Don’t Get Caught in the Legal Crossfire

Elliot Silver
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Despite the fact that it is 2016 and the laws regarding cybersquatting on well known brands are well established, some people still seem a bit too cavalier when it comes to owning infringing domain names. My guess is that some people either don’t know about the protections given to brands or they believe the risk/reward analysis is in their favor.

This morning, Andrew Hazen called attention to a lawsuit that was filed by fashion brand Christian Dior. According to the article in World IP Review, in addition to injunctive relief and the transfer of the infringing domain names, “It is also seeking an account of all profits made by the defendants in their unlawful acts, and statutory damages for wilful counterfeiting for each use of the Dior trademarks ($2 million per infringement, tripled) and $100,000 for each domain name.”

The company, like many other large brands, is

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It’s Not How You Will Use it But How it Can be Used

Elliot Silver
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I can’t tell you how many times someone has told  me that my asking price is too high because of the size of their business or because of their plans for the domain name. It boggles my mind when some people then become  rude simply because the price and value of the domain name is beyond their budget.

Although most of these inquiries do not materialize into an acceptable offer and are simply ignored, it may be helpful to explain that the value of a domain name is not how the person inquiring plans to use it, but how the domain name can be optimally used. When I explain this, I sometimes offer the following illustration or something similar:

Let’s say you

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Please Don’t Do This When You Contact Me

Elliot Silver
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Maybe I am getting crotchety in my old age, but there are a few things that irritate me when people contact me about their domain names. I understand that people want to sell their domain names (or service) to me because I have a public presence, but there are some things that irritate me and will almost always lead to a deleted email without a response.

I want to share 5 things you shouldn’t do or say when you contact me about your domain name(s) or service(s). I presume this annoys other people as well, so perhaps it’s time to rethink your outbound email strategy:

Add RE: or FW: to a subject line when we haven’t exchanged emails. I am sure this will improve open rates, but if you try to deceive me by

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Perhaps When to Rethink Your Strategy

Elliot Silver
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Some people may go a bit overboard with their domain name registrations. They get inspiration from somewhere, register a bunch of domain names, and before they know it, they have a fairly large portfolio under management. It’s easy to buy domain names, but selling those domain names can be a difficult proposition.

Alan Dunn of Namecorp shared some simple advice for people who find themselves with a lot of domain names but little to no offers or sales:

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Some Domain Names are Not Sellable

Elliot Silver
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I receive quite a few emails from people asking me to buy their domain names or for some help selling their domain names. If I am not interested in buying the name(s), I will generally politely decline and may point them in the direction of marketplaces like Sedo or Afternic. Unfortunately, some domain names are simply not sellable.

You probably wouldn’t believe the quality of the vast majority of domain names that are sent to me. Many don’t make any sense to me, have hyphens in strange locations, use obscure words in non .com extensions, randomly replace letters with numbers, or they have other features that make them pretty worthless from my perspective. I feel badly when I see these emails, especially when someone sends an email with a huge list of names that are of the same quality.

Buying domain names that aren’t worth anything can be

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Sometimes It’s Just a Regular Person Inquiring

Elliot Silver
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A good friend of mine dabbles in domain names. I say “dabbles” because he probably owns 10 domain names as investments and all of them were hand registered. My friend occasionally asks me about domain names for various ideas he has, and he  usually sends an email to inquire about domain names he likes.

My friend  faces a bit of trouble when inquiring about domain names. He is in the finance / banking / investment /venture industry. My bet is that domain owners who receive his inquiries do a Google search, see his background, and incorrectly assume that their domain name is the target of something major. Under this assumption, they give him ridiculous prices for their domain names.

Although my friend inquires about

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