Cyprus-Forum.com

[Hazza]

Over the past few days, I've purchased a few domain names, ones which are stepping on other peoples toes. What I never thought of was the legal matters involved should these companies/organisations want the domain names, me not wanting to let them go on the cheap, would they have a right to claim them if it went to court?

What if I registered them outside of the EU, would that make a difference?

What if I put them to use for other matters, again, would it make a difference, or would I be better of leaving them sitting there collecting dust?

2 of them are big ones, very big ones. I have confirmation that the domain names are registered to me, but now wondering if anyone can have a legal claim on them? I only bought them as a small investment. If there are no legalities involved, then I have a huge list of domains to purchase to keep in my portfolio.

Should I make a portfolio page to show what domains are under my control?

Or am I just better off registering a company outside of the EU and transfering the ownership to that?

[Pubdog2]

Its not clear from your post, Hazza, but if they are .com domains then they come under the control of Internic - regardless of who and where you registered them.

There are many examples of people registering domains, only for the company involved to dispute them and the initial registrant being forced to hand them over.

To defend such a claim, you usually have to have an "interest" in the name. A good example is the Australian who registered university-of-oxford.com. In an attempt to keep the domain he changed his name to "Oxford University" - he now had an "interest" in the name, but he still failed ...see link http://archive.oxfordmail.net/2001/8/31/54778.html

[Hazza]

They are .net domains. The .com has already been bought by the companies, but they didn't buy the .net, which I thought was a good opportunity to grab them.

[Sotos]

If some other company has a registered trademark on that name and you have nothing related with it then they can just take it from you. But if it is .net they will not bother. They are worthless as investment except if they get a lot of type in traffic. Don't expect anybody to pay you lots of money to get a domain which is the trademark of another company.

[Hazza]

There goes that idea of linking them to pornsites to force their hand

[pav]

There goes that idea of linking them to pornsites to force their hand

force their hand.
hahahahaha!! genius

[DINOS SKALIOTIS]

careful mate soon turks will be saying that they are entitled to their share of them