Sold .co.uk however new owner did not want the .uk!

[RedBar]

I've just sold a 4 letter .co.uk for a low five figure sum and being the honest person I am, during negotiations I told them that since I was the owner of the .co.uk I automatically had the rights to .uk therefore did they require that as well?

Strangely they said no, they only wanted the .co.uk, therefore I duly registered the .uk in my own name and proceeded with the sale and transfer of the .co.uk to its new owner which all went smoothly through Escrow.com

Does anyone else find it strange not to want the .uk?

Do you feel that the buyer, I don't know who this is since it was bought by a branding intermediary, may have been incorrectly/badly advised?

Could there be any other reason why they wouldn't want the .uk?

FWIW I have almost transferred all my .co.uk domains to their .uk.

[topr8]

i have no idea, but i assume it was someone who was badly advised and who doesn't understand the release of the .uk

[smallcompany]

Isn't it that .uk is reserved for the owner of .co.uk? I don't how it works when it gets transferred though.

[elevator]

It is better for you to send the .uk domain to them for free as well. In the first instance you are.not supposed to register the .uk of the name, since you knew you were going to sell it and as you have registered it now, it is better to send it to them to avoid problem for your self in the later days.

You may ask them for token and if they refused, let them know that it is their legal right to own the two domains but they may not make use of it.

Cheers.

[jmccormac]

Was the purchaser acting for a company that would not have been able to use the .uk? It might have been a negotiator/intermediary who did not understand the .uk regulations. The bulk of the .uk zone is still .co.uk and that's unlikely to change much for a few years.

Regards...jmcc

[jmccormac]

Isn't it that .uk is reserved for the owner of .co.uk?

It is based on a prior registration of a .co.uk or one of the other .uk subdomains. There are some terms and conditions attached to qualifying for a .uk though and this is going to affect the uptake of .uk domains.

Regards...jmcc

[RedBar]

In the first instance you are.not supposed to register the .uk of the name, since you knew you were going to sell it and as you have registered it now, it is better to send it to them to avoid problem for your self in the later days.

How do you work out that one?

When .uk was introduced the owner of a .co.uk automatically had the right to register the .uk for 5 years. They are two completely separate domain entities, I have sites running both example.co.uk and example.uk, some I have 301'd the .co.uk to .uk.

IF someone does not register their automatic .uk within the five years then it will be open to be registered by anyone.

You may ask them for token and if they refused, let them know that it is their legal right to own the two domains but they may not make use of it.

Not according to my info from Nominet. They have bought the .co.uk, not the .uk, they were offered the .uk but did not take-up my suggestion.

Nominet:

If you already hold a domain within the .uk domain family that is eligible, we have automatically reserved the .uk domain for free, until 10 June 2019 as long as your unique domain remains registered.

FYI I registered the .uk a month or so before transferring the name and receiving payment.

[engine]

Nominet is not 100% clear, however, the way it was meant to work was the .uk was automatically allocated to the owner of the .co.uk to avoid squatting. Every owner of the .co.uk has the option to register and pay, for the .uk before five years elapses, from 10 June 2014. That means by 9 June 2019 owners should have made up their mind.
That suggests to me the ownership of the .uk should automatically transfer, although, I could not get the definitive answer.

I would echo others and transfer it, or let it lapse, but do communicate what you're doing so that domain doesn't fall into the hands of a squatter, especially if the buyer has been ill-advised.

[RedBar]

I have written to Nominet for absolute clarification regarding this since my understanding is that they are considered as being two separate domain names even under the "grandfather" rights whereby the existing holder received a free 5 year holiday.

I also believe that if an existing .co.uk lapsed during that period then both names were up for grabs.

My understanding is also that any new and unregistered domain from 10th June 2014, the registrant had the opportunity for both names with two registration fees or simply to buy one of the domains with one fee.

I'll let you know what Nominet says since they are usually pretty quick with these matters.

[jmccormac]

Nominet is not 100% clear, however, the way it was meant to work was the .uk was automatically allocated to the owner of the .co.uk to avoid squatting. Every owner of the .co.uk has the option to register and pay, for the .uk before five years elapses, from 10 June 2014.

From what I remember, the oldest subdomain registration takes prededence. If someone has a .org.uk or a .net.uk (etc) that predates the .co.uk, then that may take precedence. The .uk domain was reserved rather than allocated as there are another few steps to go through before the .uk registration is accepted.

Regards...jmcc

[RedBar]

I thought I'd simply check Nominet's whois and it confirms my details, plus, as follows:

Data validation: Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 18-Apr-2016

[robzilla]

Owning the .co.uk doesn't give you a perpetual license to the .uk, of course.

If you're lucky, they'll come knocking again in a few years time :-)

[RedBar]

As I thought, this is the official response from Nominet this morning:

If a .co.uk version of this domain name was held on our registry at the time of the cut off date of 28th October 2013, the registrant of this domain name has the right of first refusal to the .uk equivalent. Providing the domain name remains on our register, the right of registration will be in place until 10th June 2019, during which time only the registrant of the domain name would be able to register the .uk equivalent.

If the .co.uk domain name was not registered at the time of the launch date, the right of registration would go to another variant. The .org.uk would get the right over .me.uk and similarly .me.uk would get the right over .ltd.uk.

If no registered domain name existed that granted the right of registration on the 28th October 2013, but the .co.uk domain was registered between the 28th October and the .uk launch date, the .co.uk domain name would then get the rights to the .uk.

If you have both the .co.uk and the .uk domain names and you sell one of them to someone else, you are able to keep the other one.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

[topr8]

i'm glad you cleared that up and good for you.

i still maintain what i first said, which is that the buyer has been ill advised, however given that you said:

>> it was bought by a branding intermediary

in my view you have absolutely done the right thing, morally, by offering them the .uk, the fact that they turned it down may well become a problem for the 'buyer' eventually, however that is an issue between them and the intermediary they chose to use. you clearly offered it to the intermediary and they said no!

well done RedBar - i look forward to you posting about a 'bonus' payday in a few years time when they pay you even more for the 'uk' than they did the 'co.uk'

[engine]

Yes, good work to get that cleared up. It's also worth keeping a written record of their rejection of the domain, just in case there's a dispute some way down the line.

[RedBar]

It's also worth keeping a written record of their rejection of the domain, just in case there's a dispute some way down the line.

Yep, that's been done both digitally and hard print with a registered postal date etc.

I went down that route with something else in the 80s that paid mega dividends :-)