Domain names - Legal rights?

advice needed please

[Andrew Thomas]

We have a web design company, who designs and hosts websites on behalf of our clients. We register our clients domain name(s), under our company name and address. We hold the registration certificates, and renew the domain name when required, charging the client a small fee, for registration and administration.

What is our legal position and your advice to us, if:

1. A client wants us to register his/her domain name in their company name, not ours. But we wish to hold the certificate in our address, so we can control the renewal documentation and subsequent yearly renewal charges.

2. If a client is concerned, that if, in the future, their business becomes very valuable, and we may demand much more money for the domain name renewal (as it has been registered under our business name). How can we re-assure them that this is not the case, and we would only charge the usual amount for domain name renewal. Is there a law, that we could quote that would confirm this.

3. As far as we are concerned, we may register the name, produce the design and host the site, but the site remains the clients property, once we have been paid for the project. Is this the case, as we are not interested in holding a domain name to ransom. Should we include certain wording in our quotations to explain this. Or is there a law to validate this fact.

thank you for any feedback

[rogerd]

I think the site should always be registered in the true owner's name. You can list yourself as the billing and technical contacts if you wish to handle renewals and the like. Your intentions may be fine, but I've seen companies get in a jam when they needed to change something and discovered they didn't "own" their domain, and the registrant couldn't be found.

[rcjordan]

I know of a one-time web consultant that operated exactly as you describe --doing this as a service, not to hold anyone hostage. He changed his company's physical address during the year (forgot to update the admin/billing). His email went on the blink and apparently ate the renewal notice. The domain was a one-worder .com --worth $50k. I was called in by a VERY distraught company owner to see what I could negotiate. The domain was now held by a squatter that knew the value. You can imagine just how bloody it got. My recommendation would be to buy plenty of professional liability insurance.