Master Of My Domain

November 27, 2007 6:08 PM

A few years ago, I bought the .biz version of a domain name. The domain name is a common word, and the .com version was purchased by a new and now very large company. Now, I'm thinking about selling the name, or leasing the redirect.

A while back, the Large Company offered to buy the name from me, but I turned them down. They then sent me a Cease & Desist letter, claiming I purchased the domain name in bad faith (which was nonsense, since I purchased the name before the company existed) and I was infringing on their trademark, and I must hand over the domain name. I hired a lawyer who told them to back off and they did.

But now I'm thinking about selling the name or leasing the redirect, but I suspect if I was to offer the domain name for sale, I'd face another series of challenges from the large company. What are my options?

posted by anonymous to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Wait until they offer to buy it again.
posted by drezdn at 6:37 PM on November 27, 2007

I second drezdn. If you approach them, you might not get as good a price.
posted by fiTs at 7:21 PM on November 27, 2007

You could look for a broker that might do better at negotiating a good price for you. They probably have the know how of which way to approach the other party involved. I googled this and found a bunch:

"web site name brokers"

Good luck!
posted by bkeene12 at 7:45 PM on November 27, 2007

I don't think they will offer to buy it again unless they have some incentive to want to eliminate whatever it is you have up on the site. Give them an incentive to make an offer. I would not do anything anti that company, but rather something that brings in traffic.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:01 PM on November 27, 2007

I am curious if they would even consider buying only a redirect. A redirect means you can always manipulate later and charge them more for continuing to redirect or threatening to redirect to an inappropriate website.
posted by manish at 9:32 PM on November 27, 2007

What I would do is set up a redirect pointing at a political party or blog. Not a commercial use, not lewd or defamatory, but the company won't like it.
posted by topynate at 9:34 AM on November 28, 2007