Hey Guys...

Here is the deal...

I had a domain expire because I was a victim of hurricane Katrina...I waited a month while the domain was in the grace period (I didn't have $80 dollars to get it out of redemption) so that I could reregister it when it became available...

To my surprise, some company automatically registered the domain the minute that it became available... :angry:

I own every ayhja domain there is just about with the exception of .biz...

So my question is, can a company legally do that..? Isn't there laws that protect companies from having to deal with people registering domains like that..? Like why you just can't go and register microsoft.org ..? I have built a network of sites with the AYHJA name and trademark, .us, .com, .name., .org, .info, and .net...Isn't there a way I can persue the company that reg'd my domain probably with the soul purpose of reselling it to hand it over for an insane amount of money...

I am checking out sedo.com to see what they offer, but again, I don't run my sites for profit, they are personal and I don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on what originally cost me $5 bucks...

Any ideas..?

Anyone can register any domain name. But there are laws which
have drawn the lines on what a registrant can't do with it.

It's one thing for people to register google something . com. It's
another if they can keep it if the big G goes after them with all the
resources at their disposal.

So in your case, unless you can somehow prove trademark rights
to the name, you've no chance of getting it except to buy it from
its current owner.

BTW, ICANN is charged with overseeing the Domain Name System
(DNS) itself. It also formulated certain policies for domain name
registrations, but it can only go so darn far.

Let's just say many people aren't quite happy with ICANN for a
thousand and one reasons.

When you say trademark rights...What do you mean..? And I'm having trouble contacting the owner of the domain, I just keep being sent in a loop...

The closest thing that I have to a trademark is the banner I used to promote the site...

The thing is, I still probably have links everywhere, and I got decent traffic for a small site like mine...What resources could I use to first find out who has the domain, and whether or not they'll cut me some slack in getting it back...?

AYHJA.BIZ is not taken right now, I would hop on over and register it if I was you. When a domain is in grace period, registrars will usally use it to divert traffic to different sites of theirs. This is most likely what happened.

Originally posted by AYHJA
When you say trademark rights...What do you mean..?

http://gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/hoffman-2000-03-all.html

http://gigalaw.com/articles/2001-all/grossman-2001-01-all.html

http://gigalaw.com/articles/2001-all/kubiszyn-2001-01-all.html

The articles in that site are just as relevant today as when they
were first written.

Well, I have no interest in the .biz, whomever wants it can have that...I just want my .net back...I purposely let the .info and the .org domains lapse, I wasn't really using either of them...But the .net was my very first domain, and I'm pretty upset about some company simply scooping it up right away to try and drive traffic to their site...That's so pitiful, especially when I worked for the traffic I got...Others should do the same, and that's what sucks...

I can't even find contact information for the people that reg'd the domain to see if they'll be willing to sell it back to me for a reasonable price...

I've been reading your blog Dave, that's some good information you got there...I'll check those articles as well...

Ah I'm sorry, I was under the impression that the .biz was the name in question (the one that you wanted back). In any even the .net is available too.

http://whois.sc/AYHJA.net

Wait 5 days and see if the domain drops again. Practically every domain that is dropped is picked up by an unscrupulous registrar, and dropped again 5 days later, since the fee is refunded by the registry. This is done to see if any money can be made off the domain through PPC (pay-per-click) links.

Yeah, it says available, but available by whom..? Everywhere that I've tried to reregister the domain has said the opposite...

Whois Source caches data and is frequently wrong. The domain is NOT available.

Originally posted by AYHJA
Well, I have no interest in the .biz, whomever wants it can have that...I just want my .net back...I purposely let the .info and the .org domains lapse, I wasn't really using either of them...But the .net was my very first domain, and I'm pretty upset about some company simply scooping it up right away to try and drive traffic to their site...That's so pitiful, especially when I worked for the traffic I got...Others should do the same, and that's what sucks...

Understandable how and why you'd feel that way. But that's one
of the realities every domain owner like you, me, and everyone
else here faces.

It sounds like your domain was last with Go Daddy. Too bad they
didn't afford to autorenew domains for those based in Katrina-
affected areas like BulkRegister and Netsol did a few weeks back.

Originally posted by AYHJA
I can't even find contact information for the people that reg'd the domain to see if they'll be willing to sell it back to me for a reasonable price...

They're using a privacy services of sorts.

Originally posted by AYHJA
I've been reading your blog Dave, that's some good information you got there...I'll check those articles as well...

Thanks! I'll be posting more, just trying to put my adsense codes
in there properly even though I've learned how. ;)

Domain Name: AYHJA.NET
Registrar: DEPARTMENT-OF-DOMAINS, LLC
Whois Server: whois.department-of-domains.com
Referral URL: http://www.department-of-domains.com
Name Server: NS1.INTERIMNAMESERVER.COM
Name Server: NS2.INTERIMNAMESERVER.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 07-oct-2005
Creation Date: 07-oct-2005
Expiration Date: 07-oct-2006

www.department-of-domains.com goes to dotster (they have a member on these boards who may be able to help you).

INTERIMNAMESERVER.com is registered by snapnames (http://www.snapnames.com/)

Above and beyond that it seems almost like a lost cause.

Originally posted by ajaspers
Wait 5 days and see if the domain drops again. Practically every domain that is dropped is picked up by an unscrupulous registrar, and dropped again 5 days later, since the fee is refunded by the registry. This is done to see if any money can be made off the domain through PPC (pay-per-click) links.

I am hoping that this is the case...Going to ayhja.net takes me to oingo.com, which goes to appliedsemantics.com, which was recently acquired by Google, which I think is hopping into the domain business...Regardless, I've already sent them an email hoping to get this resolved...

@ Dave Zan

I just bookmarked your blog, and will be using it as a point of reference in the post I make on my forums soon...If I can't get my domain back by the end of the week, I'll probably be pissed enough to save up enough to take it to court...Tee hee, funny you mention that about ad-sense, cause I haven't figured out how to put it in my blogger properly yet either, LMAO...

This is crazy, and makes my decision to be a webmaster a little over a year ago as a "worry free" hobby seem like a fairytale...I can't believe people do this over something that costs $5 %&$@ing bucks man...I could break something right now...

I got an email back from the new registrar...First line:

We are not the current registrar for any of those domains. Please contact the current registrars:

And then it goes on to list the registrar information for each domain, including the .net which clearly shows them as the registrar...Unbelieveable...

Oh, and my registrar was 1and1.com...They have proved completely useless in trying to help me, in all facets...I wouldn't recommend them to my enemy...

When did the name expire? Was the name acquired in one of these grace period auctions that some registrars are doing?

It expired on September 1st, if I am not mistaken...I had no electricity, people were dying elsewhere...I wasn't really thinking about a domain....

But it remained in the grace period for 30 days, and then at the end of 30 days, it went through ANOTHER period, and I STILL couldn't register it again...It was not available 30 days after it expired...The minute it became available, it was reg'd by someone else...

So no, I don't think that it was auctioned off...

If it expired on 9/1 and was in grace period for 30 days it would still have to go through redemption which is a 30 day period plus another several days to drop. This name would not of been available to register until around 11/8-11/12. It would not make sense

OK, so...I'm not understanding what you're proposing or saying...After the grace period was over, it went through another stage, which I took to mean it was to be deleted from the registrar, and then put back into the pool of names to be registered...

And this is what I think has happened, only I wasn't the one that reg'd it...It has definitely been registered by someone else...Are you suggesting that something else has happened...?

After it expires it went through redemption which is 30 days. I suspect your domain name actually expired earlier than September 1st you stated.

Nah, that didn't happen, the other domains that I have since let lapse that were reg'd w/the same registrar died like clockwork exactly when they were supposed to...

so this name had the exact same registration and expire dates as your other names yet only this one was dropped?

No, they were reg'd at different dates...

sounds odd and does not make sense

very bad buydomains.com got your domain :(

Domain Name: AYHJA.NET
Registrar: DEPARTMENT-OF-DOMAINS, LLC
Whois Server: whois.department-of-domains.com
Referral URL: http://www.department-of-domains.com
Name Server: NS.BUYDOMAINS.COM
Name Server: THIS-DOMAIN-FOR-SALE.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 10-oct-2005
Creation Date: 07-oct-2005
Expiration Date: 07-oct-2006


you'd have to pay hundreds of $$ if not thousands to get it back...

u have an option going via UDRP, but it costs tons of money to sue buydomains so best option is to buy it from them.

If buydomains has it you are looking at $800.00 to several thousand dollars to buy it from them.

sometimes if no one asks about the domain prices drops to $688 or even $288 (i got a name for them back then for $288) which they were asking $1288 when they first snapped it

For that much $, they can kiss my ***...I'm not paying that...I contacted them, and I'm going to see what they say about the situation...

At this point, I'd rather save the $ and sue their asses rather than buy it back...That's pitiful...

Originally posted by AYHJA


At this point, I'd rather save the $ and sue their asses rather than buy it back...That's pitiful...

It may cost several thousands of dollars to sue. paying $1000.00 or so is much cheaper

How about $10,000.00..?

http://www.AYHJA.net

they surely know how to make money :angry:

I guess what makes me so mad is that it wasn't my fault that the domain lapsed...Lots of registrars extended domin dates for victims of Katrina, 1and1 won't even try to help me at all...

I emailed the company to see if they have a backbone, but I'm expecting the worst...Like I said, I'd rather save up and try to see if they are willing to go through a lawsuit for the domain rather than just simply selling it to me for a reasonable price...

Do you have a trademark registered called AYHJA? If not, what makes you think that these people will even bother if you're threatening to sue them? There is nothing illegal about snapping domain names (sad, but true).

Originally posted by aldee
There is nothing illegal about snapping domain names (sad, but true).

Unfortunately, you're right here... It became almost impossible to catch any drops lately... The only thing left for us, ordinary joes, is to wait another 5 days, untill the company which snapped the domain will release it to the pool again, if there will be no offers to buy or traffic high enough.

Sad, but true...

Originally posted by AYHJA
I guess what makes me so mad is that it wasn't my fault that the domain lapsed...Lots of registrars extended domin dates for victims of Katrina, 1and1 won't even try to help me at all...


The grace period is at a registrars discretion, you. If the name is critical never allow the name to expire in the first place. That is what multi year registrations are all about

Yes, AYHJA is trademarked...

And, had I read the "Little book about domain do's and don'ts, I would have never been in this situation...

I'll keep you guys updated...

Originally posted by AYHJA
Yes, AYHJA is trademarked...

Are you sure? I can't find anything at: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=1lkjcf.1.1

There are other ways to trademark and copyright things you know... ;)

I am sure there are, I was just curious (many people think that a simple use of hte word "trademark" means that it is).