So the domain I want is being held hostage by a cybersquatter. They are saying $240k!!!!! the url is my last name in signature with .com. (don't want to type it here and they use the "traffic" to raise it even more or give them hope of a big payday.
There is no way I'm paying that much. $10k to $20k is well above market I'm told, but I would be willing to do it just to be done with it.
Perhaps this should be in the What's Your Deal? section, but I guess I'm both venting and looking for any signs of hope or tips on how to deal with a cyber squatter. I've already engaged a lawyer for this it's a massive pita. There are laws, but I'm told it's basically a waste of time.
I'd suggest making an offer somewhere below, perhaps half of what you are willing to pay. With the advent of additional TLD's over the "traditional" .com, .org, .net, .etc most domain name speculators are not nearly as tight-fisted as they have been in the past.
Don't worry about seeming "cheap" with a low-ball offer. After all, they are not worried about seeming greedy. The name isn't likely to be generating any revenue for them, so they have an incentive to let it go at any price.
WRT to going to the court for assistance, you pretty much have to be able to prove you have a registered trademark, and be using it in regular business activities to have a prayer of prevailing.
Posts: 6487 | Location: NoVA | Registered: July 22, 2009
This late in the .com TLD domain name game I guarantee you that if a domain squatter wasn't sitting on it, somebody else would already have it.
Several years ago I was doing something at one of the domain name registrars, I don't recall what, and a page I was on displayed "Did you know your first-initial-last-name.com is available?" Why, no, I did not know that. I quickly snatched it up.
There are very, very few common .com domain names that aren't either in-use or in the possession of squatters.
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
About 15 years ago, I was looking for a domain for a side project I was doing. A 6 character domain that was a pretty good variant of what I was looking for had expired and was available. I grabbed it and a few months later some company called me to see if I’d sell it. A bit of back and forth and we came to terms at about $8500 or so.
The funds offset a bathroom remodel I was doing and everyone was happy.
Posts: 4130 | Location: Texas | Registered: April 16, 2012
I've been pretty lucky over time. One of my relatives had a large business and used my last name.com. When they sold they let it expire and I simply snagged it up.
Most of my other domains were available, as were some that were similar to what other companies in my area owned, so I got those as well. I'm not exactly squatting, as all of them are forwarded to the site I use.
They have different ones like .ICU or .ME or .WORK
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
Posts: 19676 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011
My suggestion would be to think of another URL that works for you. "Squatters" as you call them got their URL legally, they didn't just move into an empty house and start living there. If you don't want to pay them for it think of a different one. If you do want to pay for it get your checkbook out. Too bad, so sad, think of another URL, and be glad. Little saying we have for those who want a URL and can't get it.
At any rate, I hope you find one that works for you.
On a related note, if you ever file for a trademark, be sure to buy the domain first if available. Squatters most get notified when your trademark application is approved because it was available before I filed and was bought by a squatter by the time I checked after getting my TM approved. Only $800 but I didn’t want it that badly.
--------------------------- My hovercraft is full of eels.
Cyber speculaor might be a better name. They lay out the money to register the domain and it’s theirs. Just because other folks want it doesn’t mean they have some special right to something someone else paid money for.
A non-profit I was involved with some years ago got screwed when they decided to cheap out. A local person who had been using what would have been their <ideal_domain>.com agreed to let them have it. They could have paid to transfer it it them, but they chose to wait for it to expire then register it. Guess what, someone beat them to it and was happy to sell it to them at a high cost. At my suggestion, they registered their <ideal_domain>.org and drove on.
Posts: 6920 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.
The term is derived from "squatting", which is the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building that the squatter does not own, rent, or otherwise have permission to use.
Speculating on generic URLs and trying to sell them for a profit is a totally different thing.
Posts: 2486 | Location: WI | Registered: December 29, 2012
