How I Defeated The Cybersquatters

So here is my valiant story of how I crushed cyber squatters and their 'acquisition fees.' Let's start at the beginning.

ACT I:
In December of 2008 I attempted to register a domain for my company, which I had created a website for locally. The name of the company was JQ Software, and it was about time I made my company known outside of my local area, and broadcast my company across the internet. Clearly, the most logical domain would be jqsoftware.com. So I went to godaddy.com and attempted to register the domain, only to find it was owned by someone who put a parking page on it. Nothing but ads.. maybe jqsoftware.org is available? Nope, same page.. jqsoftware.net? Bingo! I now had a domain and I didn't even resort to using a different company name and recreating my business identity from scratch, hooray!

ACT II:
My website has been up for a little while. jqsoftware.net is up and running, and already generating additional business for me. Everything is wonderful, although I still wonder why jqsoftware.com is taken. There is really nothing on it. On December 28th I get the following e-mail from "Zip Domains."



So wait a minute... They bought this domain for $10 before I did, for some ungodly reason.. and then waited for someone to register jqsoftware.net so they could try to sell the domain to them, and for $199!? Honestly, $199 is not a major business expense.. I thought about it. I decided I would pay the fee to get my precious .com domain. But I would wait until I finished the job I was on before I started spending money and working more on my web presence. A few days pass and I get another e-mail, from Zip Domains again.. I guess they got impatient with me when I didn't fork over the $199 dollars. Here is the second email:



December 28th to January 1st. That means they waited four days before contacting me again. There's something different about this e-mail though. I can't put my finger on it, but it is apparently worth 100 fewer dollars. The first e-mail said 'if we are successful', now this e-mail simply says the domain is available for a one-time fee.. so they already have the domain now? How curious, they tracked down the owner of the site and purchased it from them only to send me a new e-mail about how I could pay an extraordinary price for it.

ACT III:
8 days has passed and I've pretty much decided I don't want to deal with these cybersquatters and encourage their unethical ways. I get a new e-mail, this time from someone named Dan Johnson. He works for domainsupplyengine.com, apparently. Interesting sidenote - this website DOES NOT EXIST!



It says in the e-mail that if I do not respond they will just auction the site off to the highest bidder. In the event that someone actually wants this domain, I am going to have a problem. Whoever chooses to buy this may pay a larger amount than $99, or even $199. After I contemplated this I came to the realization that I owned a trademark on JQ Software; and most likely there is noone out there who wants to start a website with that domain name. So when there is no demand for something at an auction, that means that noone will bid, right? If noone bids, Mr. Dan Johnson will realize he's holding a "worthless" domain, it's literally worth $0.00 because I'm unwilling to buy it, and noone else can use it because I hold the trademark on the name. So, it would appear the best course of action is to wait until the cybersquatter puts the domain on the auction, and then refuses to pay a renewal later. This works for me, I'll just buy it when it expires in a year. Although, I did some reading and it turns out that registrars can actually reserve a name for extremely cheap prices, or even for free for 1 week. Is it possible these guys have been 'reserving' this domain for free on a weekly basis, and is that why I got 3 emails in 3 weeks? If that's so, the resulting auction combined with the fact they have to keep this up means every week I could try to purchase the domain. Let's analyze the dates on these e-mails:

12-28-08 [The Wednesday following a Christmas holiday Sunday]
1-1-09 [4 Days later, a Sunday]
1-9-09 [8 Days later, a Monday morning/Sunday night]

It seems like this thing is getting tossed back and forth on either Sundays, Mondays or Wednesdays.. So let's just try to register it every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. One of these days must be the weekly time that it gets renewed for these registrars, and then the other is just a lag effect when they finally e-mail me about having it.

ACT IV:
Every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday since January 9th or so, I attempt to register my domain name. And well.. I think this one last e-mail speaks for itself. I'd just like to thank the cybersquatters for an exciting adventure. And I just wanted to write this post to let you know that I won. Now if you would, please get a real job and stop trying to take advantage of people.