Good Idea or Legal nightmare?

[Steve129836]

Please help a newbie!

I came up with the idea of looking at newly listed companies (UK) and seeing if they had registered what I would expect their domain name to be. I found many companies do not register their domain names prior to registering the businesses name.

Interestingly many of these businesses have names that look like they have been deliberately created so that they could obtain the .com domain. I have written a tool to find the companies, convert their name to the most likely web domain, dictionary check the name and check if the dot com is available. I'm also working on a scoring method for determining the likeihood a domain name will get registered later.

For example the attached is a list of newly listed companies (08/06/2012) that do not have the associated .com registered (at the time of this post), are dictionary safe (admittedly not the best check) and fairly short <12 characters.

Now I could register each of the .com names in speculation, but the company could then buy the .co.uk or any of the other domains remaining or even use a slightly different name, so it would be a gamble that they want the exact dot com. Presumably as long as the price isn't too exagerated and the company want it they might still buy the dot com. I could also try and sell the domain names to other domain name speculators (build a list?).

Problems:
Cost - Large initial expenditure to cover many domains to test the theory.
No guarantee of return on investment - Newly listed companies could have absolutely no interest in buying any domain.
Name/Tradmark infringement issues - As far as I am aware a UK business name is not a trademark. However I'd be worried that registering some of the names may result in legal issues.

So my question to the forum is in my position what would you do?

Attachment Removed: As I didn't like people thinking I was trying to trap them.

 

[biggie]

maybe just register a couple of the potentials and see if you have any success selling those, before going further.

 

[Kate]

I wouldn't recommend that. Sooner or later, accusations of TM infringement will fly, whether justified or not that's not the point. Why get yourself in trouble.
BTW a trademark doesn't have to be registered. All those corporate names could be deemed to be TMs, to some degree. So you would be in a situation where you would be attempting to sell them their own TM...

Besides, if they haven't registered their .com in 2012 (for $10), maybe they just aren't interested ? So why would they buy from you at a premium ? Or it could be that they are happy with the .co.uk.

It's almost guaranteed you would lose a UDRP or legal case simply because you would be unable to demonstrate legitimate rights, the names having been registered for the sole purpose of resale to the most obvious end user.
Read domain decisions at WIPO.int for example to get acquainted with the current framework.

It's not like you are the first to come up with that 'brilliant' idea, but there is more money lost than made in domaining... :O

 

[johname]

This list looks like its business from the UK, this method looks to have fail written all over it.

 

[Steve129836]

Thanks for the responses.

sdsinc - Just to clarify, the original list is newly listed businesses (or startups) on the UK businesses register, not businesses who have registered the .co.uk and haven't registered their .com yet. I haven't cross checked the .co.uks but I suspect most, if not all, will be available too. I never said it was a 'brilliant' idea just an idea! I had my doubts about it, hence the thread title and my wanting to run by you guys in the know.

I've done some statistics tonight on companies that registered as a business 1 year ago. Only 25% of the domains my program picks as 'buys' were ever sold. So if I buy a couple of domains as biggie suggests I'll be lucky to sell one! It would have to be a much bigger sample run and with possible legal issues not something I'm willing to try.

In conclusion: Its been an interesting programming exercise for me (cross checking databases and dictionaries) but looks like something that shouldn't get taken further. Thanks again for your expert advise.

Now back to the drawing board!

 

[Name Trader]

This is doomed to failure for one simple reason. Newly registered UK companies are far more likely to register the .co.uk than the .com. You are looking at the wrong extension.

 

[domainbartender]

If it was a good idea, everyone would be doing it. You've made the right decision to forget it.

 

[Dreighen]

It's a trapppp

 

[Steve129836]

stub - I ran a test on 400 companys that started up over a year ago (small set I know) I found there was little difference between how many registered the .co.uk and how many registered the .com, in my test the .com was slightly more popular. However, today I had a long motorway journey to do and I decided to count the number of .co.uk versus .coms written on the sides of vans/lorries/cars (I'm sad like that!). This showed the .co.uk is by far the most popular. I'm not sure what to conclude from these results, possibly web based businesses don't have vans?! I'd be interested in seeing any reference information that supported your comment, do you have a link or is this just common knowlege to domainers? (Actually don't worry I'll just google it.)

crumblepie - thanks

Dreighen - I assume you mean you think I am trying to trap people. As the first message was my first post to this forum I can see why you might think that. I can assure you I wasn't trying to trap anyone and I am a genuine idiot! Change the t in trap to a c and you'll be closer to the truth! I've removed the pdf of domain names from the original post which I guess you think is the trap part.

 

[Name Trader]

.co.uk is the domain of choice for UK based companies. They would get the .com mostly if their business plan involves a worldwide clientel. Personally if it was me opening the company, I'd get both, for brand protection. But if the business is wholely based in the UK, they would be better of getting the .co.uk rather than the .com. Why? Because most people in the UK would expect to deal with a .co.uk website before a .com website.