| Domain investor here. Some, but not all of the advice here is absolutely dreadful and is an example of why you should not take advice from random strangers on the internet. Some basic rules if you wish to keep the domain: * Don't offer to sell the domain. If you are contacted by a prospective buyer, just decline, saying that the domain is not for sale. Don't counter-offer or enter into discussions or negotiations. * Don't put ads or links to third-party commercial entities on your website. If you're going to use it for business purposes, make sure that it's just for your business, which incorprates your family name, eg FamilyName IT Services Ltd. * Make sure your website has an "About Me/Us" page, which briefly outlines who you are, ensuring that you mention that your Family Name is the same as the domain name. * The advice in this thread regarding use of 2FA on everything is sound. I've a high value domain portfolio and receive password reset requests every week, triggered by bad actors trying to access anything that they can think of that might give them access to accounts. * Don't use GoDaddy or any or their network. * Read up on UDRP (dispute resolution) and Reverse Name Hijacking if you want to get up to speed on the legal and procedural issues that might affect you. * Domain disputes are a specialised field and you would need the advice of a specialised lawyer if you find yourself the recipient of a UDRP complaint. John Berryhill (I've no connection) is well regarded in this area, and I'm sure that there are others. He would be my first port of call. |
If your name is Apple and you somehow obtain new domain named apple.newtld you have a chance to loose the domain if there is any way it can be seen as profiting off of the association with the APL. For example if you put ads on a page that is nominally your personal page it can be seen as getting traffic from people who mistakenly came to this page since there is very little chance they came legitimately.
If it is large company they will be looking at every possible way to get your domain and the only way to fight it is to either spend huge amount of money on lawyers or not give any pretext, however small.
You are also as likely to lose the domain by a targeted attack by people who hope to then sell the domain. If you have a nice domain name you need to invest a bit of thought in protecting it from takover (locking the domain, protecting your information, not using your regular phone number, phone, email, laptop, etc. to have anything to do with the admin access to the domain).