debate Acquiring top level domain on existing brand

joey509 · Aug 16, 2019

Hello,

I have acquired a TLD for an existing brand while their main website is hosted under a .co and .net.

I had purchased this domain in hopes of offering it to the trademark business owner in hopes of generating a profit however after some research I found this to be bad practice and could be potential grounds for a lawsuit for the domain can be forced to the trademark owner should they have a good legal presence.

What do you think, is this bad practice? I was hoping for a reasonable offer however am not interested in blackhat methods.

gilescoley · Aug 16, 2019

Stay far away from company names in general, it can only lead to trouble for you.

jberryhill · Aug 16, 2019

joey509 said:
What do you think, is this bad practice?

I'm not sure why the opinions of a bunch of random people you don't know are relevant, but what you posted is the definition of cybersquatting. Do it in the United States and you can face $100,000 in statutory damages, for starters. It also violates a policy that is built-in to your domain registration contract - the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (oddly abbreviated UDRP) - and can result in your domain name being transferred to the trademark owner.

Secondly, just an FYI on the term "top level domain" or "TLD". That term refers to the portion of a domain name to the right of the final dot. In other words ".com", ".net", ".co", etc. are all TLDs. You most certainly did not "acquire a TLD". Sometimes you will see an initial signifying a type of TLD, such as ccTLD for a country code TLD, sTLD for a sponsored TLD, nTLD for a "new" TLD, or gTLD for a generic TLD.

joey509 · Aug 17, 2019

jberryhill said:
I'm not sure why the opinions of a bunch of random people you don't know are relevant, but what you posted is the definition of cybersquatting. Do it in the United States and you can face $100,000 in statutory damages, for starters. It also violates a policy that is built-in to your domain registration contract - the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (oddly abbreviated UDRP) - and can result in your domain name being transferred to the trademark owner.

Secondly, just an FYI on the term "top level domain" or "TLD". That term refers to the portion of a domain name to the right of the final dot. In other words ".com", ".net", ".co", etc. are all TLDs. You most certainly did not "acquire a TLD". Sometimes you will see an initial signifying a type of TLD, such as ccTLD for a country code TLD, sTLD for a sponsored TLD, nTLD for a "new" TLD, or gTLD for a generic TLD.

Interesting, How would you answer regarding hugedomains acquiring existing domains and getting away with this practice? The domain I came to possession is to be a .com and I witnessed hugedomains to acquire another brand name under the .com domain just as well.

gilescoley · Aug 17, 2019

joey509 said:
Interesting, How would you answer regarding hugedomains acquiring existing domains and getting away with this practice? The domain I came to possession is to be a .com and I witnessed hugedomains to acquire another brand name under the .com domain just as well.

Thats right, they are squatting as well. There are a lot of people and companies out there that operate with no integrity or professionalism at all

debate Acquiring top level domain on existing brand

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