Let’s say I reserve (some domain).com, for example, but I never use it.
Then someone some years later wants to use that some domain name.
If the first person never used it, does it “expire” somehow?
Let’s say I reserve (some domain).com, for example, but I never use it.
Then someone some years later wants to use that some domain name.
If the first person never used it, does it “expire” somehow?
There is a yearly fee to retain a particular domain name. I can’t recall the amount, off hand, but it’s small. But the first year you miss payment, the domain is up for grabs.
I think seventy bucks gets you exclusive use for two years, I imagine you renew every year after that.
As long as you pay the fee, you can keep the domain as long as you want, subject to any court cases (if someone sues you over the use of the trademark or something).
Disclaimer: I am not a specialist on domain names, the information below comes from my own personal experience in registering a domain name, and is not guaranteed to be accurate.
The registration fee can be less than $35 per year.
Originally, there was only one company that registered domain names (for .com, .net. org domains). That company still registers domain names:
Network Solutions
Domain name registration has been open to competition, and many companies can register domain names in the .com, .net, .org domains. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the company that gives someone a license to register domain names. Here is a list of companies that you can use to register a domain name:
The Accredited Registrar Directory
For example,
http://www.totalnic.net/
will register a site at half that price, $35 for two years.
The Internic “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) page has this to say about length of registration:
You can’t just register…you also have to park it somewhere in the meantime. that costs something on top of the 35 or 70, whichever you choose.
But if someone doesn’t want it anymore they can let it lapse & then you can buy it.
Kind of off topic, but I saw an interesting PBS show. The internet specialist was saying how you can register a domain name like LukeSkywalker.Com but if you tried to use it the Star Wars people could stop you. As that is a trademark. Even if you are selling garden hoes.
Yes and no.
There have been intellectual property rights rulings on this, which basically seem to state that unless you have a “good reason” why you hold a brand-name domain name, you’ll end up handing it over through the courts.
In the UK recently, the author Jeanette Winterson successfully sued for the ownership of jeanetterwinterson.com, which had been registered by another person. The courts agreed that he should hand it over as it had been registered with the sole purpose of demanding money from her.
On the other hand, the American businessman who owns ronaldo.com is set for a £100,000 windfall. The computer games company Inforgrames has offered him that much to secure the name for a new game based on the Brazilian footballer Ronaldo. The courts are unlikely to get involved as the businessman is named Ronaldo and runs a legitimate business from the site.
matt has a point, it varies from country to country.
There is another one that prevents you from getting a name that may confuse people.
Recently, a guy put up for sale some names on ebay, with part of the names being cars, mercury [something] etc. dot coms & he got sued & the fine is $20,000 per I think per name so, its not something to try.
Just for fun, try ebay.com in search, select search for highest price & enter ‘name’ youll see tons of people selling at $1000000 opening bids