Trademarked Domains

[dotcom]

Around 3 months ago I registered a new business with companies house and since then have been developing the product and getting the name trademarked etc.

A friend informed a few people about the project and I have been approached by a VC to invest in the business.

I think this could be a huge opportunity for the business to grow, I own the .co.uk domain but would like the .com which is registered at present and forwards to another domain which is a GoDaddy landing page.

How would you suggest going about getting this domain name as I can't find contact details for the owner?

Also, would owning the trademarked name make any difference to getting this domain name?

 

[Exascale]

The long and short of it; Unfortunately there are no cyber squatting laws in the UK like there are in the US, also has the said domain been registered prior to your incorporation? Have you tried using a WHOIS request to obtain contact information of the owner? The owner will almost certainly ask for some type of remuneration for relinquishing control of the said domain.

 

[dotcom]

Thanks for the reply, I managed to get a hold of the owner who informed me that he recently paid $15,000 for it and will be launching a website/app on the site soon. Although after some digging / searching - the domain name was registered by the same guy around 4 years ago and there has never been a site on this domain. Various other sites / forums have a statement in 2013 saying that he bought a company for 250,000 and will be launching a website & app this year (2013) but nothing has ever happened with it.

Kinda stumped as to what to do next

 

[Exascale]

Thought that may be the case... Have you offered to purchase the domain? You may want to consult sedo to get an accurate price for the domain before making an offer.

When does it expire? you could use 123-reg.com to monitor the domain and automatically register it upon expiry...

 

[mit74]

If you own the tradmark then it's a very strong bargaining tool in a claim for the domain. Do you really need the .com though? There's hundreds of extensions out there you can use and won't make much difference to sales or seo.

 

[fisicx]

As the .com was registered before the trademark the op has no claim whatsoever over the .com.

All they can do is make an offer and hope the owner will sell. If not then they will just have make do with the .co.uk.

 

[Exascale]

As the .com was registered before the trademark the op has no claim whatsoever over the .com.

Totally agree - You must be mindful when registering you company at Companies house that you have purchased the domain name prior, as there are companies out there which will watch the register and acquire the domain name and try and sell them to you for a premium.

 

[MASSEY]

can't you put a hyphen in it? blah-blah.com

Must be a good domain name for 15,000 dollars?

 

[ecenica]

Have they said whether they'll consider an offer?

Failing that would you consider rebranding to a name which does have it's .com and .uk free?

Rich

 

[dotcom]

Thanks for all the help!

Having offered him an extra 10k to buy the domain, I received the reply "no thanks, would not even consider that price" so think the .co.uk will do.

 

[Norman Bailey]

If you go to the Freeola website then you can try various names for your web site in their domain name search tool. It looks at most of the combinations of domains and will tell you if they are registered and who they are registered to.

I liked the idea of having a Pitcairn Island based site.

 

[rodion]

It not really necessary to buy this .com domain for huge money.
Alternatively you can use prefix or postfix, and get similar .com domain.
As an example facebook at the very beginning used TheFacebook.com domain name.
And only after they became popular they bought Facebook.com

 

[Sam Richards]

You should be able to get the details from the WhoIs data

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Are there any of the newer TLDs (Top Level Domains) that would be suitable from a global perspective? You could use them as an alias for the .co.uk to get the global appeal if that is what you are after. Other than that, like others have said, try for a hyphenated name or similar to the domain name you already own. No need to spend thousands to get something that you might ultimately use as a redirect.