[downandout]

Apparently this happened in 1999 with Microsoft's Passport.com as well [1], and again later with hotmail.co.uk [2]. While I understand that snafus like this can happen, I don't understand why the new owner would simply hand back the domain for essentially no compensation (especially in the case of hotmail.co.uk - this appeared to be a clean transfer of an expired domain). If they let the domain expire, it's fair game and should go for market price.

[1] http://www.doublewide.net/

[2] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=at_jl...

[dendory]

If a company can reasonably show they own a trademark for a name in a region and should be awarded a domain, registrars will give away the domain. There has been plenty of cases where even old domains were taken away.

[chrsstrm]

You are not awarded a domain name simply because you hold a trademark. There is evidence that domains have been awarded to trademark holders after a UDRP hearing and the trademark holder contested the validity of the registration. Read the UDRP guidelines [0].

There is also the counterpoint of the case of Nissan Motor Co vs. Nissan Computer Corp [1] where Nissan Motors owns the trademarks but have not been granted nissan.com.

[0] https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/policy-2012-02-25-en#4 [1] http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case292.cfm

[dingaling]

> where Nissan Motors owns the trademarks but have not been granted nissan.com.

Just to clarify, Nissan Computers also holds trademarks but in a difference field of commerce.

Just like Volkswagen and Canon both hold trademarks on Eos.

[kijin]

Hotmail.co.uk currently has an expiry date of 23-Oct-2015, only three weeks away. I hope they don't forget to renew it this time...

Google.com should be fine until 2020, but I randomly looked up some of their ccTLDs and a lot of them are set to expire in less than a year. Google.co.uk has only four months left.

I wonder why large companies with deep pockets don't just register all of their domains for the maximum duration. There are a few ccTLDs that only allow 1-2 year renewals, but those are few and far between. Most domains can be renewed for 5-10 years at a time.

[EwanToo]

The oddity of the situation is that the longer you register a domain for, the more likely you are to forget about it's renewal..

However, most big companies use someone like Netnames, MarkMonitor, etc, who simply wouldn't let a domain drop, even if nobody asked them to renew it - instead they'll renew it themselves, keep it active, and simply add it to the next invoice.

[kijin]

Even so, it seems unnecessarily risky for MarkMonitor et al. to renew their customers' domains one year at a time, often at the last minute, instead of keeping a comfortable buffer of two or more years.

[forgottenpass]

I don't understand why the new owner would simply hand back the domain for essentially no compensation

https://xkcd.com/1499/