caught name...

[tifosi]

Bit of advice. This is the first time this has happened...

I caught a name a over the weekend. Not a top name but a nice 4letter. Seems the old owner thought it was still his and is now asking why I've got it. The probllem is obviously between him, his registrar and nominet, but your thoughts on how to handle this without yet another potential drs is welcome. It was legitimately released from suspended when due.

I don't want to sell it, it's a shortened partner name to a longer compound name.

Stephen

 

[revsorg]

Something very similar happened to me. The first thing I knew about it was the old owner issuing a DRS complaint, which made my blood run cold. His complaint was that his agent had failed to renew the domain. I issued my rebuttal and he withdrew his complaint. It was his only option, there was no way he was going to win. I've still got the domain. I felt that it was a good learning experience, partly for me because I learned exactly how the system works in practice, and partly for the guy who made the complaint, because he learned the hard way that if you don't take reasonable care of your possessions then it's your own fault when things go wrong.

 

[FC Domains]

Was it a pre-Nom name?

Some of these have been recovered, because Nominet didn't really try properly to contact the registered owner. Also in these cases one department of Nominet sometimes let's a name drop, when another department has been contacted by the registrant.

 

[tifosi]

no, it was a normal suspended name, registered I think in 1999.

 

[lesurf]

IMO I don't think you have anything to worry about. I worked at an ISP, and due to our pretty shoddy renewals system this used to happen a few times a year. The onus was on us as the ISP to get the name back for the owner that we hadn't renewed it for. I seem to remember that the onus was lpaced on us if we had invoiced the customer for the renewal and not done it. I'm not too sure whether this was a PR thing that we did so as not to lose face but we certainly did it and paid some pretty inflated prices for our mistakes. I think this is between the registrant and the agent, just sit back and wait.

 

[bb99]

To agree with what's been said, the old domain owner relinquished their ownership when they didn't renew it.

The harsh reality is that their beef is with their registration agent and/or Nominet.

The chances are that "a mistake" was made by either the agent or the registrant.

Depending on what the name is and what it was used for (and what you've done with it since registration), they may have a valid DRS case. Your stance at this point, assuming that you want to keep the name, should be that you registered the domain on XX January when it was available tor register. As Saskia from Big Brother would say, "end of".

 

[bb99]

IMO I don't think you have anything to worry about. I worked at an ISP, and due to our pretty shoddy renewals system this used to happen a few times a year. The onus was on us as the ISP to get the name back for the owner that we hadn't renewed it for. I seem to remember that the onus was lpaced on us if we had invoiced the customer for the renewal and not done it. I'm not too sure whether this was a PR thing that we did so as not to lose face but we certainly did it and paid some pretty inflated prices for our mistakes. I think this is between the registrant and the agent, just sit back and wait.

Being a domain registration agent can be a risky business unless you've got watertight terms & conditions and good processes for handling renewals. There is always the risk that a name isn't renewed and you end up either being sued or having to pay to buy it back for the registrant. I think it happens less often these days, but it does still happen.

 

[domaingenius]

What I fail to understand is why Nominet will only let you register a name for
2 years, when you can register a .com for 10 years. At least if Nominet allowed you to register a name for 10 years and then sent reminders every 2-3 years it would help. When you imagine how much some of the .co.uk and.com domains are worth it seems strange that all they are on is a 2 year lease to you by Nominet which aint much security.

DG

 

[FC Domains]

There is a simple way to be safe. Just once a year issue a bulk Auto renew command to Automation.

You also get a reminder from Nominet, three months before they expire. On this you can check that they are set to auto-renew and release any that you really don't want.