Acquiring a domain already registered but not used

How to acquire a domain held by commercial exploiters?

[alcotral]

A bit of a forlorn post I know, but having tried to register the complementary .com domain to go with my company's .co.uk domain I found it had already been registered, although not used (certainly not for web hosting).

Having emailed the registrant - the ominous-sounding Bulkregister.com - I got a reply saying it was registered to one of their "members", AskMySite.com.

Having emailed them I got an automated response, "If you would like the opportunity to acquire above Web address, please send your offer to this e-mail." followed by another email offering to sell me the .biz and .us equivalents.

Just another example of commercial exploitation I suppose, and a sign of the times.

However, I would like to pursue obtaining the .com domain and yet there was no response to my follow-up email. Has anyone else had any dealings with AskMySite, and what approach did you take?

Best regards,

[SevanB2]

Check the ICANN Domain Dispute Policy. If you own the Trademark you can probbaly get it back from them by filling a case:
[icann.org...]

However, if they are not asking for too much, then you might want to buy it. Better than the headache of paperwork and paying the filling fees which is I think around $1200.00. You will get filling fee back if you win at the end, but only if you are able to collect from the looser.

[alcotral]

Thanks for the info.

It is all rather a nuisance isn't it? Not what domains were meant to be used for - paternity battles and money-making exercises for commercial entities.

C'est la vie.

[rcjordan]

>commercial exploitation

Commercial, yes. As for exploitation, no more than buying any other commodity for inventory and marking it up for resale.

Anyone should expect to be disappointed when checking to see if a domain is available. However, if you have faith in your project and part of your plan of action depends on a quality domain, you should make an offer (subject to your expected ROI).

[fav web master]

The procedures suggested itself are so difficult of acquiring the domain that its almost impossible to get the domain even if u have the trademark for the same as well as all the details to be submitted ,
Its simple still if you require the domain make an offer to the admin contact ........thats it or else forget and look for an alternative

Regards,
Pravin

[alcotral]

Thanks for all your comments. Unfortunately I have had no sensible (i.e. not machine-generated) reply from the registrants so they are paying good money for a domain and doing sweet nothing with it.

Now whatever you think of blatant hijacking of a commodity and reselling it purely for profit, just sitting on a domain is NOT what the internet is all about.

Kindest regards,
Ian