Why is this not illegal!

frosty03 said:
how soon do you have to renew your domain to prevent a takeover? Is there a minimum period or will your host contact you before selling it on ?
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A domain will have an expiry date and you should always renew either before or on that day.
Once a domain expires it enters a "Redemption Period" - this varies depending on what kind of domain it is, co.uk, com, net etc
If after the redemption period it still hasn't been renewed the domain is listed for deletion.
Once it has been deleted then somebody else can immediately register it.

At no point should your host be selling the domain on unless:

A. You've told them you definitely don't want to renew it so they take it on themselves.
B. As soon as it has been dropped they immediately register it to themselves.

Best bet is to choose a host that do "positive renewals".
Some don't like this, however I use 123-reg and all of my domains automatically renew for a year if I do nothing (co.uk for 2 years as required).
If I want a domain to actually drop I have to check a box in my control panel.

This way my important domains keep on getting renewed even if I forget to do it manually.
 
The important factor is if you have "legitimate interest" in a domain name.
If I owned a small company called "Tesco" for example.
For some unknown reason Tesco Supermarket hadn't registered tesco.com so I did.
They could kick up and scream as much as they liked - however I've got legitimate interest in that domain name and I should be allowed to keep it.

The internet is littered with numerous sites you'd expect to be owned by a particular company but it isn't.
apple.co.uk as an example - You've gott think iPod and if not you'd be thinking record label, but no.

However the "legitimate interest" requirement does go out of the window with generic terms & names and domain names that don't neccessarily mean anything.
If for example cars.com was still available, nobody could really cllaim prior rights to such a name so it would be first come first served.
If however it was bmwcars.com that was available then there could be a prior rights claim.
However if you were turning said domain into a "BMW Lovers" site then you might get away with it.

Domain law can get incredibly complex.
Suffice to say, onlly the brave would attemt to fight a large corporation for a domain if it contains trade marks or company names.
Even if you feel you're in the right the legal fees alone would make it not worth while.
 
reflux said:
This is interesting; apparently an Everton fan registered WayneRooney.com when he was up and coming, and when Wayne got famous, he wanted it back. Cue court case, in which the defence was found to have bought the name for commercial gain, and it was surrendered to Rooney.

http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2006/06/article_0008.html
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It is rare that a name comes into play - with the exception of film stars and sportsmen :)
The problem is that names such as David Beckham, Wayne Rooney etc become trade marks in their own right.
And so prior rights can be claimed.

If the person who had registered the domain however had been called Wayne Rooney himsef, created a personall website and talked about others who "shared his name" he wouldn't have been forced to surrender the domain.
 
http://www.badboys3.com

:o REGISTERED! YAY! :) :) :)

I like the google has registered gogle.com i think or googe.com ;)

Funny. I have quite a few domains which are active, i lost one many years ago because they didnt notifiy me it was being expired. I think it might be back on the market now.
 
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