Selling a .co.uk and keeping the .UK

[thudufushi]

Hi Guys,

Can you clarify this one for me please, if you are the current owner of abc.co.uk and in a few months you take up your right to register abc.uk can you then sell the .co.uk and keep the .UK (without the new .co.uk owner having any claim on it)?

Thanks
Steve

 

[woopwoop]

I think that's how it is as long as the buyer isn't under the impression that they're getting the .UK right.

I anticipate situations of a buyer contacting the .co.uk owner (who hasn't reg'd the .uk) a deal being done but before the seller transfers, they accept payment, register their right to the .uk, then transfer the .co.uk

Unless an agreement for the .uk (or the rights to the .uk) we're made then is it fully legal/moral...? Both parties being a little sneaky!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

[thudufushi]

Thanks. Thats what I thought. I was not envisaging playing it that fine...just a simple case of owning both the .co.uk and .uk and if an end user enquires about your .co.uk with no reference to the .uk then you can just sell the .co.uk and benefit from a little ignorance on their side and hold the .uk.

 

[solaris]

Hi this discussion has me wondering what happens if I buy a .co.uk on Sedo after .uk is launched. Presumably I am just buying that domain and not necessarily the rights to the .uk, whether or not it is registered at the time.

So if I want the .uk that is unregistered, of a .co.uk that is already registered and for sale, how would I proceed? Guess I'd need an explicit individual agreement with the buyer if buying the .co.uk, which kind of rules out buying on Sedo or any other platform.

 

[diablo]

Hi this discussion has me wondering what happens if I buy a .co.uk on Sedo after .uk is launched. Presumably I am just buying that domain and not necessarily the rights to the .uk, whether or not it is registered at the time.

So if I want the .uk that is unregistered, of a .co.uk that is already registered and for sale, how would I proceed? Guess I'd need an explicit individual agreement with the buyer if buying the .co.uk, which kind of rules out buying on Sedo or any other platform.

The rights to the .uk are reserved for the Registrant of the .co.uk for five years or until registered within that reservation period.

If you bought a co.uk on Sedo during the reserved period and the .uk had not been registered, the rights would follow the .co.uk to you.

If you bought a co.uk on Sedo and the .uk had been registered, the rights would not follow the .co.uk.

Problems could arise if you bought the .co.uk, knowing that the .uk had no been registered - and then the seller registered the .uk before initiating the transfer. So yes, an agreement would need to be in place before I bought a .co.uk from anyone, not just Sedo, after the launch date.

 

[solaris]

My question is a bit more specific - how to be sure of getting the rights to an unregistered .uk when buying a registered .co.uk.

An earlier poster in this thread made the point that they could sell a .co.uk and legitimately then register the .uk and keep that, which is fair enough.

 

[solaris]

So yes, an agreement would need to be in place before I bought a .co.uk from anyone, not just Sedo, after the launch date.

So would this make people less likely to buy a .co.uk?

 

[diablo]

My question is a bit more specific - how to be sure of getting the rights to an unregistered .uk when buying a registered .co.uk.

An earlier poster in this thread made the point that they could sell a .co.uk and legitimately then register the .uk and keep that, which is fair enough.

Like I said, an agreement would need to be in place to ensure you got the rights to the .uk along with the .co.uk.

It would be very easy for Sedo or anyone else to add "with rights to .uk" to any listing / contract.

 

[bensd]

It would be very easy for Sedo or anyone else to add "with rights to .uk" to any listing / contract.

IMO sedo and the like NEED to implement something like this

 

[Edwin]

My question is a bit more specific - how to be sure of getting the rights to an unregistered .uk when buying a registered .co.uk.

An earlier poster in this thread made the point that they could sell a .co.uk and legitimately then register the .uk and keep that, which is fair enough.

Easiest is to make buying the .co.uk conditional on buying the .uk that goes with it. In other words, you make it clear you're paying for both. It only costs the seller a few pounds to register the .uk before transferring both domains over. Of course, there's also the opportunity cost of "losing" the .uk, but that's partly what you're paying them for!

 

[paymatters]

The nominet tool shows who has the right to the .uk domain. In my case it showed umbrella co uk so by buying that domain that right has passed to me and I confirmed this with nominet. I think there was an October cut off where the previous owner could have claimed the right. Believe I can't do anything until now launched but then you get years!

 

[diablo]

The nominet tool shows who has the right to the .uk domain. In my case it showed umbrella co uk so by buying that domain that right has passed to me and I confirmed this with nominet. I think there was an October cut off where the previous owner could have claimed the right. Believe I can't do anything until now launched but then you get years!

There was no cut off in October for the previous owner to claim the right. The right simply follows the .co.uk until registered for five years after the 10th of June 2014.

 

[Retired_Member38]

The nominet tool shows who has the right to the .uk domain. In my case it showed umbrella co uk so by buying that domain that right has passed to me and I confirmed this with nominet. I think there was an October cut off where the previous owner could have claimed the right. Believe I can't do anything until now launched but then you get years!

Your problem would have been if you'd bought umbrella.co.uk after .uk was available, and made no mention of it when buying.

• You agree to buy umbrella.co.uk, which qualifies for umbrella.uk
• Seller takes your money, then registers umbrella.uk
• Seller transfers umbrella.co.uk, and keeps umbrella.uk for himself

So you are going to need to make sure any sale agreement involves them either registering then transferring the .uk too, or agreeing to let you do it.

Like said above Sedo are really going to have to build that into their system for .co.uk sales or they're going to become instantly worthless as a UK platform overnight...

 

[stellar73]

Like said above Sedo are really going to have to build that into their system for .co.uk sales or they're going to become instantly worthless as a UK platform overnight...

+ 1

Hope they manage to get this one right. It seems such an obvious thing to do but then I always thought it was 'obvious' that Sedo and similar sites should have an automatic way where people can sell more than one existing domain together as a bundle (eg if they had a .com and co.uk of the same name etc) ....as far as I know there are no dedicated domain auction sites that do this either.

 

[cm1975]

+ 1

Hope they manage to get this one right. It seems such an obvious thing to do but then I always thought it was 'obvious' that Sedo and similar sites should have an automatic way where people can sell more than one existing domain together as a bundle (eg if they had a .com and co.uk of the same name etc) ....as far as I know there are no dedicated domain auction sites that do this either.

It certainly makes sense to have the option to sell .co.uk and .uk as a pair. I wonder if domain auction sites may be reluctant to do this as it could potentially make them less money. A bundle would suggest a lower selling price than selling them separately and therefore a lower commission.

 

[Retired_Member38]

It certainly makes sense to have the option to sell .co.uk and .uk as a pair. I wonder if domain auction sites may be reluctant to do this as it could potentially make them less money. A bundle would suggest a lower selling price than selling them separately and therefore a lower commission.

I would imagine it'll be higher commission - as without the pair I won't be buying them at all, so they'll be getting $0 on those ones!