asked:
I would like to buy a certain website to use for my business. It is currently set to expire later this month. The current owner is a small non computer industry related company located on the pacific coast. The domain name is actually being used to host a website for an entirely different small business located in a state rather far away. That business is a local area business, and not a company that operates nationally or internationally. If for some reason the owner does not “auto renew” and the domain expires and I am able to purchase it through some company like Go Daddy, will I be able to use it myself, especially if the current user is not the same company that previously owned it? If they had a lease agreement with the original domain owner, would I be bound by that or could I immediately “repossess” the domain? Assuming I buy the domain name, and the current user is unaware of that, and their site still continues to be functional under whatever current hosting arrangement they have, would it be possible for me to take possession and have my own site put up and the domain transferred without going through any formal notification or legal process, and wait for them to contact me after the fact?
Is there an industry standard “grace period” in which a former owner can automatically reclaim an expired domain name, or would ICANN force me to give it back to them even if I have a legitimate business use for the name myself? In this case, the current USER may NOT be the same entity as the former OWNER, so would the former OWNER be the only one with standing who could bring such a claim?
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Yes, you can buy the domain after it has expired. There is no way they can take the domain name back. Reason being is you purchased it, you own it. Simple as that, the original owner should have received multiple warnings. If he chose not to act upon them it is his fault. Once you register your domain name and you have a fully registered business or not you own that domain unless something illegal took place.
In the event you purchase the domain after it expires, you may need to “reset” the nameservers to keep the site hosted where it is. The owner can not reclaim the domain assuming that you legally own a business with a similar name. The only way the company would be able to “claim ownership” would be if you were either phishing using their company name or were “domain squatting”, but even then they couldn’t just call up ICANN they would have to initiate a very large amount of legal proceedings showing that you have no right to own the domain.
If as you say you own a company with the same/similar name, then even if they filed in court to reclaim it the judge would simply throw out the case based on the fact that the internet is simply “ownership of property” and that they failed to maintain their property according to the laws in place. There are several cases with precident in the matter. Over the years I’ve accumulated roughly 20 domains from various local companies and sold them back to their owners at 30x the purchase price. Trust me when I say this, its going to be a huge hassle for them to try to get it back, not for you to keep it.