Do you really own your web domain?

Monday 11 January 2016

Unfortunately, many businesses do not own their web domain name. A domain name belongs to the person who is named as the registered proprietor and that may not be you or your business.

If you instruct a third party (such as a web developer or designer) to register the domain as part of a general web package, or leave the registration process in the hands of your web host, it may be that they are registered as the owner of the domain name instead of you. This could lead to the domain name being held to ransom. Reasserting ownership can be a frustrating and expensive process, especially if the registered proprietor goes out of business, you could even be forced to switch to a new web domain.

It is surprising how often we come across clients who have unwittingly lost ownership (or never had it in the first place) of the web domains of their business(es). With the growing trend of appointing web designers, developers or other agencies to secure these, quite often business owners may not appreciate the importance of ensuring that they (or their business) are registered as the proprietor.

So what can you do to ensure that you really do own the domain name of your website?

1. Register the domain in your name or in the name of your business

It is important to register yourself or your business as the owner of a domain name; then if any changes or problems occur with a third party, your domain name will stay with you.

You can check whether you are the registered owner of your domain name through the ICANN website (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) https://www.icann.org/.

2. Remember to renew your domain name registration

When you purchase a domain name, ownership does not last forever. It will expire at some point so make sure you set yourself a reminder as to when the renewal date expires otherwise you will run the risk of your domain name eventually becoming available to the general public to purchase or, worse still, your competitor.
Samney Ved became the successful owner of the world’s most visited site ‘Google.com’ for only $12.00 (£7.90). It was unclear how Mr Ved was able to purchase the site. Google could have had a bug in their ‘Google Domains’ registration service or Google could have simply failed to renew its domain name. Mr Ved’s ownership only lasted a mere minute. As soon as Google realised what had happened they cancelled the sale. Luckily, Google were able to do this as they owned the registration service which Mr Ved was using.

The above incident echoes the failing of Microsoft in 2003 to renew the well‑known ‘hotmail.com’ domain.  Luckily for Microsoft, the domain name was bought by a member of the public who immediately contacted Microsoft to return the domain name.

3. Do not buy a domain name without checking the history first

Even domain names which are available can be exposed to legal proceedings if the name is too similar to another company’s trade mark.
Google previously re-branded to ‘Alphabet’ to bring many of its subsidiaries under one holding company. Unfortunately for Google, the domain name Alphabet.com is owned by car manufacturer BMW which makes fleet services called ‘Alphabet’. BMW do not intend to sell the domain and are now investigating whether there has been any trade mark infringement by Google.

A simple search will reveal who the owner of a domain is and when registration renewal is due. You will also be able to see if similar domain names to your own have been recently acquired by potential competitors, which may save you the headache of alleged infringement of intellectual property later down the line.