Forum Moderators: phranque
I can't agree any more.
I am trying to buy a domain name from my competitor, who owned a domain name listed in Yahoo directory.
And she agrees to sell it to me at our negociated price.
What kind of contract should I sign with her to ensure the domain name ownership transfer?
I don't want to use a third party.
You need a lawyer I'm afraid, or a specialist domain transfer company.
TJ
The two parties already decided what is for sale and its price. It should be possible they can make an agreement for a single transaction.
When I walk into a grocers to buy an apple, they offer me an apple, I examine it, we agree a price and exchange money for apple. Done deal.
Sorry and no offence intended but I dont see this as being so much more complicated and despite numerous domain transfers including from competitors I have yet to feel the need for legal advice to draw up some kind of special contract each time.
Specify what is to be exchanged in writing, sign approval and do the deal.
will this work?
Yes. And lock the domain to be safe.
But, I do see TJ's point. What if the seller didn't own the domain and just had access to the passwords/registrant's email? What if the domain infringes on a Microsoft trademark? What if there is some legal or ICANN action pending? What if...
[edited by: Macro at 6:06 pm (utc) on Nov. 18, 2004]
You want to make sure that there are no trademarks associated with the domain name.
One of the two parties needs to decide who will be responsible for the escrow fees which are not that much.
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Current Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Record Type: Domain Name
Server Type: Apache
Lock Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Web Site Status: Active
DMOZ 1 listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Secure: No
E-commerce: No
Traffic Ranking: Not available
Data as of: 26-May-2004
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What does it mean by "Lock Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK"?
trillianjedi I am surprised you say a lawyer is needed.
We're talking about contractual issues. And we're not talking about the sale of an apple. An apple you can examine - it's a tangible object and we all know what a good apple should look and feel like. Transferral of a domain, with respect, is actually more complex. It's an intangible object. As pageoneresults and Macro mention, what about potential trademark issues? Disclosure of the correspondence from third parties relating to ownership? Warranties that the beneficial owner of the domain isn't someone else? There are dozens of additional questions like these. These are all contractual issues.
You need to know what you're buying. The original poster already specified he didn't want to go via a third party, which is the traditional means.
He's looking for a contract to protect him. For that you need legal advice, and this forum is not the place to come for legal advice or any advice relating to drafting such a contract.
What does it mean by Lock Status: Registrar lock?
[webmasterworld.com...]
Yangtze, I promise I'm not trying to be unhelpful here. There are several things which can go wrong in your situation. I don't want you to feel 100% safe based on advice you have received on a public forum which may actually turn out to be incorrect. For all we know you could be paying $10k for this domain. Nobody wants to see you buy a lemon.
If you are worried about contractual issues, you need to talk to a lawyer. Don't draft something yourself based on advice received on *any* public forum and expect it to be watertight.
TJ
Either way "caveat emptor" certainly applies especially if buying from a competitor.
Either way "caveat emptor" certainly applies especially if buying from a competitor.
Absolutely. So you either do your best and take your chances, or you can get a lawyer to build a contract in a watertight way for you.
The main point I wanted to make here, is the original post is requesting contractual (i.e. legal) advice, and this forum is not the place for it.
We're talking about buying a domain, not an apple, a car or anything else. It's a very specific thing and an intangible commodity.
TJ
