Sold for 6 Figures, UDRP Filed Against DAE.com (Update)

In November of 2019, DAE.com expired and was sold via GoDaddy Auctions for $126,000. According to UDRPSearch.com, a UDRP was just filed against this high value domain name at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The case is WIPO case number D2020-0041.

The buyer of DAE.com chose to register the domain name using GoDaddy’s privacy proxy service, so the current registrant is not publicly known. It does not appear the domain name has been put into use yet, as the domain name resolves to a default GoDaddy landing page at the time of publication. Assuming it was an end user buyer, this is not surprising considering the search engine and marketing ramifications of a domain name rebranding.

The complainant in the UDRP filing is listed as Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd. A Google search revealed that this company operates on the nearly matching DubaiAerospace.com domain name. It looks like the company does use DAE as an acronym in various lines of business, but that should not entitle it to the high value DAE.com domain name.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see who owned DAE.com prior to its expiry, and it looks like it had been owned by a company called Dae Advertising.

Three letter .com domain names are quite valuable. In fact, they regularly sell for mid five, six, and even seven figures (see recent 3 letter .com sales). In order to prevail in the UDRP, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise will need to prove the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith (among other things). Unless I am missing something, I do not see how this domain name is being used in bad faith. I would also find it hard to believe a company spent $126k on this domain name without plans to use it.

I will keep my eyes on the UDRP decisions and share an update once the decision is published.

Thanks to Observer for sharing this information with me.

Update: The decision was published. The domain registrant will retain the domain name but a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking was not made. The Honorable Neil Brown QC posted a thorough dissent to the RDNH discussion, and that is a must read.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

12 COMMENTS

  1. It was unwise for the new owner to not point the domain away from GoDaddy’s default parking servers once it gained the control of the domain given the $126,000 amount it paid.

    Puzzling.

    • Perhaps, but the buyer might not be familiar with the UDRP to even know this was a potential risk of not redirecting the domain name or pointing it elsewhere pending development.

  2. 1. it GD parking page, but no ads, so that shouldn’t hurt the buyer’s case
    2. the only thing that can hurt is if the buyer is inexperienced and a) doesn’t participate in UDRP or b) agrees to single panelist; c) doesn’t hire an experienced attorney.
    3. The complainant deserves to be labelled as a reverse hijacker as there are probably thousands of companies that use the acronym DAE

    • Here are the 5 top results for me when I search Google for DAE:

      DAELive.com
      Wiktionary.com
      UrbanDictionary.com
      Dictionary.com
      HowToGeek.com

      Not including videos or local results, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is the 17th result in Google when I just searched Google for “DAE.”

  3. This same thing happened to me last year!
    I know exactly why they filed the UDRP so soon after the domain was won on Godaddy, FRONT-RUNNERS!!
    So last year I won a name on Godaddy, 2 weeks after winning the name a company with the same name sent me a threatening email and asked me to transfer the name to them or otherwise!!!
    I explained to them that the name was a combination of 2 generic terms and I never had them in mind when I was bidding in an auction to acquire the name, but they said that they’ve already been contacted by numerous individuals and companies mainly from India offering to sell them the name, I then tried my best to explain to them that those people are some bunch of low life front runners that never even owned the name and are only trying to see if they can sell the name before placing any bids in the actual auction. I was very lucky that they were very understanding and agreed to buy the name from me for 3 times what I paid for the name which I accepted.
    Front runners are just a bunch of low life idiots who cost some genuine domainers dearly by their actions!
    I pretty sure this is exactly why the Dubai Aerospace decided to file the UDRP so soon after the domain was won on Godaddy!

    • Same thing happens to me without the UDRP, but contact from the company and someone by the name of Steen Hof has reached out to try, and sell the name which was still in auction . We reached an agreement after some months, but there aren’t many of these clowns left as they do end up eating it sometimes, but looks like a few still play.

    • There’s nothing slick about it since there isn’t anything infringing going on. So this is bound to be a failed complaint.

  4. DAE Ltd. will lose. Anyone who can afford $126k to buy a domain can certainly afford to fight off any attempts by others to steal it from them.

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