Google owns my domain

I

Ipwn 4

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So google owns the .com domain that I'm interested in buying, it was registered for a google sites website a lifetime ago and hasn't been active since 2007. What are the odds of them handing it over if I ask nicely:whistle:

Any suggestions on how to contact them?

Thanks guys/girls
 
If you buy a domain through google business then google registers it as private and the company's details are not shown in whois.

Domain squatting is pretty bad and you can pay anything from $5000 to $20000 for a two word .com english name.
If it's a a single english word then you are looking at a small fortune.

What is the domain name?
 
skimread said:
If you buy a domain through google business then google registers it as private and the company's details are not shown in whois.

Domain squatting is pretty bad and you can pay anything from $5000 to $20000 for a two word .com english name.
If it's a a single english word then you are looking at a small fortune.

What is the domain name?
Click to expand...

solidcomputing.com I checked it out before hand and got the all clear from the legal team for using the name. I have reserved the name in South Africa and also have a request in to trademark it locally.

Doubt I will need to pay them for something they gave away to someone else for free?

Edit : Soz, the last activity was in 2009
 
Ipwn 4 said:
solidcomputing.com I checked it out before hand and got the all clear from the legal team for using the name. I have reserved the name in South Africa and also have a request in to trademark it locally.

Doubt I will need to pay them for something they gave away to someone else for free?

Edit : Soz, the last activity was in 2009
Click to expand...
Google would not give away a domain name for free as google is not a domain registrar. The website might not be used but the person might use email for that domain
The person who registered it will pay $10 USD like everyone else a year.

It is a company in indonesia and I bet there is a solid computing in every country. If you really want the domain you can offer the guy R4$ to $10K. You can get the person name from the recent activity in google sites. You could also use a middle man but that's going to cost you.

or use solid-computing.com?
 
Last edited:
skimread said:
Google would not give away a domain name for free as google is not a domain registrar. The website might not be used but the person might use email for that domain
The person who registered it will pay $10 USD like everyone else a year.

It is a company in indonesia and I bet there is a solid computing in every country. If you really want the domain you can offer the guy R4$ to $10K. You can get the person name from the recent activity in google sites. You could also use a middle man but that's going to cost you.

or use solid-computing.com?
Click to expand...

It was more just out of personal interest. Just don't want to be affiliated with some random company in any way. Suppose I can buy it when the time runs out, or just use godaddy's service to get it for me

Getting my lawyer to do it will be an absolute waste of money as there is no easy way to get hold of the person.

Thanks for your help.
 
Provided that you at least have registered trademark in SA you can get your laywers to draft a letter to the current domain owner to surrender the domain and offer up to 10K (it will typically cost about 15K to litigate) - this works in most cases.
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
Provided that you at least have registered trademark in SA you can get your laywers to draft a letter to the current domain owner to surrender the domain and offer up to 10K (it will typically cost about 15K to litigate) - this works in most cases.
Click to expand...

Having a Trademark in South Africa will never, ever get you the .com version of any domain name.

You can read up on this.

Either you will need to buy the domain name from the current owners or you will need to wait until it expires one day - if ever.
 
House said:
Having a Trademark in South Africa will never, ever get you the .com version of any domain name.

You can read up on this.

Either you will need to buy the domain name from the current owners or you will need to wait until it expires one day - if ever.
Click to expand...

I know of a case personally where I played a role in getting a .co.za from a squatter. The original .com and trademark hade been registered long before the squatter registered his, all it took was a friendly letter from a big lawyer and he handed it over
 
Ipwn 4 said:
I know of a case personally where I played a role in getting a .co.za from a squatter. The original .com and trademark hade been registered long before the squatter registered his, all it took was a friendly letter from a big lawyer and he handed it over
Click to expand...

.com's work differently. But, try it if you would like to.
 
House said:
Having a Trademark in South Africa will never, ever get you the .com version of any domain name.

You can read up on this.

Either you will need to buy the domain name from the current owners or you will need to wait until it expires one day - if ever.
Click to expand...

You are right in the sense that having a ZA trademark does not entitle you legally to demand ownership of a .COM domain. However, in most cases (unless it is a high-value domain, which would anyway be owned by "professional squatters") a simple legal letter (with attaching proof of incorporation and trademark) will suffice to even reclaim a .COM domain - done it plenty of times before and never had an issue.

What I meant with the legal letter is to state that the current domain owner is cyber squatting and instead of going into arbitration/litigation, you offer the current domain owner up to 10k (this is how much it would more or less cost to extract domain ownership legally). This works without a problem in ZA is you own the trademark and works just as well internationally (especially in the US due to the nations "fear" of any court-case). This however only applies to cyber-squatters and you will struggle if someone unintentionally reserved a domain for their own private or business purposes.
 
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