- Impact
- 445
I have all my sales landers at DAN, at BIN prices with installment payments available. I've been questioning the installment idea due to too many cancelations lately, but today I realized a new problem with installments that is probably going to push me over the edge to get rid allowing a payment program. It's a trademark issue, one that has devalued a very good name.
I sold a domain name on 6/22/2020 on a multi-year payment plan. After six monthly payments, in January 2021 the buyer canceled the transaction. The name was returned to me.
I was thinking about this yesterday and did some research on it. I already knew that a trademark was filed on the exact two-word keyword of my domain name during the time the payments were being made. I didn't worry too much about it since the name was already sold, and nothing I could do about it anyway. What I discovered yesterday that it was filed only six days after I sold the name. And I saw that the trademark was officially granted to them in the month they canceled the transaction. Hmmm...
The timing sounded suspicious, so I searched the web with the buyer's name. I found one document where the name was associated with a Chinese company that happens to be almost the same as the name as the company who filed for the trademark. It's obvious to me that they are the same, or associated, entities.
So they bought the name on the longest possible installment plan, immediately filed for a trademark, and when it was granted, dumped the name. Archive.org doesn't show it, but they must have put something up quickly on the name to help their case for a trademark.
Why would they dump the name? I don't want to mention the domain name, but having the name is not necessary for a product that this domain name describes. This company is likely going to create and sell a product through retail channels to supermarkets, and does not require a website for it.
Regardless of their intent, I now have a domain name that can really only be used for one specific type of product, so the trademark will keep other buyers from buying it from me now. There is no other use for that name other than in this one particular market classification. So I'm screwed. Name was worth at least $10K.
I don't know how much the availability of an installment plan helps sell names. But I am seriously considering taking it off all my names. Too many others have begun to cancel on me now too--maybe 20% of them. So I wonder if it's really worth it. I've already reduced to 12 the maximum number of payments.
I don't know if I would have sold the name to that same buyer without an installment plan. But if I did, the trademark would not be an issue since the name would have been sold already.
I've posted this here because I thought some others might be interested. And this is no reflection on Dan's installment program, it could happen with any similar one.
I sold a domain name on 6/22/2020 on a multi-year payment plan. After six monthly payments, in January 2021 the buyer canceled the transaction. The name was returned to me.
I was thinking about this yesterday and did some research on it. I already knew that a trademark was filed on the exact two-word keyword of my domain name during the time the payments were being made. I didn't worry too much about it since the name was already sold, and nothing I could do about it anyway. What I discovered yesterday that it was filed only six days after I sold the name. And I saw that the trademark was officially granted to them in the month they canceled the transaction. Hmmm...
The timing sounded suspicious, so I searched the web with the buyer's name. I found one document where the name was associated with a Chinese company that happens to be almost the same as the name as the company who filed for the trademark. It's obvious to me that they are the same, or associated, entities.
So they bought the name on the longest possible installment plan, immediately filed for a trademark, and when it was granted, dumped the name. Archive.org doesn't show it, but they must have put something up quickly on the name to help their case for a trademark.
Why would they dump the name? I don't want to mention the domain name, but having the name is not necessary for a product that this domain name describes. This company is likely going to create and sell a product through retail channels to supermarkets, and does not require a website for it.
Regardless of their intent, I now have a domain name that can really only be used for one specific type of product, so the trademark will keep other buyers from buying it from me now. There is no other use for that name other than in this one particular market classification. So I'm screwed. Name was worth at least $10K.
I don't know how much the availability of an installment plan helps sell names. But I am seriously considering taking it off all my names. Too many others have begun to cancel on me now too--maybe 20% of them. So I wonder if it's really worth it. I've already reduced to 12 the maximum number of payments.
I don't know if I would have sold the name to that same buyer without an installment plan. But if I did, the trademark would not be an issue since the name would have been sold already.
I've posted this here because I thought some others might be interested. And this is no reflection on Dan's installment program, it could happen with any similar one.