Business domain name squatting?

J

jhunley

New member
Feb 10, 2008
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San Diego
The .com name of our offline company has been unavailble for a couple of years. It just expired a few days ago but is still showing as unavailable.

The domain name is not something that would be desirable or useful or have commercial value to anyone but us. We have the .net and .co and I haven't registered the .org, .info, .biz.... We also have a hyphenated .com version of the name.

Years ago when my fiance hired a company to make his first website, the web designer registered the domain name and we assumed that they were the ones who still had it. Turns out that they don't. It is owned by a company we never heard of called Manila industries. Up until it expired a few days ago it was just parked. It certainly didn't get much traffic, we have a small electrical service company- very low volume with a long specific name.

I am debating whether registering all the other variations of our name right now is a good or a bad idea. My concern is that if I take the other extensions this company will think the domain has value and renew it. Yes or no?

I can't even understand why anyone else would even want this domain. It is not a short or generic name or one that has ANY value (except to us) and we are not large or successful enough that they can extort lots of $ from us. I looked into filing a dispute but it looks like it costs a minimum of $1,000. Plus the domain is expired and will hopefully/maybe become available.

Your thoughts on this? Why would they even want an obviously valueless domain name and what is my best strategy for getting it back?

How long does it take until the domain becomes available for us to register it once it is expired? Any other ideas?

Thanks
 


All good questions, I'll do my best to tackle them all.

"My concern is that if I take the other extensions this company will think the domain has value and renew it. Yes or no?"
- That is a correct assumption. It will raise the desirability of the .com if all other extensions are taken. .COM takes the traffic since that's what people type in first.

"I can't even understand why anyone else would even want this domain."
- Because it has traffic and backlinks (even from closed businesses - this is valuable)

"I looked into filing a dispute but it looks like it costs a minimum of $1,000. Plus the domain is expired and will hopefully/maybe become available."
- You have no leg to stand on to file a UDRP. You let the domain expire, then someone else registered it. Unless you had a trademark filed PRIOR to the domain having been registered, you can't prove the domain was registered "in bad faith" which is what the UDRP is for.

"Why would they even want an obviously valueless domain name and what is my best strategy for getting it back?"
- Again, traffic - and the slight possibility that the old business owner will want their domain back and they can make some $ from it.
- Best strategy to get it back - you have a few options: How to buy an expiring domain name | Dropscout.com (If you have questions PM me the details, i.e. registrar and I can help)
 
Backorder the domain at SnapNames.com and NameJet.com, it will cost you around $60 but will more or less insure you get it.

Other way if you are too cheap or don't mind risking not getting the domain:

Figure out exactly the day it will drop (I think it is 30 day grace period after expiration + 5 day deletion period and then it becomes available usually after 11 AM EST -- but you can look this up and get it exact) and then pound away on your registrar trying to register the domain.
 
It won't cost you anything to backorder it from those services unless they are the ones that catch the name for you. If you are the only one that backordered it, then you will then have to pay the fee (about $60) and it's yours. If other people backordered it, then it goes to private auction - if you win, you pay, if you lose, you don't.
 
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