doesn't much need it anyway - except for sentimental reasons and/or bragging rights. Personally, if I had a domain that was of so little use to me as his, which was attracting a lot of interest, I'd just sell it to the highest bidder and be done with all the headaches.

I actually have the converse case: I have multiple domains which aren't extremely short (7 letters or more), but were bought over 10 years ago, so they're shorter than any uncommitted meaningful domains that you could buy today. Three have a lot of content and the others just have a little content. I've never been approached by anyone to buy or take any of them.

However, I did receive an offer the other day for someone to sell me one that's somewhat similar to my most valuable domain. He says he's had it for 10 years, and it's still a parked domain. There isn't any reason for me to buy it because a relatively long domain name only has value when it's associated with a website which provides useful content. Just imagine how valuable "google.com" would be if had never been anything but a parked domain. An empty 6-letter domain would be worth something at this point, but not much.

Re:Use it.

[theskipper]

To be safe, you should never show ads if your domain name is close to an existing trademark. Especially if it's a reasonably valuable name that is worthwhile going after, whether generic or brandable.

If you own apples.com and a Mac ad showed up in the ad feed, you'd significantly hurt your defense in the UDRP process if Apple submitted screenshots of it. The panel lawyers are notoriously inconsistent and this would just give ammo for them to approve the transfer. Even if your registration was earlier than the date when the trademark was granted.

Having said that, there are attorneys like John Berryhill that could still successfully defend the UDRP. But if we're talking about a defensive posture then ad feeds should be watched closely or not used at all.

Blog as static html pages; no security holes there

[Anonymous Coward]

You could set up a blog that exports to a bunch of static HTML files. Jekyll, and by extension, Octopress, will do this for you. Static HTML files are unlikely to have security holes in them.

Comments are still possible using integration with services like Disqus.

You really don't want to install WordPress if you can help it, since it's the most popular blogging engine, it's also the most targeted.

Get a trademark

[Cassini2]

Get a trademark on the domain name ending in .com. No one else will trademark a domain name they don't own. When someone comes around to sue you, sue them back for trademark infringement. I think there have been a few cases where Walmart has tried to eliminate pre-existing trademark owners. Walmart lost, and all the cases ended in settlements.

Re:Get a trademark

[pem]

Registering a trademark, then not using it in commerce, won't do anything except cost you money.

Re:/. a congragation of the worlds legal scholars

[Anonymous Coward]

And the cyber-squatter would come here for legal advice? LOL.

Domain Registrars are all scammers

[cHiphead]

WARNING, DO NOT GO TO THE DOMAIN LISTED, ITS SPYWARE INSTALLER NOW.

I had pandora[x].com since 2000, on auto-renew, suddenly pandora.com actually hit big, registrar turned off auto-renew, the alert emails were nowhere to be found, and my domain was suddenly owned by a cayman islands company. The creation date is still 2000-01-12..

GoDaddy themselves transferred another domain of mine to one of their third party scamming companies that tries to sell domains while I was trying to get it renewed (within that 30 days after it expires). It's been 6+ years and they've done nothing with it, just sitting there, I have .net .org and .us for the name as well. Creation date on it is still 2000-01-16.

Don't ever take a chance with your domains, register them for 10 years at a time. GoDaddy, while having some useful services, will fuck you.

Re:Domain Registrars are all scammers

[v1]

registrar turned off auto-renew, the alert emails were nowhere to be found, and my domain was suddenly owned by a cayman islands company.

Lesson: never rely on others to save you from yourself.

Don't ever take a chance with your domains, register them for 10 years at a time.

100% agree. I've owned a 4char domain for over two decades. Fortunately it's not a common combination and doesn't make any good acronyms, so no problems so far for me. But I still keep it registered 10 out AND make damn sure I know my domain unlock codes. (you will remember when godaddy locked all those people out awhile ago when their dns and registrar pages went down, no unlock codes means you do not have control, only your registrar does)

I have a very basic web page system and also have been running email on that domain the entire time though, so I hope that's a good enough case if need be.

Re:Domain Registrars are all scammers

[Anonymous Coward]

(within that 30 days after it expires).

Ok, so what you're saying is that you let it expire. The 30 day period is pretty much you getting boned. I work at a webhost and have worked for a registrar. Once it expires, they really aren't under any obligation to you anymore. They usually will still let you renew, but it will take time and will cost extra money.

In short, you fucked up. Remove the tinfoil hat and realize that you should have contacted pandora yourself when they hit it big and asked if they were interested in your domain for 1 bajillion dollars.

Re:Domain Registrars are all scammers

[drinkypoo]

Don't ever take a chance with your domains, register them for 10 years at a time. GoDaddy, while having some useful services, will fuck you.

I thought we all knew that GoDaddy is a bunch of super shitbags by now. If you search a domain there and don't buy it, they often do... and squat it. They can't DIAF soon enough.

Re:Domain Registrars are all scammers

[Anonymous Coward]

OTOH, you could have simply ponied up the 10 bucks to renew it and not let it expire. No conspiracy needed.

Or in the rare instance that your domain was stolen, you would have filed a complaint with ICANN along with your supporting documentation and gotten the domain back.

It doesn't always end with lawyers, guns and money

[Anonymous Coward]

I was involved in one case where a big company wanted to buy a domain name. The domain owner had done a number of things right -- posted real content about his business on it, and number of things wrong -- indicated that the domain was for sale.

The corporate lawyer looked into the situation and thought that they could win the rights to the domain in court. However, reasonably enough the lawyer indicated that it would probably cost more than it would take to just buy the domain. At the end of the day, the company agreed to pay up to $10,000 for the domain (the owner settled for about $7,000).

The lawyer's reasoning was that the fight would be messy, maybe cost more than $10,000 (in effort and time) and might lose. Also, the potential for bad publicity and pissing off the community didn't make business sense.

The system sort of worked. In the end, everyone got what they wanted. The domain owner got a reasonable payout without too much effort (switching his domain wasn't that hard, and the corporation agreed to forward the email for six months or longer if needed), the company got the domain it wanted, no one got pissed off and no animals were injured.

Sometimes things work out for the better.

Scare Them Off

[avandesande]

Imagine the court proceedings!
Make them not want to be associated with your domain!

This is a great day /., finally a legitimate use for goatse guy

Re:Scare Them Off

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a great day /., finally a legitimate use for goatse guy

What do you mean? By now goatse is such an integral part of Internet culture that it is a legitimate trademark.
It wouldn't surprise me if someone started to sell goatse-branded t-shirts only to get sued by the goatse-guy.

Save some pennies

[andyring]

I know it'd be a moderate chunk of cash, but my recommendation would be to save up and purchase a 100-year domain registration. I think it runs about $1,000, but that'd likely take care of your fears.

Get some stupid basic web hosting

[Anonymous Coward]

Get some stupid basic web hosting.

Have a page that consists of
<html>
<body>
<h1>foobar.com</h1>
<p>foobar.com is owned and used by John Doe. Have a nice day.</p>
<body>
</html>

What else could you need?

(In before "You need a DOCTYPE")

Re:Get some stupid basic web hosting

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, if I wanted a placeholder web page for my email domain, I'd just show a (not-really-working) login form.

The analogy is that web users wouldn't see an empty lot; they'd see a big locked door (and nobody except you knows that it has no key).

Avoid U.S-based registrars

[Anonymous Coward]

that is the #1 thing to know. And it goes for all things Internet these days. Can you get the same from a European service? Go for it. You and your stuff on Internet will be in a safer and better place.

index.html

[slowmail]

"This domain is actively used for email and other purposes, and is not available for sale."

Re:index.html

[Anonymous Coward]

That is a very bad idea. Admitting that the site is not used for commerce is incredibly stupid. You might as well just post "I have no hope of claiming any trademark rights in this domain name. I'm now bending over."

A good example

[The Other White Meat]

I am the owner of the domain OSVISTA.COM. You would probably think "he must really like Windows Vista", followed by "how has Microsoft not sued him for that domain?" Thing is, I bought that domain years before Microsoft announced Vista; I just liked how it sounded. I use the domain for email, and I don't host any Windows related websites. Microsoft has never even contacted me about it, presumably because once they saw the registration date and that I am not using it in a way that conflicts with their trademark, they decided to leave me alone.

As long as you don't deliberately conflict with someone else's trademark, they have a very tough time arguing that they should be given the domain. Combine that with the fact that domain related cases are not heard through the regular court system, but under UDRP, and most companies won't bother.

Re:A good example

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably could have sued THEM for using the OS, "Vista."

Re:/. a congragation of the worlds legal scholars

[ArcadeMan]

Sounds about right to me. Have you seen the topics we discuss lately? A lot of them can be answered with lmgtfy.

Secure blogging

[Techmeology]

As an alternative (particularly if a DIY type), the OP could write a blog that is presented using only static HTML. I have a fairly simple set of Python scripts that compile a set of pages into a (if you can forgive my lack of visual design skills) presentablely formatted website: http://techmeology.co.uk/ This would avoid the potential for security vulnerabilites that might come from using a dynamically generated CMS like Wordpress.

Re:Secure blogging

[Anonymous Coward]

For the easiest transition of content from a static content website to a blogging platform there is scriptogr.am. You can edit your files using any text editor, store the files on Dropbox.com and scriptogr.am pulls the content automatically. You can even use your own domain name. The service is free. If the default styles (themes) do not suit you it is relatively easy to create your own theme or modify an existing theme.

You're in good shape

[Anonymous Coward]

The Uniform Domain Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a legal system set up to quickly and cheaply handle domain name disputes. Trademark holders (the complainant) use this system to file a case against a domain holder (the registrant, or respondent) to obtain a domain that they feel should rightfully belong to them.

The onus is on the complainant to prove three things (they have prove ALL THREE):
1. the domain is identical or confusingly similar to the trademark
2. the registrant does not have legitimate interest or rights in the domain name
3. the domain has been registered in and been used in bad faith

In your case, any complainant would have a difficult time proving #3, assuming your domain registration in 2001 predates their trademark. If a domain registrant has registered a domain prior to the existence of the trademark, it's nearly impossible for the complainant to prove that you registered the domain in bad faith with the trademark in mind. Furthermore, if you're not using the domain in a way that infringes on or confuses the public in such a way that they believe your domain is associated with the trademark, then it's very difficult for the mark holder to prove that you're using the domain in bad faith.

As a domain owner, you can't avoid someone filing a UDRP case against you, and you might need to spend some money on a domain name lawyer to fight such a case. However, this system is in place so that cases are decided within a few months and legal costs are kept low; often less than a few thousand dollars. And while that might be a lot of money to Joe Average, when you win a UDRP case it further solidifies your ownership of the domain and raises its value for a potential buyer.

Use an ICANN certified registrar...

[Anonymous Coward]

I use RegTek (www.registrationtek.com) and never had a problem with the three domains I registered for almost 10 years now. One of them I gave away to the band I bought it for, they were struggling at the time so I helped them out, Another is for my sons band, the last is for my personal email (my first name at the domain which is my last name) and if anyone goes to the top level domain it redirects to my facebook page. That way, it's always active.

Re:It doesn't always end with lawyers, guns and mo

[Anonymous Coward]

Look into "www.eggo.org" as a funny example of this. It's a vanity site about "Erik's Giant Groton Observatory", and Eggo, the frozen waffle maker, got pretty miffed when he wouldn't sell it.

register a domain as a .co.uk

[m1bxd]

Hi,

The best thing to do is to register a .co.uk or any domain looked after by Nominet. http://www.nominet.org.uk/
If you join Nominet as a registrar it costs it's £400 + VAT joining fee and £100 + VAT per annum.
That allows you to register at wholesale prices and control your domain via PGP instructions. (Or it was the last time I was a member)

So:

a) Updates are secure by PGP
b) Your domain is protected by Nominet and UK laws, which compared to other legal jurisdictions are i) cheaper ii) more sensible

If you cannot afford this route.

You can register a domain via someone like 123-reg.co.uk for a maximum of 10 years £34.90
Transfer the registrar IPSTAG to NOMINET and enable your Nominet account for 2FA
In the last month of the 10 years, transfer the registrar back to a cheap registrar, add another 10 years
Transfer the registrar back Nominet
Wash and repeat

Non-member renewal is £80+VAT per two years - so the above makes sense!
http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-d...

I reckon this is just about the cheapest way to actually "secure" a domain's ownership.

As a UK citizen, I am nervous that any of my .com domains could just be ripped off me. In such a way I never afford to recover them.

Re:It doesn't always end with lawyers, guns and mo

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes it ends with bribery to InterNIC. SPAM SPAM SPAM, eggs and SPAM.

How About Registering a Service Mark?

[msaroff]

I assume that you provide some sort of service (heck, it could be mowing the lawn), or can claim to provide some sort of service.

It costs about $375, but it would force anyone who challenges you to prove their case, and to provide proper service, before going the UDRP root, which lacks a lot of safeguards.

Pray

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all you can do, unless you've got some serious money and connections. Simply pray no big corporation or even a special interest group takes a fancy in your domain name, or anything that remotely resembles it. Because you have no chances whatsoever and trying to hold onto it will result in life-altering outcomes for you.

Have a boring blog

[davidwr]

Start a no-comments-allowed blog called "TWRYX's blog" (or whatever the five-character name is) and make it very boring so it doesn't generate much traffic. Have your hosting provider block traffic for the rest of the day if it exceeds more than a pre-set limit so you don't get billed for any overages.

Bonus points if you can make it a backronym to something connected to something about you but which doesn't compromise your personal security (e.g. "Tennessee's Wacky Railroad's Yellow Xings" if you lived in Tennessee and thought the yellow railroad-crossing-ahead signs were whacky when you were a kid).

Not Many Good Options

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, just because you own a domain name and are the lawful registrant, that alone does not establish either common law or USPTO registered trademark rights. Anyone who is actively engaged in commerce and using that name for their goods or services, will establish common law trademark rights in that name, and be able to make a legitimate run at "taking your domain away" from you. The only way you can defend against this is to actively engage in commerce using that name as soon as possible (note that the USPTO will not register your trademark until you actively engage in commerce anyway).

If you have no interesting in engaging in actual commerce with that name, then you are pretty much out of luck. Next time, register a domain name that is the same or very similar to your personal name. Nobody's trademark rights can trump your own personal name (you basically have trademark rights in your personal name by default).

Re:Not Many Good Options

[Anonymous Coward]

I needed to look something up at whitehouse.gov a while back but typed whitehouse.com by mistake. Surprise surprise when I found it was a porn site then.

You could also do the Blogger/Blogspot Thing

[msaroff]

Basically, create a blog on Blogspot, and then set it up for a custom subdomain: How do I use a custom domain name for my blog?

Then follow the directions at a link.

The blog will be hosted on Blogger, which will handle maintenance, but the URL will point to (for example) https://blog.xyzzy.com/ .

I would still try to find something that you can place a trademark or service mark on, and have the home page explaining the product/service.

Set up Email

[shellster_dude]

Set up an MX record and an email server. Create an email address that's a bit off (to avoid spam) and occasionally forward an unimportant email to that address. Now you are using the domain for "email".

HTML

[petteyg359]

Maintaining a blog secure is as simple as using static HTML page instead of WordPrexploit.

basic tips for legitimate domain holders

[Jim Efaw]

As you've implied, but just to make it clear: It's not legitimate for someone to declare your domain's death in absentia just because they can't see anything new and cute. The domain name system was not invented for website addresses in the first place; it was invented to let people assign their own names for computers, and it's nobody's business whether they can see your list of zero or a million computers that are also none of their business. That being said, I'll mention a few tips to defend your domain against self-serving grabby types:

• As long as you already have web hosting anyway, just make sure there's a homepage that mentions that the domain really is in use. It doesn't have to have images or anything fancy at all; just enough to let people know that someone is paying attention if they pull any tricks. Maybe mention that it's been in use since 2001, to indirectly discourage anyone from thinking that a typosquatting case is going to be in their favor. In any case, it will get the point across that you're not a squatter.
• If you ever get tired of paying for hosting, some registrars (like Gandi) will host a redirect or a simple 1-page or 3-page site of your own content for free (not just placeholder spam for their own company). That's enough to tell grabby types to move along and stay off your lawn.
• If you think someone might actually try to impersonate you to hijack your registration (either by registrar move, transfer of ownership, or "updating" your contact information to theirs), have your domain registrar add protective EPP flags for your domain. You have to go through the extra step of having those turned back off later if you really want to transfer or early-delete your domain name. Some of them:
  • clientDeleteProhibited and clientTransferProhibited: These stop your domain from being dropped or moved to another registrar where the attacker already has their own control in place. (Some registrars may already have them turned on.)
  • clientUpdateProhibited: If you think you're under active attack, you might ask for this; it usually means you can't even change which nameservers the domain uses, without asking for the flag to be removed first.
  • serverDeleteProhibited, serverTransferProhibited, serverUpdateProhibited: These are "super" versions of the above, but you probably don't want them unless someone is aggressively trying to steal your domain. Adding and removing them on your own request means that you have to ask your registrar, then the registrar has to forward the request to the top-level domain registry, who then has to add or remove the flags.
• While you're playing with your domain registration: Make sure your registration contact information is good enough that your registrar can actually reach you if something goes wrong. Strictly speaking, someone can file a whois data complaint against a domain, claiming the contact data is phony, and then the registrar has to make sure they can contact someone who will still claim control of the domain.

Register a trademark anyways.

[zaywot]

A friend of mine in Canada started a website I'll call xyz for his own use with some useful info published daily in a graphic I'll call pqr This was around 2000 At that time he searched thoroughly, and found nothing called xyz or pqr.. Pretty soon other people found the site, and started asking to donate, because they liked it so much. He managed to get enough donors to cover registration with enough left over for some nice gear every few years. Unbeknownst to him, around 2003, someone else created a startup I'll cal pqs. They registered pqs as a trademark quietly in the state where they were located. After the 5 years wait time was up, they were granted the trademark. At this point, the startup was still vapourware, but they were able to pitch to a VC. The VC demanded that the trademark be defended, so they sent cease-and-desist letters to everyone with an even remotely similar name.Pqr was "too similar" to pqs, so my friend got a letter. One of his many donors was a lawyer, who took his case probono. After much negotiation - including that my friend's use preceeded the trademark, the lawyer eventually told my friend that it was somewhat likely he'd win in court, but he'd have to travel to that state basically at the whim of the VC who'd be sure to arrange adjornments until it was inconvenient for my friend, that it would probably take years and $300,000 to actually win, or he could get a licence for $5,000/year, or change the name. My friend changed the name. But still quietly snickers when people still call it pqr.

Why not use Google Apps?

[jpiratefish]

Google offers free Google Apps for Business for domains with less than 10 users on them - and it's free. Just gotta setup the MX records - I get DNS control for free from GoDaddy as they are my registrar, but I don't host a site at all on my 3-character domain. With that, I can point my MX records to google, and the domain has multiple email accounts on it, all for free. The trick is that the google hides the "get it for free" link on the setup page.