Buying a .com - an impossible task?

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Early last year we tried to acquire a .com for a customer. The owner of the domain (a US company) went bust years ago. The Registrar is Network Solutions, who have taken control of the domain although they deny this. Persistent enquries to obtain the domain followed by a complaint to ICANN resulted in a temporary parking page on the domain, followed by the Whois details being hidden.

This was the ICANN response received four months later,

"Based on the current Whois data, and the registrar's response to ICANN, the sponsoring registrar has demonstrated that it has taken corrective actions by either suspending, deleting, cancelling or otherwise deactivating the domain name. Accordingly, ICANN considers this matter closed."

ICANN is Ombudsman, and from their reply I would say that they did not even bother to check the details supplied.

Our customer has *****-****.com which was unregistered. They they still want *********.com which has no obvious value but is a good match for their service. We offered a low four figure sum via a contact at NetSol, but it was ignored. I have been asked for advice on a new approach to buy the domain. Views on a price to pitch or any similar experience would be welcome.

 

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Try and make friends with someone at Network Solutions via LinkedIn?

Rgds

 

[keys]

There are many other .com domains with the same (ghost) Registrant, and surely a large number of other domains in a similar situation. ICANN Registrars send regular reminders asking Registrants to confirm correct contact details, but Data Quality seems to be optional.

If ICANN are indifferent to Data Quality there is no solution. In this case contacting them was a pointless waste of time, the idea that they will verify and correct details is an illusion.

In contrast I would say that Nominet are setting a gold standard with their new DQ intitiative. Action was long overdue, but we can now see clear and rapid improvement.