Then it engaged in reverse domain name hijacking.
The British tabloid The Sun unsuccessfully tried to buy the domain TheSun.com for $600,000, later resorting to reverse domain name hijacking to try to get the domain from its rightful owner. The publication uses the domain name TheSun.co.uk.
The paper first made a $300,000 offer for the domain in 2016. The owner asked for offers of $700,000 or more. Last year, The Sun made a $600,000 offer, only to have the owner request $2.5 million for the domain.
After its latest offer was rebuffed, the tabloid filed a cybersquatting complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
The three-person panel was not amused by The Sun’s tactic to get the generic domain name registered in 2001. It wrote:
…it is apparent in the Panel’s view that the Complaint has been filed abusively, in an attempt to wrest the disputed domain name from the Respondent’s control after failed negotiations with the Respondent to acquire the disputed domain name for a reasonable market price.
The Panel therefore concludes that the filing of the Complaint by the Complainant constitutes reverse domain name hijacking.
Allen & Overy LLP represented News Group Newspapers Limited (the paper’s company). ESQwire.com represented the domain owner.
The problem is the owner has the best possible end user come along. This end user is going to pay more than the second guy in line probably by multiples. I would have tried to find where their top was and sold there. It’s not like he has car.com or a very useful generic that people would line up for. IMO dumb seller.
I agree. Seems unwise to have passed up that offer. Maybe they can squeeze a bit more given the RDNH. Blue Nova…companies related to Kevin Ham.
Interesting to see it was Allen & Overy acting for the Complainant. I defended a UDRP successfully in which A & O were the Complainants solicitors. Lets say the Complaint was less than honest. I hope and would suggest that the Respondent make a complaint to the SRA in the UK about any actions that they may deem un-befitting a Lawyer (Solicitor) at: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/enforcement/solicitor-report/providing-information-policy.page
A horrible mainstream sensationalist and fake news tabloid publication so it’s great to see them beaten by the UDRP process.
I think what is more interesting here is the low valuation once again being applied to the perfect asset by a very established organisation. It’s not like News Corporation are that short of cash, and $600k really is little more than the sort of change they probably blow on their Xmas party or for shots of a few celebrities in an expose! $2.5m seems very fair value to me, even more so now. Why isn’t the message of a domain’s true value, if an organisation wants to “own” their brand globally, being recognised by the market still?
Back in the day…
Twenty years ago, one of the first news conferences I ever attended was about how The Sun had launched an ISP here in the UK.
Back then, dialup was the norm, Freeserve was in the process of handing AOL its ass by offering subscription-free internet access and instead taking a slice of the per-minute charges we all had to pay for local calls.
Many major brands, including The Sun, offered this kind of service under white-label deals with actual ISPs.
It lasted about a year.
Anyway, the domain they used back then was bun.com, based on the cockney rhyming slang for The Sun — “currant bun” — because I don’t think they even owned thesun.co.uk back then. Looks like they still own it, but it doesn’t resolve for me.
They’ve never really been on the ball when it comes to domain names 🙂
Greedy dumb seller, and there are so many like them. I Once inquired about Necklace.co it was listed for $5,000. After my inquiry the listing went up to $25,000. There’s a difference between choosing the best price and foolishly trying to increase the numbers significantly.
All domain sellers need to become much more realistic in their pricing.
If for some unimaginable reason I wanted to visit The Sun website, I would type “the sun” into chrome and Google would find it for me. I’m not sure I’d even notice the domain.
Look at all the software businesses that are doing just fine tacking “hq” onto their names to avoid stupid prices. Basically, Google has destroyed the domain squatting business, and it’s a good thing!
Time to wake up, they offered 600k for this name.
The company you know probably isn’t “doing just fine” with a superfluous hq tacked on the end of their name.
… and the seller asked $2.5m and got $0.
As you say – time to wake up.
Ever heard of Basecamp – just about invented online collaboration in the cloud? Doing just fine at basecamphq.com!
Well they were doing fine with that “hq” … right up to the point at which they acquired basecamp.com.
Not saying that a business doesn’t prefer its most ideal, natural domain. But Basecamp built its business successfully at basecamphq, and would have been negotiating for basecamp.com from a position of strength, knowing they could continue to prosper at basecamphq.
Of course there’s value in domains – The Sun were prepared to pay $600k for thesun.com. Just not $2.5m.
Back before Google became the main way we find websites, a memorable domain could mean the difference between success and failure of a business, and domain sitters could extort any prices they wanted. A good domain name is still valued, but it’s mostly corporate vanity – and that is reflected in lower prices.
Maybe they should make an offer Oracle for sun.com
just saw that “thesun.com” forwards to a domain-leasing company named venture.com
Anybody ever heard of this leasing-company ? Who is behind this leasing-company ? Heard from Rick Schwartz that he is also entering the lease-business for other domain-owners besides his own domains.
Yeah it’s all associated with Kevin Ham’s domain business.
it is incredible how greedy and stupid these “British tabloid”-people are.
It seems Rupert Murdoch is bankrupt and can not buy a domain-name.
Maybe he lost too much money on his MySpace.com deal.
What a poor sucker…