Ownership of an expired name??

[Jaiem]

Here's an interesting problem:

A guy I know runs a very popular site in Florida. The site is named after his business. He uses the site to promote his business as well as be an online community.

The problem is that he accidentally let his domain name expire and a company in India grabbed it up immediately!

So the issue for debate is: Even if a domain name expires, if the name is also the name of a licensed company is there automatic protection for the name? Should there be?

What do you think.

[Rev]

I think that all depends on what the company in India is trying to do.

Any decent registrar should have a FAQ or other help page that delineates the process for challenging a domain registration. I would take a close look at the policies of the guy's registrar. And, it can't hurt him to initiate a challenge. Worst case scenario is that the challenge is denied and he isn't in any worse shape than he is now.

[akashik]

Not the most professional idea this, but if he has plenty of people who use the community he might look at getting them to drop this other bunch an e-mail or two... Spend some time actively suggesting they let the domain go.

But yes, he can mount a challenge, and should. There's nothing to lose and everything to gain

Greg Moore