Selling a .uk to the owner of the .co.uk

[domainsjmd]

What is the general stance on selling the .uk domain name to the current owner of the .co.uk domain name?

Is it frowned upon to sell a .uk to somebody who registered the .co.uk domain name in 2015 and didn't register the .uk domain at the same time? The domain is just two generic keywords and not a trademark and in itself is quite a nice name to have.

I don't have a problem contacting the owner of a .com if am in possession of the corresponding .co.uk - but this seems like a bit more of a grey area to me. Or is it fair game?

 

[Skinner]

In theory, and in Nominets view, there is no different between .co.uk > org.uk or .me.uk > .uk or even .co.uk > .uk, so in theory it should be fair game.

Personally I think the lay of he land will be clearer in about 20 or so month, so safer to play the waiting game.

 

[splashweb]

Fair game as far as I can tell, provided TM isn't being infringed. As per Skinner's comment; probably better to wait until after 10th June 2019 when the the penny drops for many.

 

[anthony wood]

If the words are generic and the 2 word combination is common eg in use by many people for example ‘ for rent ‘ ( not the best example but spur of the moment as I am busy so can’t stay too long on here this morning ) then it is fine to own them and try sell them to the owner as all and sundry can use these words and whoever is first to register the domains can sell them to whoever but they would not be able to stop others using them as it is a commonly used combination of the words.


If however the 2 generic words have been put together in a unique way that no one has used before then the person who puts them together second could be seen to be passing off ( in English law ) eg using the words to pass off their businesss as that of another’s ( the first person ) and that could lead to litigation

Examples of a unique combination that have never been used before might be

Jigging ape ( yes pretty lame but as I say spur of the moment on a busy morning ) and if never used before by anyone could become the trademark of the creator and anyone else could be ‘passing off’

A real life example is singer Robbie Williams was, so it is reported sued
and has to pay lifetime royalties for using the unique combination of Woody Guthrie’s words ‘Jesus in a camper van’ ( each of these words on their own are generic and able to be used by anyone but Woody Guthrie put these together in a unique way that made them his own )

If a second person bought a ‘unique combination’ of words without any knowledge of the first person using them ( though that’s not an absolute excuse as these days with the Internet most things can be checked ) then he couldn’t be claimed to be trying to pass off / or hold to ransom and should be able to sell to the first word owner who it could be said was at fault / negligent to not have bought the words whether they were unique or common and should just as he would reward \ pay an employee for any initiative to boost his business’ reward the second person.

Always approach anyone with courtesy and respect and the good intention to work harmoniously.

Phew !

I only came on for a few minutes forgive grammatical errors eg lack of full stops etc

Hope it helps

Have a good day all