Buying Domain Names

If you are really jazzed about a particular domain name that isn’t for sale, you should do your best to keep in touch with the domain owner in the event that circumstances change and the domain name goes on the market.

I’ve been looking to buy a particular domain name for several years. It’s not an amazing domain name, but it’s a pretty exceptional category defining domain name, and there are thousands of professionals in the field. The domain name has never been developed (or parked), and it is owned by an end user who thinks he will use it eventually, although it appears unlikely.

Every few months, I send the guy a

A friend in the business told me about an exceptional domain name he had just acquired, and as we were discussing potential buyers, he noticed that the company had an abandoned trademark for the domain name. It was the exact .com trademark, and had it been live, it might have made a nice extra piece of intellectual property to include with a subsequent sale.

I hadn’t really thought about doing this before my conversation, but when you are buying a domain name from someone who has owned it for a while, it might behoove you to do a trademark search at the USPTO to see if that person happens to have a trademark. If there is an active trademark, be sure to include it in the deal.

One reason this is a good idea is

Wise words, so many complaints come to me because they forget to renew http://t.co/JgavMCFMcE

— Chris LaHatte ICANN (@ChrisLaHatte) August 28, 2013

I saw this tweet from ICANN Ombudsman Chris LaHatte yesterday, and I want to discuss the topic of the best way to approach a domain investor who has purchased or acquired an expired domain name. Although I generally give advice to domain investors, the focus of this article is advising domain registrants on how I believe they should best deal with an expired domain name that was purchased by a domain investor.

There are many reasons why domain names expire. To name a few potential reasons for why a domain name may have expired: