advice Advice Needed: Company Using My Domain Mirlee.com on TradeKorea

[Joniko]

Hello NamePros members,


I currently own the domain Mirlee.com. Recently, I discovered that a company on TradeKorea is operating under the name “Mirlee” and presenting it as their brand. However, the .com domain is registered under me.


I’ve checked for trademarks, and there are no active trademarks for “Mirlee” (the old U.S. registration is dead).


I’m seeking advice on the best approach:

• Should I reach out to the company directly and see if they’re interested in acquiring the domain?
• Would it be wiser to wait and let them approach me?
• Are there any risks if I contact them first?

Has anyone here dealt with a similar situation where a business was using your exact domain name? I’d really appreciate insights from investors who’ve been in this position before.


Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[fka1080405]

The domain name mirlee.com was previously owned by "MirLEE Inc". You acquired the domain recently after they let it expire. The listing you've found on tradeKorea is from a time when the company was active, but the listing is no longer accurate. I can't find any evidence that "MirLEE Inc" continues to operate. The internet is littered with references to companies that once were.

Acquiring or registering expired domains will often lead to owning a domain that is referenced across the internet and may continue to receive website visits and emails. However, that doesn't mean the domain is valuable to the former owner: in most cases, when a domain has expired, it is because the former owner no longer has a use for it. Automated appraisals and other domain name investor tools will often be influenced by previous usage of the domain which can be a red herring.

If you find evidence that the former owner let the domain expire by mistake and would benefit from getting the domain name back, you could certainly try reaching out to them to sell it to them. There is a chance of a UDRP complaint succeeding in that situation (if the previous registrant can convince the panel of a bad faith registration). Typically, though, you would price it less than the cost of a UDRP filing.

For what it's worth: if you acquire expired domains, you're going to run into domains that seem like they should be valuable to a former owner.... but acquiring expired domains to sell back to the former owner is a losing strategy: it is very uncommon for domains to expire by mistake and the previous registrant be able to afford to buy it back. You can look at HugeDomains for a company that do this on an industrial scale and how few sell back to the previous registrant.

A few months ago, I picked up an expired domain for $30 in a GoDaddy closeout that was the primary domain of a company with >$10m per year revenue. The domain expired by mistake and they switched to a different domain. The domain continues to receive important emails every single day. Despite my best efforts to return it to them, they will not engage with me. I would return the domain to them for free if they would simply respond to me. From the perspective of people who understand the value of domains, the attitudes that many businesses have towards domains are inexplicable, but for many businesses, they don't care, it's just a thing people type.

You can ask tradeKorea to remove the old listing if it bothers you.