question New company wants to buy my old domain name.

[namexf]

Hi guys.
I am new to this.
I will try to simplify.
I own a .com domain name from many many years. Its been parked all this time.
Now a new company has contacted me and they want to buy it from me.
This company's name is the same as my domain name. And they have recently registered a local domain
with that name. But they are interested on buying the .com version (from me).
The key point is that I registered the domain name before this company even existed with this name.

Is there a risk that they could forcefully take it away from me if I try to negotiate a price that it is too high?

I am open to sell it but I would like to know how much can I ask.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Where is the thanks button? I tried to find it but couldn't. Not in my mobile browser nor in my desktop browser. I do can see the number of thanks each message has got.

They are usually in the lower right corner of a post...perhaps it is because you are a new member they are not showing yet (I assume they do this to keep 'haters' from blasting someone). The buttons should show up soon (maybe 3 or 7 days in?). At any rate, thanks for looking for them.

 

[exyzed]

Report Share Quote Reply.
These are the buttons I can see.

Bruh.... It's called getting sh*t done. You can't even find the "thanks" button

@Ja Kai , I think It is as @Mister Funsky , pointed out , the Like/Dislike/Thank buttons havn't appeared for @namexf yet.

Calm down ... you guys seem very excited but I don' think I can even reach 5k with this name. Also I am not in the US and neither the potential buyer.

@namexf, no one here has a reason to get excited except yourself. All are just trying to help you. imo it doesn't matter that you are not from US. NP has people from all over the world , not just US. And they are all in this domaining business, more or less.

 

[carob]

.
As it has been suggested in this thread, it is up to me to do a research and find out a fair figure. Then negotiate around that figure.

Research yes to know what people might pay, but many would suggest you should ask the client to make the opening offer. Ultimately domain prices are arbitrary and you probably want the highest price you can get.

About brokers, there is no expectation that people here hire members as brokers. I wouldn't. If you list the domain for sale at Uniregistry then it can be handled by their brokers and I believe you can pass an existing negotiation to them.

If you use a sales platform that allows payment in installments that may get you a better price.

 

[carob]

. If your serious, just mask your name letters with ///,-,= or whatever and put it here in the forum for better advice.

I would not post a domain, masked or as a graphic. Google now reads and indexes text in graphics and I have seen masked words turn up in searches.

 

[Lox]

... seems to me... you're trying to get as much answers as you can on this ping pong survey ... 50+ replies. Are you working on a research project?

 

[capybara]

In USA its around 300$ for 10 years.

For a single class. Most real world business cases require multiple classes. And that still would not give you an absolute "protection", anyone else can apply for and obtain trademark for the same word in a different class.

And thats the price you pay if you do all the paperwork yourself, if your time is free. Without much free time, you need a competent person to do the job and now thats suddenly expensive.

 

[NicTraders]

I have set them an email today. Told them that I will make an offer in the next few days.
I don't plan to talk to them indecisively. I will keep my indecisions here.

I have just checked Estibot and Godaddy and Freevaluator and got 100$, 1800$, 450$ valuations.
Nameworth requires registration.
I think valuation for this word is difficult. But anyway 10k to 20k is too much i think.

I will take a look at those videos, thank you.

@namexf I really think you might be about to undersell yourself on this domain. Personally I would have asked them to present an offer. But now that you've said you'll make one I wouldn't go too low. Sure, the name valuation services (which I reckon are usually pretty useless) say it's not worth much. But the fact is that it ONLY matters what the buyer thinks it's worth. What you have is what we call a 'brandable'. Most brandables come up with very low values in those valuation services. That's common. But you have a name that someone else wants. An opening offer of $10k - $20k seems quite reasonable to me. And the most important thing to remember in negotiations is that you can always drop the price if you want to as the negotiations go on, but you'll never get a chance to increase it. Anyway, good luck.

 

[Name Trader]

@namexf - I fee the frustration of some of the other participants in this thread. What has the cost of trademark registration anywhere in the world, got to do with your situation. It's beginning to "feel" like you are a student, trying to get some answers here for a project. If you are not. Then you are way overthinking everything here. Just throw out a number you will be comfortable with, double or triple it, and give them a price, asap. Payment via Escrow.com with buyer paying the escrow fees. You do have a bank account I presume? A broker is going to get 20% of any sale price. So make sure you take that into consideration with your asking price. Who is your registrar. I will give you my opinion about their trustworthiness as a broker. Which will be my last contribution to this thread.

 

[BlackCatsAreNice]

Wouldn't it be funny if it turns out he owns nothing? Just a pair of dirty socks. Not even the self warming kind.

 

[namexf]

Welcome to NamePros @namexf

Your question is essentially legal re UDRP or URS possibility, as well as about selling, so you might want to consider posting in legal section.

Only a legal expert can provide definitive advice, so don't depend much on opinions of people like me. Here are my reflections..

• Remember that a company can have rights to a name established through use prior to the date of formal registration. It is good you had name prior to TM registration but don't overly depend on that.
• As others mentioned make sure no use of name in any way related to TM holder - like no parking that might have links to them.
• A TM is in general awarded in a use category. Not clear to me how general purpose name is.

Bob

You guys are giving very interesting replies.
I am not sure I understand your third point though. Do you mean that the fact that they were able to register a trademark for this name means that this name is not a generic word??
But "apple" is a generic word and it is also a registered trademark isn't it?
Also Alibaba is a classical name and it is a registered trademark too.

My domain name would be like "appleist".
Lets suppose I purchased the domain appleist.com and afterwards a company is created with that name and trademark.

 

[namexf]

They can try to take your name but its not likely they would succeed. As someone said above, now is the time to make sure any monetization of the name would not cause a conflict with what they sell or offer.

It looks like you have just had it on a landing page so, if I were you, use Epik or anyone else offering you a free marketplace listing and without any hoopla or sales pitch, simply park the name with a 'make offer' button and wait.

If I were in this situation, I would not interact with them anymore (something could inadvertently be said or typed that could be used by them if they got nasty) in a casual manner. If they contact you through the same channel as before, politely and professionally tell them that any further offers or contact needs to come thru the landing page.

Yes, very wise. In fact my registrar offers a landing page with functionality that allows me to sell my domain. Receive offers etc
And they have a marketplace: a listing of all domains that are on sale.

 

[namexf]

Did they send you an offer? Or did they just say is the name available for sale? Regardless, make sure you dont delete these correspondence as it is very important.

Hi. They said they were interested to buy it and politely asked if i would like to make a sell offer. There was no threat.

 

[nameaura]

If that domain you not using better sale them for some money ask the money you want negotiate and deal is done.

 

[nameaura]

Yes talk to them

 

[Ostrados]

I have made a search at namebio and prices are lower than I expected.

In Nambio ignore any sales from Namejet and Godaddy those are usually expired domains auctions at low reseller prices.

While sales from Sedo, Afternic & Uniregistry are end user sales most of the time.

 

[Ja Kai]

Thanks John. Its true! If i post the name here some lurkers could contact the buyer and tell them about this thread. In the event i posted the name here it would be better to invite them.
"Xynames" and Ja Kai, why are you pushing me?

The potential buyer emailed me 4 days ago.
Should I contact him with my real name or it is better to stay anonymous?

You should let one of the experienced/trusted members here broker it for you - pay them 20%. I'm not inferring me - I'm new here. But, you need help.

 

[bulkdomainz]

The potential buyer emailed me 4 days ago.
Should I contact him with my real name or it is better to stay anonymous?

Real name or not, just ask him to make an offer for you to consider or ask an experienced person on here to help you do the deal.

 

[namexf]

No worries...once fully active you will see 'like' 'dislike' 'thank' 'quote' 'reply' in the bottom right corner.

Yep, keep the name out of the thread as bots from the engines will find and index...only post a name if you mask (ie: greenhappyhairymonsters.com) if you use a few lines like:

green-xy
happy-ab
hairy-pp
monsters-12
in king ('king' is code for com extension)

just for the record, I do not own the name used in the example above...not sure anyone does?!?!?

Ok. Once i get the thanks button i will use it for sure.
I have decided not to post the name as per john888 advice.
Now it is time to do my homework alone and research research research.

 

[john888]

How do you expect to get payed for the transfer?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

But "apple" is a generic word and it is also a registered trademark isn't it?

I am no legal expert, and whether generic words are allowed in trademarks depends on prior awarded trademarks and whether that word is already in general use in that area of application. I hope I am right in this example - probably one could not get a TM on Apple for selling apples, since for ages people have used it that way. However if I wanted Apple for financial services, that is different, provided one not already awarded in that.
Bob

 

[dande]

Maybe. But rushing is not good either

Then do whatever comes into your mind. But by all means, leave everyone else out of it.

THREAD CLOSED

 

[Cdomains]

If they want it and do not want to pay your price they might try to get it via UDRP action.

Even if you do everything right you could still lose because the decisions are not always fair.

Many domainers have lost their domains because of unfair UDRP decisions.

If you get the wrong panelist or panelists it will not matter if you are in the right,

you could still lose your domain.

 

[carob]

Take your name and put it in a text editor like google docs or notepad or something similar, then take a screen shot and put the domain here as an attachment. Crop out as much as you can around the domain name. like this:

Show attachment 139762

NO NO NO. At one time that was good advice but is now out of date. NO.

 

[branding]

I would suggest you start by thanking them for reaching out, stating you are open to selling it and ask what number they have in mind.

If they offer you $50 you may as well forget about everything else.

Like people stated, don't overcomplicate things. Stop worrying and get that first offer on the table.

Once you've established communication there's plenty of time to negotiate about the numbers.

 

[Lox]

1. Ask a lawyer and get answers. TM and Domains specialist. (so you can have peace of mind)
2. If you do not have an estimate, you don't know what you're doing. Find out what kind of companies operate in that particular cyberspace/industry sector + market share $ . (dictionary or not, a company's name is an important asset)
3. F.e. Take the sales personality quiz. If you don't have a sales personality ... find a pro salesman/broker ... or close your eyes, hit the minimum and BIN numbers and list the name @ afternic and let the Afternic brokers make it happen.
4. First - step 1

Regards