I have just discovered that a company in Australia has now registered the name and presumably would like to sell it back to me for far more than I paid previously.
How does all this work exactly? It seems very underhand to me and I'm feeling very angry about it. If I buy the name back from them will I regain control over it will I have to keep re-registering it through them?
Can anyone advise me on the rules of this particular game?
Thanks!
You let the registration lapse so you effectively said you didn't care about it anymore. That makes the domain name fair game for anyone else who comes along. It's not theft and it's not underhanded. The only one to blame here is yourself.
If you want the name back, you'll have to pay their price. Later, you can transfer it wherever you want.
In this game, the one rule that matters is this:
If you value a domain name, keep the registration up do date!
[edited by: buckworks at 6:13 pm (utc) on Feb. 5, 2005]
The registration expired in Jan 2005
Yah man, unless you've got a trademark going and want to do the whole formal dispute process, you're SOL.
IMHO, as an internet professional, not renewing your domain name is like a CPA letting their license expire - really dumb.
Yeah, you're right of course - I just didn't realise that these guys go trawling for expired domain names so they can pick them up and resell them.
Guess I found out the hard way!
1. You own the domain name as long as the registrant shows either your name or any of your holdings
and it's still paid.
2. Once expired, deleted, and re-registered by someone else, it's no longer yours, no matter how much
of yourself you put into it.
3. The only time you can say it's stolen from you is if no. 1 applies and it was indeed taken from you
while it's still paid.
The sooner you accept those, the sooner you can move on. Learn from that unfortunate experience,
and remain strong.
It's an unusual name and hadn't been registered previously and there's not much competition for it.
In which case there's not much they can do with it. Sit it out and let them waste their money.
Don't give up until you've found out if they'd sell it to you, and for how much.
Cheers.
