Domain squatters

[TheMonkey]

Ok so I'm going through the "business development" phase of plan B. I'm looking at registering a trademark which represents the business. I have a good one in mind but some buggers are squatting the .uk domain.

Is it legal to squat on it if I have a trademark which they own, even if they purchased it before the trademark was registered. Can I lever it off them. Bearing in mind these guys have a history of selling and leasing (!!!)domains for silly money:

taste.co.uk to Sainsbury's for £110,000 plus VAT
three.co.uk to Hutchison for £102,000 plus VAT
3121.com to Prince for the album 3121 for $30,000

[Dundeegeorge]

Oh that's shocking

some thieving bastards stole the domain name you decided you now want to use and they'd expect you to pay for it, the nerve of some people, I think you should sue.

Either that or grow up.

[AtW]

You will need to prove that your trademark was registered before they registered domain. The whole thing is a serious mess - those guys who squat domains deserve to be shot.

There are only 3 ways available to deal with this situation in order of cost:

a) go away and find available domain
b) pay up money to that scum
c) try sueing them - very costly

[TheMonkey]

some thieving bastards stole the domain name you decided you now want to use and they'd expect you to pay for it, the nerve of some people, I think you should sue.

Either that or grow up.

They are not using it. It's a placeholder. They purchase domains purely to rent and resell for rediculous amounts of wonga. It's like buying a house and leaving it empty in the middle of a housing crisis.

I've got 25 possible trademarks in the list but 14 (!!!!) of them are squatted, 4 are dupes and 5 are available. All the crap ones are available. It's just not fair that a proportion of domain registrations are squatted!

[The Lone Gunman]

I do not see what is wrong with these people speculating on a number of domain names becoming saleable.Should we ban all speculative purchases?

[TheMonkey]

I do not see what is wrong with these people speculating on a number of domain names becoming saleable.Should we ban all speculative purchases?

Speculative purchases are fine, but when speculation takes such a large proportion of the market it's monopolising.

[AtW]

It's just not fair that a proportion of domain registrations are squatted!

Indeed, unfortunately bastard registers are in bed with that scum because that scum buys all sort of domains while taking commercial risk of only handful of them being resold.

I think domain resale should be banned and domain name must be used for proper site hosting (no repeated placeholders). Specifically companies that own more than 100 domains in their name gets special attention.

Alternative is to make DNS work with any extention, so that number of available good names will be infinite.

[TheMonkey]

Indeed, unfortunately bastard registers are in bed with that scum because that scum buys all sort of domains while taking commercial risk of only handful of them being resold.

I think domain resale should be banned and domain name must be used for proper site hosting (no repeated placeholders). Specifically companies that own more than 100 domains in their name gets special attention.

Alternative is to make DNS work with any extention, so that number of available good names will be infinite.

Now there's some good thinking!

[The Lone Gunman]

I believe that, due to the new nature of domain names, that all names that could be claimed by any existing company should be offered to that company. If they don't take it then it should be available to anyone who wishes to purchase it.


There are many such "squating" issues and I am sure most of you would not give a toss. How about private vehicle registrations, or car companys pre registering model names?
You could convince me that limits could be put on similar to share purchase schemes.

Should I be banned from buying a piece of land I think is going to be needed for a new bypass?

Pay the asking price or find a name you can use and stop bitching because someone was smartwer or quicker off the mark than you.

[AtW]

Should I be banned from buying a piece of land I think is going to be needed for a new bypass?

There are compulsory purchase orders that would be executed in such case and the price paid for that land won't be anything this land "owner" wants.

Cybersquatters are scum and bring no added value to the Internet, as such they are the parasites of the highest order that should be (as Daleks would put it) exterminated.