Do’s and don’ts in domain name acquisitions

In an article from Breakit, ABS Wheels talks about how they had to fight for years to acquire their .com domain.

ABS Wheel's marketing manager Jorge Castro talks about how they made the mistake of contacting the seller of the domain name through ABS, and how the price was then pushed up to "ridiculously large sums" - something that is very common in these situations.

ABS Wheel's situation is not desirable, but unfortunately not as rare as one might wish. Cybersquatting, the practice of registering domain names associated with well-known trade marks, is a common - and in many cases simple - way for domain pirates to make money.

In domain name acquisitions, there are some traps that you should try to avoid if you do not want to overpay. Abions Per Ahlström here lists his 3 best tips for domain name acquisitions:

• NEVER contact the domain owner yourself. If you are not using an agent, register an anonymous @gmail.com address. The disadvantage of this is that it can be harder to get an answer because the recipient does not think it is serious.
• Try to estimate the value of the domain name before contacting the seller, so that you have at least some idea of what it may be worth, which you can present in an argument with the seller. In that way you can avoid placing a bid that is far too low (and thus receive no response) or vice versa: far too high and thus overpay.
• Time = Money. If you appear desperate, the price will be accordingly. We understand that you rarely have time, but rather want to resolve the situation quickly. However, in the best of worlds, if you can make a bid (which is not accepted) and then dare to play it cool for a number of weeks, maybe months in some cases, the seller will often crawl back and want to sell it anyway and you can get a better deal.

Finally, we would like to emphasize the importance of acquainting yourself with the rules and processes of ownership transfer of the domain name to ensure that legal ownership is actually transferred to you as a buyer. This is something that is different depending on what kind of TLD (top-level domain such as .se, .com, .no etc) you are dealing with.

If you want to know more about domain name acquisitions, you are welcome to contact us at Abion. We have over 20 years of experience in the industry and work daily to ensure brand security for our customers - legally, digitally and technically.