Holding domains and companies

[Amp34]

Sorry, rubbish title...

Basically I'm wondering about the ways a company can get hold of a domain name that is being sat on by a squatting firm.

Say i have just renamed my company "ABC" and want the .com address "abc".com, however one of the squatting companies owns it and has just a holding page with adverts. Obviously I can approach them and ask to buy it (stupid sums alert), however I remember there being the potential to have it confiscated due to some kind of lack of use. Am I talking out my ****?

It's irrelevant now for my companies situation but I'm intrigued as to what can be done in situations like this (we did approach the company that own it and they wanted tens of thousands, so we chose a different domain name.).

 

[Longbow]

It costs a lot of money to go the legal route, it's often cheaper to just make them an offer. Besides, just because you call your company ABC doesn't mean you'll even win the domain abc.com, especially when they registered it before your company was created.

 

[uniQ]

You can't do anything. That's not what domain squatting is.

Otherwise known as ‘Cyber Squatting’, domain squatting is the act of registering, trafficking in or using a domain name with the intent to profit from the good name of an organizations trademark, brand or identity.

If you could people would be retro-actively setting up companies left right and center to reclaim domains from people.

Just because a domain doesn't have a web presence doesn't actually mean it isn't being used and doesn't mean it's being squatted either.

Example: Parked domain is being used simply for email. Should they be forced to create a web page to appease? Or maybe bought with the intention to develop but has other projects and it get's sidelined. You still don't have any right to that domain unless they either choose to not re-register it or sell it.

 

[Hagar]

I used to own over a hundred domains and admit some were to make a profit on resale. I sold some names to interested parties, these tended to be generic names such as 'bread' which can not be copyright or trademarked and most were four and five letter random .com's which could be used for company names. there are a lot of these types of domain which are effectively unused although many do carry paid advertising and make a small but regular profit to the domain owner.
The domain owner can claim prior use through doing this so any attempt to wrest the domain for yourself must show that the name infringes or profits from your legitimate business.