Best practice: buying parked domain

Backorder failed, domain belongs to South Korean grabber now

[pmkpmk]

The .com of my .de went into reemption a while ago, and I subscribed with a backorder service to try to grab it once it got dropped. Unfortunately the backorder service did not succeed, and now "my" doman belongs to a South Korean grabber and is parked with a popular parking/domaintrader service.

Questions:

What is the best practice to get the domain as cheap as possible? I assume showing the least interest will switfly increase the price.
Do I sign up to the dman trading platform with my company name (equalling the domain name), or do I create a dummy-account?
Do I have any legal means - at least for threatening - because the domain name is equal to my (worldwide unique) company name?
What is a rather long domain name whose only match is our worldwide unique company name worth at all?

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Webwork]

Email addresses have never convinced me to set a different price, i.e., less for [e-mail] and 10X for [e-mail]. I always assume I'm dealing with a large company - no matter the email address. That somewhat filters out greed on my part, i.e., I don't set prices based upon who's buying.

Legal means? Sure, pay the lawyers and they will figure out how to best help you spend your money. Of course, there are domain holders that either a) are lawyers; or, b) will legally defend their domains like they would defend their homes and family. OTOH, perhaps a WIPO/NAF proceeding could get the job done if there's really no explanation for the domain's registration than to squat on your company's brand.

Without seeing the domain I have no idea as to value but, assuming that there's no other use or meaning of the domain name "than your company's name" I'd have to say it's not worth much . . . with the exception of any ill-gotten PPC revenue from people tying in the domain whilst looking for your company. (You might want to have your lawyers write a nice letter to the feed provider about them sharing in any ill-gotten gains IF your trademark proofs, etc. are ROCK SOLID.)

[pmkpmk]

So I counseled with our boss, with our lawyer and with the domain trading platform, and unisono they said that the least hassle would be to simply buy it. So grudgingly I offered the minimum bid, only to promptly receive a counter-bid almost 10 times as much. It's SO tingling in my fingers to send the lawyers to South Korea, but that would open a whole can of uncertainty worms.

This is SO frustrating!

[1script]

So grudgingly I offered the minimum bid, only to promptly receive a counter-bid almost 10 times as much.

Send a counter-offer $100 higher than your original one. You'd be surprised.

Also, I don't know about effectiveness of hiring a lawyer to fight a legal battle in South Korea, but you can actually hire an intermediary from (I suspect) the very same company that they are now parked with, which is also based in Germany and is well represented everywhere in Europe, name starts with an "S" :) . These guys take something like 10% + some more % for the transaction but they know how to bargain, so if your direct efforts fail, you can always hire an experienced broker.

[pmkpmk]

Well, they did not say an intermediary was possible, and the negotiation sevrice only gets offered for domains NOT listed on their platform. But maybe I misread that.

I sent the counter offer with the exact same bid again, asking them to explain their (ridiculously high) price. Silence so far.