Agency decided to file cybersquatting complaint rather than pay £9,000.
Earlier this month I wrote about a UK foster agency that forgot to renew its domain name and then complained that it was being “held for ransom” by someone who registered it upon expiration.
The person who bought LittleAcornsFostering.com allegedly asked the foster agency for £9,000 if it wanted to buy the domain from him.
That’s a pretty hefty price for this domain name, so the foster agency decided to take another approach that could result in the domain owner getting nothing. It filed a UDRP with World Intellectual Property Organization.
Companies that have let domain names lapse have won UDRPs in the past, and I’d guess this case is in the foster agency’s hands to lose.
They didn’t forget to renew the domain; they lost control of the email address that handled its renewals.
That other domain expired, perhaps due to a 3rd party’s fault: http://domaingang.com/domain-news/little-acorns-fostering-lost-com-domain-to-squatter-but-who-is-to-blame/
Just because they weren’t getting renewal notices doesn’t change the fact that they forgot to renew the domain.
Domain investors not getting email notices to renew domains don’t “forget” to renew. An end-user, even more so.
When pointing the finger at someone, 3 fingers point back. Or 4, if your thumb is extra flexible. 😀
Ultimately, what you are saying is that they did not receive the renewal email because they breached the terms of registration requiring current and correct contact information to be maintained.
Yes, it happens that the domain for the admin contact can expire, but it still remains a breach of the terms of registration if they do not receive a renewal notice because they did not maintain a current and valid email address.
That makes no sense.
Last year we didn’t get the state’s notice in the mail that we need to renew our car registration. We finally remembered several months after it was due and renewed the registration. Now, I’ve always received a notice in the mail. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it was lost. But it’s our responsibility to renew, and we simply forgot. You can say “neglected to renew” or “failed to renew”, I don’t care. The point is they didn’t renew it in time and it expired.
Personally I hope that the domain owner loses this UDRP. They are fostering company and don’t have that type of money to spare. You have to have SOME MORALS in this business.
I haven’t looked…is this a non-profit foster agency or a for-profit one?
They are only a small (for profit I believe) company and not the type that would be able to afford the type of price asked for http://www.littleacornsfostering.co.uk/contact-us/ I just could not do that myself ,doesn’t feel right I would give it to them ,or at least ask small amount.