webmasterbeta
New Member
Looking for some advice from the experienced domainers if there are any around.
In 1999 I began a small business as a sole trader and registered the .co.uk for my brand. I didn't register the .com as it had already been taken but was unused at the time.
Around 2001 someone did start using the .com version but were not directly competing with me in a business sense so it was no skin off my nose. In 2002 (I think it was 2002, I can't get archive.org open to verify) another company sprang up, this time using the .ie version of the domain name.
I can't be sure when it took place but at some point in time the owners of the .ie took ownership of the .com and both are now pointing at their web site.
In 2005 I had a change of direction and rebranded and thus the .co.uk simply changed to a 301 redirect to the newly branded web site. That was until a few months ago when I decided to park it over at Sedo.
Ok thats the story, now what I am thinking is that I should contact this company and offer them the domain name to see if they would be interested in taking it over. The domain name is over 9 years old, it has never been dropped and I have owned it the entire time.
I have some concerns however that because I am no longer using the name for my business that they may have some legal basis to take it off me. They are based in a different country but we are both based in the EU. They are a LTD company and I have only ever acted as a sole trader. The only thing I can see that I would have in my defense is that I was the first person to use the brand name online and I was the first person to register any form of domain if that makes sense.
So would it be a good idea to contact them and offer it to them?
The domain isn't particularly special and wouldn't be worth much to anyone other than them as far so it's not really worth putting it up for auction or anything like that.
Also if you were to advise me to contact them, would you suggest asking them to make a reasonable offer for the domain or would you say it is better to include an asking price with the initial contact?
Thoughts? Comments?
In 1999 I began a small business as a sole trader and registered the .co.uk for my brand. I didn't register the .com as it had already been taken but was unused at the time.
Around 2001 someone did start using the .com version but were not directly competing with me in a business sense so it was no skin off my nose. In 2002 (I think it was 2002, I can't get archive.org open to verify) another company sprang up, this time using the .ie version of the domain name.
I can't be sure when it took place but at some point in time the owners of the .ie took ownership of the .com and both are now pointing at their web site.
In 2005 I had a change of direction and rebranded and thus the .co.uk simply changed to a 301 redirect to the newly branded web site. That was until a few months ago when I decided to park it over at Sedo.
Ok thats the story, now what I am thinking is that I should contact this company and offer them the domain name to see if they would be interested in taking it over. The domain name is over 9 years old, it has never been dropped and I have owned it the entire time.
I have some concerns however that because I am no longer using the name for my business that they may have some legal basis to take it off me. They are based in a different country but we are both based in the EU. They are a LTD company and I have only ever acted as a sole trader. The only thing I can see that I would have in my defense is that I was the first person to use the brand name online and I was the first person to register any form of domain if that makes sense.
So would it be a good idea to contact them and offer it to them?
The domain isn't particularly special and wouldn't be worth much to anyone other than them as far so it's not really worth putting it up for auction or anything like that.
Also if you were to advise me to contact them, would you suggest asking them to make a reasonable offer for the domain or would you say it is better to include an asking price with the initial contact?
Thoughts? Comments?