Buying a domain name

tacofries

Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy a particular domain name. The domain that I want has already being registered by somebody else however once you look up the actual domain, it's landing page appears as in the picture below, and the owner states that we is willing to accept offers for the domains sale:



First question: is what the owner of that domain doing illegal, i.e. he has no intention of actually using the domain, just wants it for resale.

Second: if I was to buy the domain name, what background checks do I need to carry out? I have done a trademark search and that shows that the main part of the domain hasn't being registered as a trademark. Is there anything else like that that I should check which might cause us problems once our product goes to market? I have also checked to see if the name was already registered on Facebook, Instagram, pinterest and twitter.

Do you feel it is just too much risk buying a domain of someone? I do know that it would be easier to just pick something that is not currently registered but the name really does suit our product very well.

Thanks,

joess

tacofries wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy a particular domain name. The domain that I want has already being registered by somebody else however once you look up the actual domain, it's landing page appears as in the picture below, and the owner states that we is willing to accept offers for the domains sale:


First question: is what the owner of that domain doing illegal, i.e. he has no intention of actually using the domain, just wants it for resale.

Second: if I was to buy the domain name, what background checks do I need to carry out? I have done a trademark search and that shows that the main part of the domain hasn't being registered as a trademark. Is there anything else like that that I should check which might cause us problems once our product goes to market? I have also checked to see if the name was already registered on Facebook, Instagram, pinterest and twitter.

Do you feel it is just too much risk buying a domain of someone? I do know that it would be easier to just pick something that is not currently registered but the name really does suit our product very well.

Thanks,

First question: Nope unfortunately it's not illegal. Depends on how they're selling but usually they use reputable services which handle that for hundreds/thousands of sites weekly, or escrow services....honestly I'd probably go for it if it was worth the asking price to me and it seemed reputable. Make sure you use a card to pay for it and your bank should (*may? I don't know, I don't have personal experience but they're usually super great on those things) help with a chargeback IF things go sour.

No idea on the second but making sure everything's available was a wise move.

mneylon

It's perfectly legal to sell a domain name.
If the domain is "low" value then you could deal with the seller directly. For higher value domains using escrow.com would make sense

tacofries

Is it legal to own a domain name purely for resale purposes though? Reason I am wondering is because when I previously registered domain names I had to supply some forms of proof showing that I actually intended to use the domain and not just squat on it.

Graham

tacofries wrote: »

Is it legal to own a domain name purely for resale purposes though?

Yes

.ie domains are a rare exception as they have rules against reselling. I suspect that's where your previous experience comes from.

tacofries

Thanks for the replies. Yep Graham, it was a .ie domain. At least it turns out I wasn't going crazy after all!

mneylon

.ie is "quirky"
You need to provide paperwork of some kind for most registrations and you currently cannot resell them - though that's open for public consultation:
http://blog.blacknight.com/iedr-wants-input-aftermarket-ie-domains-allowed.html