Securing a .co.uk domain

deep · Jul 27, 2005

This is my first post here, and I'm new to the practice of drop-catching.

We're looking to register a domain on behalf of a client. The domain is their company name, that is registered in the UK, the US and many other countries across the world.

They didn't have the .co.uk because as far as they were concerned the whois showed that the domain was registered.

We have been unable to contact the named registrant as no contact details were listed. We contacted the ISP who were listed as the administrative contact, and after a long discussion and endless phonecalls it seems that the domain is no longer registered and Nominet will let the domain lapse in a few weeks.

It seems that we will be unable to 'pre-register' the domain according to Nominet's way of working, and we would like to be able to register the domain as soon as it becomes available.

However (and now I get to my point!), I am aware that someone could register the domain before we do, even if we act the moment we are aware the domain is available.

My questions are:

1. Do we need to employ 'drop-catching' and possibly use a third-party who will be able to monitor the availablity of the domain and register it on our behalf as soon as it is available?

2. As it is a tradename, will it be a domain that people will be monitoring - I dont understand how the domains are monitored if it's from a published list or from a list that the drop-catcher specifies?

3. What do people advise us to do?

Thanks in advance for any advice. Like I said I'm new to this, and if there are any existing threads that cover this in detail please point me in their direction.

Cheers,

Daniel

bb99 · Jul 27, 2005

Welcome to the forum!

1. Do we need to employ 'drop-catching' and possibly use a third-party who will be able to monitor the availablity of the domain and register it on our behalf as soon as it is available?

Yes... Your best bet will be to either do a deal with somebody on here to try and get it for you, or to use one (or more) of the commercial catching services. Or, to be safe, a combination of the two.

2. As it is a tradename, will it be a domain that people will be monitoring - I dont understand how the domains are monitored if it's from a published list or from a list that the drop-catcher specifies?

It depends. If it's a dictionary word or a good combination of two words then it may be being monitored by others. If it's a generic phrase that describes the business/company then perhaps it could also be being monitored.

3. What do people advise us to do?

If I were you I'd try and do a deal with somebody on here so that they will try and catch it for you on a "no win, no fee" basis.

The risk, though, is that you may alert an unscrupulous name catcher to the fact that a good name is dropping. If nothing else exciting is dropping that day, they may wish to try and catch it for themselves!

Good luck with it...

deep · Jul 27, 2005

Thanks for that.

The domain is a short, non-generic, non-dictionary term. So I guess this would mean it is less attractive in terms of people wanting to use the domain (but not necessarily less attractive for people to want to register it for whatever purpose!).

I'm not going to disclose the domain to anyone at the moment, as I'm aware that this could actually cause more problems than it solves. I think when the time comes I will speak to a 'reputable' company (is there a list of these so I can speak to them?).

Thanks again for your help.

bb99 · Jul 27, 2005

Most of the people on here are reputable

Other things for you to try:

- See if it's on the lists at www.deleting.co.uk, if it is then others may be looking for it (you can search there).

- See if it's reserved at www.dropcatcher.co.uk. If it is, then somebody else is definitely looking for it.

rob · Jul 27, 2005

deep said:
I'm not going to disclose the domain to anyone at the moment, as I'm aware that this could actually cause more problems than it solves. I think when the time comes I will speak to a 'reputable' company (is there a list of these so I can speak to them?).

Ideally you would want the name 'booked' before any prospective drop date.

Your best bet is to agree a bounty fee with proven catchers on this board as they have dedicated systems targeting names precisely rather than shotgun approach of commercial catchers.

Are there any 'reputable' catching companies out there?!