In a dilema about a brandable name

[chriscolenso]

Hell everyone, i wonder of i could seek your educated advice? About a year and a half ago i created a highly brandable .com domain name, very specific to the web hosting business and one that had never been created before (according to domain tools and wayback machine).
I had intended setting up a hosting business, but illness caused me to put everything on hold.
Almost a year later, I was able to start focusing on the business again, and registered the same name under .uk, then noticed the .com was nearing expiry, so made a mental note to renew at next opportunity.
My mental note was a litle off and I lost the .com, it was sold off almost as soon as it expired and is now listed for sale at around £500.00.
Intending to keep the name for the business, I set up a ltd company with that name and have also registered it with other extensions such as .info and .space, and plan to expand on that as finance allows.
But the question is what does this do to the value of the .com?
The name is so specific that it can only really be used for the web hosting business and if i own as many other extensions as possible does this make it more or less likely that the .com will decrease in value?
I would like to get the name back but I'm not paying through the nose for a name that i created if you see what i mean.
Your thoughtful advice would be much appreciated.

 

[chriscolenso]

Hello everyone, It's a year later and I thought I'd update everyone. First of all thanks for all of your replies, and also apologies to the first responder, I think on reflection I took offence in haste, sometimes the written word can be misunderstood regarding tone.
The way I'd seen it back then, rightly or wrongly, was that as the domain name was so specific and was a good brand name, it would only ever be useful to me. The owner would have to either park it or come up with another use for it's name, not related to the business it describes. Then s/he'd have to keep renewing for as long as I refused to purchase it.
I guessed that anyone else trading under my company name might be liable to prosecution.
I'd discovered two things about the owner, s/he owned quite a few parked domains, and they were UK based, so having the LTD in the UK certainly would be a problem for them if they wanted to use it for themselves or sell within the UK.
The domain name halved in price 4 weeks after my original post, and expired a few weeks ago. I now have the .com back, and at a special offer price of £1.00!
I have been trading under another name, in the same business so it wasn#t too much of a problem if I lost it completely, but glad to have it back now.
Thanks again to all who answered, maybe my actions helped me, maybe not, I guess I'll never know. The purchaser may not have been as experienced or wise as some of you here, or maybe he just decided to relent!

 

[TimCulpepper]

Congratulations on getting your name. And thanks for the update.

Now that the name is securely in your possession, can you tell us what the name is? Just curious...

 

[chriscolenso]

Congratulations on getting your name. And thanks for the update.

Now that the name is securely in your possession, can you tell us what the name is? Just curious...

Hi, yes it's Hostquota.com

 

[svede]

Hello everyone, It's a year later and I thought I'd update everyone. First of all thanks for all of your replies, and also apologies to the first responder, I think on reflection I took offence in haste, sometimes the written word can be misunderstood regarding tone.
The way I'd seen it back then, rightly or wrongly, was that as the domain name was so specific and was a good brand name, it would only ever be useful to me. The owner would have to either park it or come up with another use for it's name, not related to the business it describes. Then s/he'd have to keep renewing for as long as I refused to purchase it.
I guessed that anyone else trading under my company name might be liable to prosecution.
I'd discovered two things about the owner, s/he owned quite a few parked domains, and they were UK based, so having the LTD in the UK certainly would be a problem for them if they wanted to use it for themselves or sell within the UK.
The domain name halved in price 4 weeks after my original post, and expired a few weeks ago. I now have the .com back, and at a special offer price of £1.00!
I have been trading under another name, in the same business so it wasn#t too much of a problem if I lost it completely, but glad to have it back now.
Thanks again to all who answered, maybe my actions helped me, maybe not, I guess I'll never know. The purchaser may not have been as experienced or wise as some of you here, or maybe he just decided to relent!

Congratulations!

BTW, just remember that if they registered the domain BEFORE you get your TM, they are not in any legal trouble (unless they approach you to sell it since that becomes bad faith in a UDRP). It does make it more unlikely for them to get other buyers, but it doesn't make them sell it (in fact it could make them hold onto it and WAIT for you to start negotiations - in which case they wouldn't have any issue with bad faith). To try to create a TM of a pre-existing registration (regardless of your past intents) and to start a UDRP to claim a domain is called reverse domain name hijacking and if found guilty of it, you can actually end up in legal issues.

Fortunately, you got your domain and there is no issue, but just for your knowledge.

Congrats again and I wish you the best!

 

[Name Trader]

I have been trading under another name, in the same business so it wasn#t too much of a problem if I lost it completely

Congrats. You now have a perfect storm. .com, .co.uk, ltd co, all with the same name. Go for it.

But one thing you forgot to mention in your first post, I quoted above. So the course of action you took was not an option for us to recommend. And just for the record, paying GBP500 for a domain which was essential to your vision, strategy and branding, is cheap. I would far from call it "paying thru the nose for a .com". I would have suspected you would have much the same advice, even if we had known that fact.

You tossed the dice and won. There are six sides to a dice. So the odds were against you. Please come back in another year and tell us how your hosting company is doing.