Selling a domain name to a multi-national company

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tripp

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#2089360 12-Sep-2018 15:06

I had something like this happen to me a couple of years ago with my .com

Solar panel company over in Germany wanted my domain for their business as they were re-branding, they got in contact with me and offered a small amount. Told them i might be interested in selling it however they would need up to the price a lot as all my google app purchases etc is tied to the domain and you can't transfer them to another account/email so would need to re-purchase everything again. They ended up going with the .eu version of the domain name.

Hekktor if i was you I would just email the CTO and say you missed his email and what can you do to help them. Otherwise you will end up wasting a lot of time and or money. What you have explained you are doing is cybersquatting, there was money to be made in that in the late 90's but now their are rules around this to release domains.

ObidiahSlope

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#2089364 12-Sep-2018 15:21

Here is a link to an interesting blog post about a domain name stoush between a multi national and a local;

https://nicegear.nz/blog/siemens-takes-the-gigasetconz-domain-name-off-us/

Obsequious hypocrite

surfisup1000

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#2089377 12-Sep-2018 15:35

xpd:

Its interesting looking through that link at the number of large multinationals trying to claim .co.nz/.nz domains - one there for Lenovo.co.nz. Lenovo failed to obtain it. Why ? Because it was registered before Lenovo existed.

If you registered a name before the multinational existed, then too bad for them. But your post above does hint at squatting, therefore they'd have a good chance of taking it from you.

My domain name is linked to camping gear, cookware and even some triathlon thing, yet if any of them came after me to obtain it under the "thats our name" argument, they'd have pretty much 0 chance of getting it off me as I have evidence going back to probably 1993 that there was in no way any intention of my using it as competition against them or squatting on it when i registered it in 2002 (I think). (Its been my handle since my Amiga days)

Lenovo.co.nz has never been in use? Shouldn't there be some obligation to actually use a domain name?

I think this applies to company trademarks too -- you can't just sit on something to kill it off. McDonalds were forced to do something with georgie pie, for example.

As for cybersquatting itself, it is usually pretty evident if someone is doing this. And, the OP's situation seems like a clear case of this. Although, I bet expensive lawyers can argue it otherwise but that is costly and not guaranteed.

surfisup1000

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#2089378 12-Sep-2018 15:37

ObidiahSlope:

Here is a link to an interesting blog post about a domain name stoush between a multi national and a local;

https://nicegear.nz/blog/siemens-takes-the-gigasetconz-domain-name-off-us/

Slam dunk! The OP has no chance.

amanzi

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#2089380 12-Sep-2018 15:39

freitasm: Removed a couple of replies that shouldn't be here.

Good call.

Hekktor

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#2089388 12-Sep-2018 15:48

That is interesting but slightly different to my case as looking at it they had the TradeMark for that name registered in NZ since before the domain was bought. Like the article I am not worried about loosing the domain name registration cost as I have registered about 10-15 domains that some I have let expire and others I have kept and may try to sell to recover my costs as I ended up not using any I registered and bought one of someone for $2000 which is what we use.

Thanks @Tripp. I think I will take your advice and see what comes back from them. I will post back here once some thing happens.. as it is bound to as some point soon!

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xpd

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#2089389 12-Sep-2018 15:55

surfisup1000:

Lenovo.co.nz has never been in use? Shouldn't there be some obligation to actually use a domain name?

Reading the history on the lenovo.co.nz case, lenovo basically didn't exist at the time, and the owner purchased it as it was her username in Everquest which she had been using for a while. As for "never been in use", theres lots of those around, or they just purely use them for email. I have another domain that has no site attached, just email, not that its publicized.

XPD / Gavin

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surfisup1000

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#2089400 12-Sep-2018 16:30

xpd:

surfisup1000:

Lenovo.co.nz has never been in use? Shouldn't there be some obligation to actually use a domain name?

Reading the history on the lenovo.co.nz case, lenovo basically didn't exist at the time, and the owner purchased it as it was her username in Everquest which she had been using for a while. As for "never been in use", theres lots of those around, or they just purely use them for email. I have another domain that has no site attached, just email, not that its publicized.

I wonder if lenovo ever tried to obtain it.

Although, having the exact domain name is maybe not that important these days because google search will always get you to the right place and then you bookmark it.

Lotto.co.nz is an interesting one though.

raytaylor

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#2090923 14-Sep-2018 22:21

One thing to point out here is that having a domain not pointed at a website doesnt mean that the domain isnt being used for email, subdns hosting etc.

HTTP is just one of the many protocols and services that become easier to use with a domain.

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vulcannz

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#2090997 15-Sep-2018 10:46

I'm gonna jump in here for thoughts as well. I worked for a company (vendor) - lets call them Widgets - for 5 years. During that time I set up a lab (home office), and needed a domain - found that their name/domain was not registered in NZ so grabbed widgets.co.nz . During my time there I notified my manager and marketing I had the domain, if they wanted it, there was zero interest. So I left the company about 9 months ago, since then I've been doing consulting so I did up my website use the domain for my primary email and consulting work.

My thoughts are they never took it when I offered, and I've established it as a legitimate use. So if they want it I can say no. And tbh they've almost entirely pulled out of the APJ region.

freitasm

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#2091253 15-Sep-2018 20:29

vulcannz:

I'm gonna jump in here for thoughts as well. I worked for a company (vendor) - lets call them Widgets - for 5 years. During that time I set up a lab (home office), and needed a domain - found that their name/domain was not registered in NZ so grabbed widgets.co.nz . During my time there I notified my manager and marketing I had the domain, if they wanted it, there was zero interest. So I left the company about 9 months ago, since then I've been doing consulting so I did up my website use the domain for my primary email and consulting work.

My thoughts are they never took it when I offered, and I've established it as a legitimate use. So if they want it I can say no. And tbh they've almost entirely pulled out of the APJ region.

In this case you have a right to use it. Trademarks is something companies must defend and use. If they don't they lose it. It's the law.

Domain names are not always related to a trademark. If someone have a domain before a mark is registered, there's nothing that make it mandatory to give it away.

Is a different thing when someone buys a domain with the intention of selling it later at a higher price, without using it - that's calling squatting.

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