You Don’t Own A Domain Forever

Do you think that you can buy a domain name for a lifetime? Well, if you think so, you’re mistaken because thousands of domain names expire every day. 

While businesses are too busy working on their operations, marketing, and customer satisfaction, one thing that gets ignored is portfolio management. Sometimes, companies do acquire hundreds of domain names that are related to their business, and they might be registered under different registrars. It is the company’s responsibility to check the expiry dates of these domains continually. By any chance, if they forget to renew the domain name, they have to incur substantial financial losses to get back the official domain name. 

 Many big firms have made this mistake in the past, and Microsoft did it twice. 

Yes, The tech giant Microsoft. Here’s what happened – 

Microsoft once forgot to pay the network solutions bill for one of its domains that is passport.com and made headlines in the media. The site was down for quite some time, and a user named Michael Chaney did a favour to Microsoft by paying $35 as their bill and informed the company about the same. Microsoft was genuinely impressed with the generosity and paid the guy a check of $500, which he later donated in the charity. 

Yet another time, it forgot to renew hotmail.co.uk, and this domain was parked for the public. However, this time also, one gentleman purchased the domain name with no bad intentions. Lucky Microsoft, hmm! But even after repetitive emails from the buyer, it didn’t pay attention to the issue. Finally, after two weeks, when The Register contacted Microsoft regarding the incident, it took back it’s domain and thanked the buyer.

Open Door Baptist Church forgot to renew its domain name warningsofwrath.com, which was bought by an ill-minded person. He then used it to display adult content, which a church would never want to do. This incident ruined the reputation of the firm.

Sorenson Communications, a company that brings video relay services (VRS) to deaf, hard of hearing, and speech-disabled people, also forgot to renew its domain name. For three days, 6 – 8 June 2016, all the users who rely on the telco to place calls, including emergency calls, were out of luck as the company was bumped into service outage. 

The Federal Communications Commission imposed a fine of $3 million on the firm as it was found to be noncompliant with the Communications Act and FCC rules.

One more reason for domain expiration is companies don’t want that domain name anymore and shift to different projects. However, they have the right and can decide to move that particular name to another registrant before it gets expired. 

To transfer your domain name to another registrant, you can initiate a change of registrant by contacting your current registrar. Your registrar will then ask for your confirmation via a secure mechanism (which typically will take the form of an email to the registered name holder). You must provide your approval within the number of days set by your registrar (not to exceed 60 days), or your transfer will not proceed. Once your registrar receives confirmation from you, they will process the transfer and notify you and the new registrant once the transfer is completed.

Your registrar can deny a transfer request in the following limited circumstances if:

1.     The domain name is the subject of a UDRP proceeding

2.     The domain name is subject to a court order by a court of competent jurisdiction

3.     The domain name is the subject of a 60-day change of registrant lock i.e., domain name is within the 60 days of initial registration or previous transfer.It is crucial to notice that the registrar will charge for the services of renewal and domain migration, and it’s absolutely legal. Some firms even have a dedicated account manager for all the portfolio management and migration systems. They work 24*7 to take care of important things related to your domains so that you don’t have to face any challenges in the business.