pepeek

Hello everyone,

When the iPad was introduced by Apple I though it is good idea to invest in some domains. I bought hand full of domains with *iPad* keyword. The trouble is that I'm not an investor really and the domains are parked with no gain generated so far. I've decided to get rid of them. I would like to know your opinion on the questions bellow.

1) do you see an investment value in *iPad* domains?

2) is it stupid to ged rid of them today?

3) what is the best way to sell them. I've tried SEDO/GODADDY/eBay but with no success. Of course one problem is that I'm not doing it right, asking too much, not marketing properly, not choosing properly which domains to sell and which to keep. My current idea is to list quite a bit of domains on eBay.co.uk with no reserve with start price 15GBP. Do you see this as really stupid (loosing valuable domains for a few pounds) or smart (hoping that people attract nice domains with low price and bidding will rise the price?) or just risky? What would you do?

4) what is the best way to monetize domains which I keep? Do you see a potencial in the domains above? Which service would you recommend to go with?

My problem is that I don't really have time for this. My business is to develop edu games for iPad which together with my kids totally eats all of my time.

Your help is greatly appreciated,
--Josef

seemly

These are shockingly bad and a waste of however much it cost to buy the 150+ domains, irrelevant of the fact they are TM domains.

Every single last one of them is a TM infringement and could land you in big trouble if you developed any one of them - costing you much more money than your initial "investment" to purchase/reg them in the first instance.

Maximum Value = Minus the amount of the initial investment cost you.
Minimum Value = Minus however much the legal fee's would be if Apple ever find out you have these domains, but more so if you ever decide to develop them as websites.

Either way, the numbers are at the very least -£xxx? (negative)

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rob

The 'new domainers' forum could do with a READ THIS FIRST thread - or perhaps a welcome PM explaining the basics / link to a FAQ?

Edwin

A "domainer education" doesn't come cheap! You've just set fire to over a thousand pounds by registering all those worthless TM names.

There are only two roads to take from here:

A) Give up on domaining (let EVERY ONE of the domains you registered with "ipad" in them drop, and don't register any more domains)

or

B) Read lots and lots and lots (all the info you need is in the archives of this forum) until the difference between a commercial domain and a worthless TM name has really sunk in, then let EVERY ONE of the "ipad" names drop and perhaps register a small handful of very carefully chosen names (or buy a couple from other people if you see unrealised value)

or

C) Give up on the English domain market and focus on your local ccTLD and language, where you may be less out of your depth

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pepeek

Oh well. Some experience really cost some cash. Thanks for decent words of advice.

I don't want to argue with some of the facts, just trying to understand. "Seemly" says that I could get in big trouble if I develop a web with some of the domains. However there is tons of well established webs, e.g. iphonedevsdk.com. Is not the iPhone also TM? Appart from this one there is plenty others? Are they aware of the risk but trying to gain as much before Apple get them? Or?

BTW, I'm mentally ready for your advise A) I want to focus on my job.

seemly

You have purchased these domain names with the sole purpose of making money from them in one sense or another.

Whether that be through selling the domains, selling products, advertisements or whatever, you would be making money on the back of the ipad as a product, which in itself is a trademarked term.

This shows you registered these terms in bad faith, leaving you open for legal proceedings.

If you were to develop these websites, ensuring they had absolutely nothing to do with any Ipad product or official Ipad/apple accessory, you would be fine. But in which case, why would you purchase TM domains to avoid promoting that TM product/brand...?

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Blossom

If you aren't directly selling Apple products they will tend to leave you alone - however you're still at risk because they can still decide to come after you with a big stick. They know what's good for them though, which is why they allow sites like macrumors.com.

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Alien

Welcome to AD.

I'm sorry, I think they are all completely worthless and I'd not bother renewing any of these (in fact cancelling the .co.uk's is the way to go IMO). As pointed out the TM consideration alone could severely bite you in the bum - and do you really want to tangle with the big Apple over these?

You might get lucky and sell one or two for a small amount, you probably won't. Please don't buy anything more and get carried away until you're a little more knowledgeable!

Good Luck and visit often!

PS: Just because other sites are operating/trading using other TM names doesn't mean they won't get caught at some point, taken down or be legally pursued. Do you want that potential risk?

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untagged

Some good advice posted here.

I had a trademark name, they came after my corporation with a solicitors letter etc... I immediately showed I was willing to co-operate with them and make the transfer to the trademark owner (I mean the domain name was worthless to me, I couldnt do anything with it) but I said I would like "reasonable expenses" for my time etc... and they paid it. I didnt get much, but was ~7x the registration cost so was happy with that.

linkr

I don't see why dropping these, without at least trying to sell them first, would be a good idea. Try to sell them and if it doesn't work, drop them.

You weren't the only one with this brilliant idea though. There's a guy selling a batch of ipad domains on Flippa, so you can check it out and it will give you a pretty good idea on how much you can get for your domains:

https://flippa.com/2697269-ipad-doma...ins-no-reserve

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