Acquiring a .com Domain once you incorporate?

Kwak · #1 (**permalink**) 03-21-2005, 07:13 PM

Hello webmasters,

I am in the process of incorporating a small business for someone. The domain address for the .com and .net is registered by another party and it seems unlikely that they will sell the domain.
The reason being, the .com is owned by NetIdentity and the .net is owned by a foreign member.

I remember reading somewhere that there is a process where the business owner has a possibility of acquiring the registered domain if her/his business is incorporated.

Doing some research on this via Google.
Do you know any relevant websites that can help on this particular case?
Thanks in advance.

Till · #2 (**permalink**) 03-22-2005, 07:10 PM

I thought it was "first come, first serve". Sometimes you have better changes when you have a brand name that was in place before someone registered "your" domain. But I guess that is not the case.

Maybe try ".us" for your business.

Hope that helps,
Till

Allen · #3 (**permalink**) 03-22-2005, 09:59 PM

If the current owner is using the site it will be very hard to get it -- if they are not - hire a lawyer and have them write a strong demand letter.

Have you tried offering money for the name?

curtiss · #4 (**permalink**) 03-22-2005, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allen

Have you tried offering money for the name?

The sad thing is that, if the owner isn't using it, they'll probably want an astronomical amount of money for it. My parents had a domain for the town we lived in, and they used it for their company, along with a community service for the town. The domain expired without them realizing it (our domain and our hosting package were supposed to be tied together, but for some reason the domain expired before our hosting package, and no one was paying attention). Someone else snapped it up right away, and held it ransom for $5,000 for five or six years. Apparently he either lost it or sold it, though, because it's now for sale by someone else.

Kwak · #5 (**permalink**) 03-24-2005, 02:43 AM

I appreciate your responses.
I learned that such practice to acquire other people's domain is known as 'reverse hijacking.' Well, I gave up and looking for an extended .com domain.