I just regged an authority sites .net and .org name. They didnt bother to purchase the .net and .org name and from what I can tell they dont have it trademarked so I cant imagine any legal trouble. The domain that is the authority site is .com is PR 5 The total number of pages that contain links to the site is:8,666 and DNScoop (not that I completely rely on this tool) says :The estimated value of site is: $63,956. Its a 5 year old domain and website and they didnt even bother to register the .net or .org domains! So, I snatched them up. I used to frequent this site alot and it has ALOT of traffic. It is a parenting website. Did I just get lucky? What should I do with the .net and .org domains? Should I park them or create a page and just redirect them to a new Parenting Website?? Would this create legal problems? Any help and insight would be great! Also Google has it as an Authority Site. Does this matter?
A fake identity? isnt that illegal? I could just use the whois protection right? Any idea what I should do with the domains? Park or redirect to a new parenting website?? Any legal implications?
Is the parenting website with the .COM a business? Are you *sure* they are not registering a trademark for the name? Redirecting your domains to the .com would be very generous of you, but why would you do it? You're just paying to send them an occasional visitor (whoever types their address in the address bar and uses the wrong TLD - not likely if they have the .com). If the .com site doesn't have a trademark, you should be able develop your own sites using the .net/.org, but be careful not to infringe on the .com's site (copyright). You will likely never be able to trademark the domain name as the .com has been in business longer than you and would have a valid basis for challenging your mark. They, however, could register a trademark at any time, so anything you build could some day end up being embroiled in a legal fight. I would probably just publish something simple and informative on the domains and try to monetize them as best I could for as little capital investment as possible.
Bernard, Thanks for your helpful insight Much appreciated. What I was saying though is that I should redirect the .net and .org domains that I registered possibly to another parenting site of my own?? OR/ parking them and gaining for the relevant ads. Rep added to you of course Thanks!
Whoever suggested fake information is a complete idiot. ICANN can and does prosecute for fake information, and at the very least the website is taken down. Eric Bauman almost had ebaums world taken down sometime last year for this problem. What I would suggest would be to keep the domains for about a month to see what kind of traffic they get. If a decent amount, keep the parking. If not, then offer them to the .com parent for a decent fee. I don't know what the parent site is, and so I can't suggest a price, but don't make it something along the lines of 2 million (unless it's myspace.com or something!).
If you already have another parenting site, I don't see any problem redirecting the domains. The worst that could happen is the .com site could send you a cease and desist letter and you would have to consider undoing the redirects. That would probably be the lowest cost use for the domains (as opposed to investing time and money building a site for them).
I also have felt that registering a .net or a .org when there is a huge site on the .com just provides more type in traffic for the .com But if the .com was parked like Revenue.com for example Then buying Revenue.net is cool But then again who am I Just my opinion
Well in my opinion, I think it depends on the actual name or word! Like for example, if it is a name like, playskool or mattel, starwars, ect? Than, there may be problems. But, if it is a name like baseball, hotdogs or applepie. Than it is a common entity and can not be copyrighted. Anyway, nice score! I think ya done good... I sure am itching to know the name now... lol please tell us...please... jk! The way I see it, they snooze they loose, it should be fair game! But then it goes back to what I first said. It just depends on the name. Boulder
It's not a country specific law. It's an ICANN regulation governing all domain registrations (regardless of where you live): http://www.icann.org/registrars/ra-agreement-17may01.htm#3.7.7.2
Well, if you ever develop a lucrative site, you risk losing it as soon as someone who is mad at you complains - not a solid business decision IMO.
Thanks everyone for the solid advice! Much appreciated, I have decided to park the domain right now, and see how much traffic it gets, get it indexed in google and such, etc. Would an Adwords campaign be the right way to go?? I dont think I should disclose the domain publicly, for obvious reasons.