Musician’s estate sued financing company over Prince.com domain name. Domain Capital is fighting back.
The estate sued Domain Capital over its ownership of the Prince.com domain name, claiming it was cybersquatting.
Domain Capital loaned money to the previous owner of Prince.com. That owner defaulted and Domain Capital took over the name.
Of course, it’s silly for any one entity to claim exclusive rights to the dictionary word “Prince”, and Domain Capital calls out the estate in its response. The financing company is asking for the estate’s trademark for Prince to be canceled and is also asking for penalties under reverse domain name hijacking.
Domain Capital is represented by Jason Schaeffer of ESQwire.com.
Wasn’t Domain Capital mentioned the other day as regards their Repossessing another domain (I think a 1 letter ..co.uk (H.co.uk) which they also “repossessed” . Hmm. dont think I would want to fund a domain purchase via them it sounds far far too risky to me.
at only 5% a month how could you go wrong?
That’s an inaccurate number.
They only take over a domain if the owner fails to make payments. From what I understand, they do everything possible to work with the domain owner to make it work. That only makes sense for them.
If you borrow money for a house and stop making payments, you’re going to lose the house.
It is better to sell the domain name cheap, rather than financing through DomainCapital.com, They are worse than worst loan sharks, only in premium domain name grabbing business.
Their terms are clear and they play by the rules. And they are taking on most of the risk, if someone defaults and they repossess the name, they then have to turn around and sell it. Getting a fair price could take years and their capital is tied up.
I bet DomainCapital has got a lot of great names due to people defaulting.
95% of the time is a very bad idea to buy domain names on credit, the resale potential is usually not what people think they are and the name has probably been for sale for the last 2 decades.
The suit is not over the dictionary term Prince and Domain Capital full well knows this. Do not let it come out that they or the previous owner tried to sell this to Prince or the estate.
While it’s correct that someone tried to sell the domain to the Prince Estate, it’s not clear in the suit if that person was authorized by Domain Capital. Regardless, it doesn’t matter. Domain Capital can contact whomever they want about buying the domain and it’s still not cybersquatting.
I have been a customer of Domain Capital for the past 4+ years. I never make replies to posts, but because this company has been quite good to me and my business, I am inclined to make this reply as to correct any inaccurate statements and assumptions that have been made.
I have financed about $100k domain names through Domain Capital, and even used equity in domains to finance other purchases. Their terms and interest rates are quite reasonable for those that need a little help. Sure, the rates are higher than a 30 year fixed home loan, but lower than most hard money lenders, and better terms than other domain name finance companies I looked into. Also, they certainly take a lot of risk because domain names are not always the easiest assets to sell, even the good names. So in the case of default, it’s not necessarily the best scenario for them and they are certainly not wanting people to default just so they can acquire names. That is the last resort when borrowers completely default.
In fact, there was a point where I personally became several months behind on my payments. There were extenuating circumstances for this, but had they wanted to take my domain(s) due to some sort of breach of contract, they may have been able to do so, and one of the names has received many offers in many multiples of what I still owe them. If they were ‘loan sharks’ they could have easily profited much more by taking my domains. They DID NOT. That was never even an issue, and they went out of their way to figure out a way for me to get back on track with my payments and extend the due dates, etc.
They are a great company to work with if and if you are in need of help funding a domain purchase I highly recommend them, and I am in no way benefiting from them by writing this.
– Happy domaining to you all…