.co.uk and .uk rights
Hi Guys,
Just my thoughts on this matter.
For domainers i feel the whole .co.uk and .uk ownership rights are pretty black and white, yet for those not operating in this space they're none the wiser 99.9% of the time, meaning they can be taken advantage of, which they are in some cases.
When purchasing a domain name from Sedo... The moment you enter into negotiation with the seller you are agreeing to Sedo's T&C's to purchase the rights to the .co.uk if a sale is agreed, which intern legally gives you the rights to the .uk (if they exist) and have not been transferred into the same entity or another name prior to entering into negotiations via the Sedo platform.
Regardless of Sedo stating the whole mechanics of how the .co.uk and .uk rights work (which they should imo). It's the terms and conditions of Nominet which should hold up in a court of law if a dispute was to ever arise. Meaning if you can show to Nominet at the time of agreeing to purchase the .co.uk that rights to the .uk existed, then i would expect Nominet to abide by their T&C's and transfer the ownership of the .uk to the buyer, which i believe they would if such proof was presented to them.
Now then... This in my opinion is where the grey area comes into play!
Buyers who are contacting domain owners outside of a sales platform which do not require the buyer to agree to any terms and conditions whilst in discussion - This leaves the buyer vulnerable because the seller (legal registrant) of the domain can transfer the rights of the .uk to a new entity prior to accepting the offer, which is what is happening.
The big difference between Sedo and contacting sellers direct is... Sedo clearly state you are agreeing to purchase the rights to the domain name which you're enquiring about. Whereas when contacting domain owners direct you're merely entering into a discussion which isn't legally binding up until the point of agreeing to the sale.
The only time the above may differ is if the domain registrant (the seller) listed the domain for sale at a Buyit now price on a parked page... and the buyer then accepted the buyit now price! in which case if at the time of accepting the BIN price the .uk rights existed legally this would become part of the deal.
Right then, back to Mally's sale of LotterySyndicate.co.uk - If Mally registered or transferred the .uk before entering into discussion with the buyer via the Sedo platform, then i see absolutely nothing wrong with his code of conduct, however, if Mally transferred the .uk domain whilst in discussion with the buyer via the Sedo platform, then obviously I'd have a totally different view based on what I've discussed above.
This is also happening too... Some people are aware of the .uk extension but are too scared to bring it up just incase the owners of the .co.uk want more money! So what these people are doing is saying nothing with the hope they will get rights to the .uk at the same price, however, some sellers are transferring .uk rights away just before the sale has been agreed, which is totally legal to do under the Nominet terms as they are still the legal registrant, plus no sale has been agreed up until this point - I would say to these people... If you want both the .co.uk / .uk be clear from the start and mention it when inquiring about the domain, that way both parties know where they stand.
Note to Sedo :
If you can run cron jobs removing domain names from users accounts based on them no longer being the legal registrant of that domain name, then you can most certainly create a script to query the Nominet database to show whether or not .uk rights exist when buying a particular .co.uk domain.
A simple line of text displaying something like >>
Attention :
This .co.uk comes with .uk rights.
More information relating to .uk rights can be found here
here
or
Attention :
This .co.uk does not come with .uk rights.
More information relating to .uk rights can be found here
here
Hope my thoughts help.
Best,
Barry
