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Legal Question About Purchasing an Expired Domain
brianjoseph
Posts: 3
Joined: 24 May 09
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19 Feb 10 7:09 pm

Legal Question About Purchasing an Expired Domain

Hey everyone,

I need some advice and some insight. I recently purchased an expired domain using Go Daddy's expired domain market. Now, the original owner of the domain has hired a law firm to represent them to force me to give the domain back. My question is, do they have the right to do this? The attorney also referenced some copyrighted content that exists on the site that their client owns. I checked the site and agree that there is a single page that appears to have been copied from another site on the internet. While I can easily remove this content because it apparently was copied, it seems to me that they have no legal right to the domain. Am I wrong? How should I proceed?
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jpastorizo
Posts: 629
Joined: 01 May 09
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19 Feb 10 8:10 pm

 Looks like you're in a difficult situation Brian. Contact GoDaddy's technical support team, they should be able to help.


Regards,
Renato
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jbonline
Posts: 2
Joined: 29 Dec 09
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19 Feb 10 9:55 pm

 Sell it back to him at a tidy profit. Think of how much his atty will cost if he fights. Godaddy sends PLENTY of notices prior to selling a domain.
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wollowra
Posts: 869
Joined: 14 Mar 08
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20 Feb 10 12:54 am

 Oh Boy,
This is not legal advice by any means... but all domain name registrars give ample warning before selling an expired domain.
If this were me, I would either 1. Tell him to go jump 2. Sell him the domain back as suggested above.

Keep in mind that if you continue with the domain that some people can get nasty and hire people to DDOS attack the site out of spite. But it looks like he wants to go the lawyer route.
Do you have the finances to see a lawyer?
Are there lawyers where you live that will take the case on and offer you a No Win, No Fee setup if you go to mediation or court?
If this were me, I would fight it. It is his own stupid fault if he did not renew a domain after his registrar contacted him a few times to get him to renew it. I have a few registrars I use and they send me an email 1 mth before they expire, then 2 weeks before and also again at 1 week before.
just found this also..
http://www.clickdriven.com/articles/4-w ... -name.html
and
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/i ... 34197.html

Good luck with this..

Troy
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faradina
Posts: 1895
Joined: 01 Jun 09
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15 Apr 10 10:33 am

 I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice either but I believe that unless the previous owner holds a copyright or trademark (I do not know exactly which one it should be) for the domain name itself, then he does not have the right to force you to give back the domain name.
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