I am an active user of UDRPSearch.com. As someone who writes about the business of domain name investing, I think it is important to stay aware of new and ongoing UDRP proceedings. I also think UDRPSearch.com is a good way for me to assess some risk when acquiring a domain name.

The percentage of UDRP filings compared to domain names is miniscule. Although a bright light is usually cast on UDRP proceedings that involve generic and/or otherwise valuable domain names, there are probably proceedings that go undetected or were filed before domain industry publications existed. Although I know of many UDRP filings, there are likely hundreds of UDRP proceedings filed against valuable domain names I don’t know of off the top of my head.

When buying a domain name, it is important to know

Performing due diligence is a critical step in buying a domain name. I never want to purchase a domain name that turns out to be stolen from a registrant, so it is important to me to do as much as I can to ensure a registrant is the rightful owner of a domain name.

I use a variety of tools to verify proper ownership, and the main tool I use is DomainTools’ Whois History Tool. If there is ever a question in my mind about the ownership of a domain name I am interested in buying, I will try to contact a former owner to verify that the domain name was sold to the current owner.

Importantly, it is critical to ensure the correct owner is called. If the entity that owned the domain name sold it to someone else and the domain name was stolen from that person, the phone verification of a previous domain owner doesn’t help. This is why I need to make sure I call the right person to not get a false sense of security.

When I make a phone call to a former domain registrant,

The most difficult part of a domain deal is often the domain name transfer. This process can be especially frustrating when dealing with a buyer who is not all that experienced with domain name transfers and doesn’t know how to facilitate one. This can be even more frustrating when the value of the deal is lower than usual.

The other day, I posted a poll asking people if they have ever given a domain name as a gift to someone. The majority of people who participated in the poll were like me and have bought a domain name for someone else as a gift. Sometimes, buying a domain name for someone else isn’t such a great idea.

Nearly all of the time I have bought a domain name for someone, they have not taken possession of the domain name from me. Either they don’t have the need for the domain name (yet), or they simply don’t know enough about how to actually get the domain name. If I were to guess, most of these people have never even owned a domain name before and they wouldn’t know how to open a registrar account and initiate an account change or a transfer.

For the most part,