Can I approach an enterprise with my .com?

[wamya]

I've recently registered a .com domain through Godaddy. When I looked at the .co.uk url it went to a £300m UK company. (exact match)

Should i approach them or park the domain and benefit from the traffic?

 

[accelerator]

It depends ... if it can be argued that the domain is generic then it might be OK, but if it's a unique name for which they have a trademark then you can't approach them and you should not have regged it.

Rgds

 

[newly listed!]

i actually find myself in the same situation at this moment lmao. but its not a trademarked name/phrase just a single word product which they own in a different extension and they have done since like 1997... ive drafted up a brief email to them informing them of the traffic stats it gets (as around 5000 a month uniques) and im going to ask them if they would be interested in acquiring it as its going up for sale and even their competition may put in an offer in if it goes public on sedo etc.. I do suggest treading careful but if you feel the want to try it on, do research firstly i guess

 

[GreyWing]

and im going to ask them if they would be interested in acquiring it as its going up for sale and even their competition may put in an offer in if it goes public on sedo etc.

Jesus mate, if that is a .co.uk you may as well just give it away. They show that letter at a DRS and you can kiss that bad boy goodbye.

Don't be fooled by needing a TM to have rights in a name. Someone can have rights in a name for many reasons other than a registered TM.

 

[newly listed!]

Jesus mate, if that is a .co.uk you may as well just give it away. They show that letter at a DRS and you can kiss that bad boy goodbye.

Don't be fooled by needing a TM to have rights in a name. Someone can have rights in a name for many reasons other than a registered TM.

-------
Hi Greywing, Is it really that dodgy? damn it! ill be honest i have been buying up domains since 2007 and i have a pile of good names in numerous extensions that im working my way through developing and the ones that i dont fully need anymore i have decided to start selling off.. i have never ever been the one to ever sell domains tbh so only just getting on the ropes and thought dropping them an email to ask if there is any interest would be a good start than waiting for a snap up on sedo etc..

Seems to me now that its all way too dodgy trying to sell domains as someone who wants it for their company can use it against you to get it, is that the case? The best way is to wait for an offer out of the blue?

 

[GreyWing]

Trouble is mate if you are identifying a buyer, sometimes you are showing that they have rights in the name, or why else would you be offering them that?

That's not always bad, but I would stay away from saying anything about selling it to their competition. You are likely to show yourself in a bad light in any complaint they might make to WIPO. If the .co.uk owner is as big as you say, they won't think twice about spending a few quid on lawyers.

So yep it might be a good idea to contact them, but just be polite and don't highlight any consequences as they sound like threats.

 

[vizzo]

Tread carefully!

 

[wamya]

Thanks for the advice guys. I think i will just sit on it and let it expire. After all I've only spent a few £ on the registration and i really don't want the hassle.

I'll better research next time.

 

[newly listed!]

Thanks for all the advice too, i have typed up my email and will send it off tomorrow morning to the company's marketing dept.. will let you all know how wrong it goes for me lmao :O

 

[webtyrant]

How did you get on?
There's also the ethical/business/long term play.
You can be helpful to that company.. if they are missing out on their web strategy

Si

 

[newly listed!]

How did you get on?
There's also the ethical/business/long term play.
You can be helpful to that company.. if they are missing out on their web strategy

Si

Hi there Si,

I typed a good quality email up and stated that i am myself restructuring my own 'business assets' and have found that a particular domain of which i once used as an eStore may now be open to offers if there is any interest in it etc.

I played the game pretty gently by treading carefully like suggested previously on here and i was pretty happy with what i typed i dont think i could have been any nicer.

Then i googled a huge list of all the large companies that i know that manufacture this particular one worded product and emailed them all individually and just tailored each email to feature their company name etc and mentioned a few of their related products that they sell of which they could use this domain for. (As an example if had owned Wine.co.uk i would have contacted all of the biggest wine manufacturers to see if any wanted to place an offer of interest.)

That was all emailed off sometime last week, as of this point still had no reply. I didnt mention any fixed price or any price range on what i was looking for but was hoping for around £5k seeing as though these companies have money to burn sometimes.

If i ever get any replies ill be sure to update this thread. I isnt unsual never to hear back from a sales email sent off this way, so it really is a hit an miss sport. There could be a few reasons why still not has a reply. It could be they are all preparing court papers against me to take control of the domain off me for free lol, or they may have just not got around to deciding how much they could do with it/what they want to offer, or it could be the emails havnt been dealt with as of yet. I guess only time will tell lol

richi

 

[Senid]

Hi Richi it sounds interesting please keep us updated

 

[Bailey]

'newly-listed, Richi' it Looks like you've unintentionally inherited this thread from the original poster. ( If your input wasn't positive - it's hijacking) and you sound like a guy with some good business acumen, do let us know if anything progresses. And perhaps if nothing materialises you will also share the domain name.

On a slight downer - I, as I'm sure many here do, get regular unsolicited emails offering domains for purchase. I've no idea why. Some of the emails are quite well worded, it's just the domains being offered that let the whole process down from my experience.

Best of luck

 

[shags38]

even if the names is a TM there is no issue in registering the name - it is only when you decide to do something with it, i.e. make a site with that url live, that the problems could start .... me, I would consider contacting them and asking them if they want to buy it ........ you will likely get letters from their lawayers but as long as you have not used the TM in the public domain you have not infringed on the TM so you can use the lawyers letters to make paper aeroplanes

 

[newly listed!]

Hi all,

I do apologise about any thread hijacking it seems my comment has snowballed crazily lol :O.

580 random emails later to numerous companies offering a number of my not so main domains and only got 40 replies! 26 of which were pricing queries, and only 1 offer of which the deal is in motion now..

From my experience this type of marketing is a pain in the backside and nowhere near as easy as many have made out. I have domained for a number of years now and this was my first attempt to try some direct domain selling to companies, not quite to plan as I thought it would pan out.

I chose a number of my domains of which i would have been happy with £xxx for and googled all relative businesses for each category and marketed the required domain to them…. i cant think of anything else i could have tried to be honest to make it work..

The domains were a selection of extensions and some .eu which i feel might have caused most of my emails to end up in the trash cans. I have to admit i felt some of the .eu domains may have still been tempting to end users who weren’t fully in the 'domain game/in the know' but didn’t work lol.

Without hijacking this thread even further, a few of the domains i put up for offers where:

Newlywed .eu
Crisps .eu
DJing .eu
Recruited .eu
Financed .eu
Infertile .eu
Florals .eu
Cash4Gold .info
Programmes .es
Lager .es
Moped .es
Mopeds .es

and a number of others..!

It was a good test in my eyes.. I’m still guessing that there is end users out there for example a wannabe DJ who would like DJing.eu to be his website and be able to set his own personal email up with say [email protected] etc… there is possibility around but its way hard to find and if found, prices wont make you rich but may give you an ok return.. it’s a lot of work and I spent vast hours pounding out the emails so not sure if the hours spent VS domain sale amount would even work out the minimum wage, LMAO.

Do remember it always hard to get people to part with cash, there has to be something in it for them… Be it something they truly want or be it something they think they can resell! They are in it for themselves and you are in it for you... its abit of a stalemate if you don’t get the quality/value balance right.

Thanks all!

Richi

 

[retired_member16]

Word of caution.

Including the word(s) 'domain or domain name' in your email will more than likely see it end up as Spam.

Make it fluffy and call it 'internet site' or something.

 

[newly listed!]

Word of caution.

Including the word(s) 'domain or domain name' in your email will more than likely see it end up as Spam.

Make it fluffy and call it 'internet site' or something.

Excellent point, im guessing it could account for some of the email % loss in non responses...