Webmaster forum - Excessive prices for domain names

Author

Excessive prices for domain names

JohnSouth

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

Hi

We are trying to buy a .co.uk domain name to match our .com domain.
The current owner has just increased his asking price from =A3500 to
=A31000 when we showed our interest.

This seems excessive as he doesn't use the domain. Is there any legal
recourse in these situations?

John South
Pangbourne UK
www.WhereCanWeGo.com

William Tasso

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the http://groups.google.com jungle
JohnSouth <JohnSouth104@XXXXXXXXXX> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

> Hi

How do you do?

> We are trying to buy a .co.uk domain name to match our .com domain.
> The current owner has just increased his asking price from £500 to
> £1000 when we showed our interest.
>
> This seems excessive as he doesn't use the domain. Is there any legal
> recourse in these situations?

start here? http://www.nic.uk/disputes/

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Phil Payne

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

> This seems excessive as he doesn't use the domain. Is there any legal
> recourse in these situations?

Nothing practical. Just low-ball an offer and wait.

I abandoned www.isham-research.com in favour of
www.isham-research.co.uk a few years back. The old domain name was
picked up by one of these speculative guys who tried to sell it back to
me for $5000. The price went down by $1000 a quarter and then he
started asking me for offers. Obviously he'd put $10 down to pick it
up and was going to lose it. I still said no.

Then he put up the most amazing page about Jewish homosexual dating and
said it would cost me to buy the domain name so I could get it down.

I added a link to it from my home page. It doesn't respond at present,
but it's worth a try every now and then.

Auggie

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

"JohnSouth" <JohnSouth104@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:1163065896.564205.275440@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Hi

We are trying to buy a .co.uk domain name to match our .com domain.
The current owner has just increased his asking price from £500 to
£1000 when we showed our interest.

This seems excessive as he doesn't use the domain. Is there any legal
recourse in these situations?

John South
Pangbourne UK
www.WhereCanWeGo.com
---------------

You don't have much recourse unless the domain name is a trademark that you
own.

The other problem you will encounter here is: even if you had a legal claim
to the domain name, the cost to just file a UDRP is $2000 US and would have
no guarantee you would win. You would save about £50 if you pay his asking
price.

Dylan Parry

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

Auggie wrote:

> The other problem you will encounter here is: even if you had a legal claim
> to the domain name, the cost to just file a UDRP is $2000 US and would have
> no guarantee you would win. You would save about £50 if you pay his asking
> price.

Where did you get that figure from? More importantly, why would the
charge for a UK domain name be in US Dollars? :s

From http://www.nic.uk/disputes/drs/complaint/ :

"Is there a charge for making a complaint?

The initial stages of the DRS up to and including mediation, but not
including a decision, are free. If you wish to have an independent
expert make a decision on the case, then this will cost you £881.25
(£750 + VAT)."

£750 is a lot less than $2000 (~£300 less to be more precise). The site
also explains how a decision such as the above is only required in 25%
of cases as most cases are settled before that point.

Another point that should be brought up is that if you do go as far as
the expert decision stage and lose, their decision is basically final as
the price for an appeal is £3000 (+ VAT) - but likewise, the price would
be the same for the opposing side if you won.

Either way, Auggie was right in saying that you won't necessarily win,
so unless you have a strong case then I wouldn't bother going further
than the mediation stage (which is apparently free), but if you lose at
this stage (and don't have a particularly strong case) then be prepared
for the opposing side to rack their prices up further merely because
you've pissed them off.

In conclusion, unless you have a good enough case, either forget about
the domain name or just pay the asking price. You never know if you can
talk them down a bit from what they are now asking for.

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk

Programming, n: A pastime similar to banging one's head
against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward.

William Tasso

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

Fleeing from the madness of the jungle
Auggie <Imperial.Palace@Rome.It> stumbled into news:alt.www.webmaster
and said:

>
> "JohnSouth" <JohnSouth104@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
> news:1163065896.564205.275440@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi
>
> We are trying to buy a .co.uk domain name to match our .com domain.
> The current owner has just increased his asking price from £500 to
> £1000 when we showed our interest.
>
> This seems excessive as he doesn't use the domain. Is there any legal
> recourse in these situations?
>
> John South
> Pangbourne UK
> www.WhereCanWeGo.com
> ---------------
>
> You don't have much recourse unless the domain name is a trademark that
> you
> own.
>
> The other problem you will encounter here is: even if you had a legal
> claim
> to the domain name, the cost to just file a UDRP is $2000 US and would
> have
> no guarantee you would win. You would save about £50 if you pay his
> asking
> price.

For a .uk domain?

--
William Tasso

http://williamtasso.com/words/what-is-usenet.asp

Auggie

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

DoobieDo

2006-11-19, 7:55 pm

"Dylan Parry" <usenet@dylanparry.com> wrote in message
news:4rh291FrdjhaU1@mid.individual.net...
> Auggie wrote:
>
>
> Where did you get that figure from? More importantly, why would the
> charge for a UK domain name be in US Dollars? :s
>
> From http://www.nic.uk/disputes/drs/complaint/ :
>
> "Is there a charge for making a complaint?
>
> The initial stages of the DRS up to and including mediation, but not
> including a decision, are free. If you wish to have an independent
> expert make a decision on the case, then this will cost you £881.25
> (£750 + VAT)."
>
> £750 is a lot less than $2000 (~£300 less to be more precise). The site
> also explains how a decision such as the above is only required in 25%
> of cases as most cases are settled before that point.
>
> Another point that should be brought up is that if you do go as far as
> the expert decision stage and lose, their decision is basically final as
> the price for an appeal is £3000 (+ VAT) - but likewise, the price would
> be the same for the opposing side if you won.
>
> Either way, Auggie was right in saying that you won't necessarily win,
> so unless you have a strong case then I wouldn't bother going further
> than the mediation stage (which is apparently free), but if you lose at
> this stage (and don't have a particularly strong case) then be prepared
> for the opposing side to rack their prices up further merely because
> you've pissed them off.
>
> In conclusion, unless you have a good enough case, either forget about
> the domain name or just pay the asking price. You never know if you can
> talk them down a bit from what they are now asking for.
>

with apologies for repeating myself, who was there first?

Charles Sweeney

2006-11-19, 7:58 pm

JohnSouth wrote

> Hi
>
> We are trying to buy a .co.uk domain name to match our .com domain.
> The current owner has just increased his asking price from £500 to
> £1000 when we showed our interest.
>
> This seems excessive as he doesn't use the domain. Is there any legal
> recourse in these situations?

Aside from the fact that this is not a law newsgroup, of course there
isn't, and any such thing would be ridiculous. It's called "supply and
demand" and has been around since we were living in caves and hitting each
other with mammoth bones.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com