One of my clients had a squatter register its company name as a domain name. The squatter overplayed his hand by also posting the company logo on the site. That gave the company lawyers enough ammunition for a trademark infringement lawsuit.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:17, topic:557703”]
There are, unfortunately, a lot of profiteers doing this. I slipped up and failed to re-register one of my domain names by the deadline, and somebody like you snatched it up the day it expired and I had to buy it back from him for $500. I was thoroughly pissed off, but even though the domain name is [businessIown].com, it would have cost me more to buy a lawyer and sue the sonofabitch than it would have to just pay him off.
I wouldn’t have been so angry if it was somebody with a similarly-named business in another state or country, or somebody that had an actual use for the site, but he was just in it to turn a few quick bucks every time somebody made a late payment.
[/QUOTE]
Well, if it is any consolation, I am not one of those people that were snatching up expired domains to make a quick buck. I was/am actually building a network of sites with a similar theme and was only grabbing names that would fit into my food-themed business model.
As no one has requested to re-purchase anything I have grabbed, I don’t feel bad. However, a very good friend of mine – a well-known author – lost her first-and-last-name.com because she was traveling and didn’t see the renewal emails and the guy who grabbed it wants $10k for it. I feel very badly for the snatchers who do things like this.
Is this the way you meant to phrase it? 
Ooops! No… :smack:
I’d be surprised if there were more than 40 with my last name in the world. All of them are in the U.S.
I own a four letter dot com that I’ve had for like ten years now. I registered it for a business idea that didn’t pan out but I like the name and still use it for email. I might take another shot at the same business before I croak.