My understanding is that registrars maintain the database of domain names and facilitate domain name transactions, but that was it. This scenario seems to be a conflict of interest. Anyone have any insight into this?
As to both a) and b) I would suggest that you address your grievance and legal concerns to ICANN as they are the licensing body that approves any given registrar and they drafts the contracts and regulations governing that relationship.
Assuming your "company name" isn't something so generic as to make the claim to the name non-exclusive, your situation sounds grievous enough to warrant a complaint to ICANN.
Other than suggesting you direct the issue to ICANN there's really little more we can offer here, especially since we aren't going to get into the details of your company's name. You really need specific legal advice and that's not a service we offer.
Good luck addressing the issue to ICANN. I might suggest that you retain the services of an attorney before proceeding.
[edited by: Webwork at 1:23 am (utc) on Aug. 15, 2006]
Many .eu domains are being cancelled due to registrars "warehousing" domains so it would seem that this practice isn't allowed for .eu domains at least. But I would assume that holders of large domain name portfolios (say 25'000+ domains) could achieve significant savings on their annual registration fees by signing themselves up as registrars, especially for ccTLDs where the annual fees are mostly higher.
Does anyone know whether or not this happens and whether domain name portfolios would be put at risk of violating registrars' agreements?
Are registrars allowed to bulk-register domains for themselves for parking/forwarding/resale?
The answer to this question lies in the legal fine prints among the registrars, the Registries, and ICANN or whoever the 1st 2 have contracted with.
My question to the OP is how long has this domain name been registered before the registrar supposedly notified him re: potentially bidding on the about-to-be-auctioned name.
Is this a case of a expired domain OR a domain that was never registered that was targeted for hostile (against bona fide and exclusive rights) registration?
It feels a bit like something is missing in the OP, like the full facts. For example - if this action was part of a strategy of "co-opting interest registrations" one would imagine that a) there would be thousands of similar actions and therefore thousands of complaints; and, b) only the largest companies would be targeted - and by now all large companies have their webpresence and URL.
