Hi, a client of mine asked me to register a .com domain name recently. My partner did a search in google and instantly noticed that the domain was showing up associated with another web design company. By that I mean they have it advertised on their own website for sale and a phone number to contact to make an offer. It was an Irish landline number, so I decided since this domain name would be a valuable asset to my client, I thought I would give them a ring and see how much they would be looking for it.

Just before I rang I decided to do a domain search just to get the company's WHOIS details so I could know a bit more about who owned it. To my surprise I saw that the domain was actually still available and not owned by this company at all. So I immediately snapped it up myself for the usual small fee.

So now at this point in time I have the rights to the domain (until I transfer ownership to my client). The company however are still advertising this domain name for sale on their website?

Is this illegal?, for example on Google if I type in a relevant search term for my client, I get the web design company's website page @ ranking position #1 where they are offering the domain for sale. When I launch my client's website, I will be aiming for a #1 ranking myself, but surely it's going to look very strange to people searching when they see a website with the domain in the listing, and then nearby, another listing with a company offering the domain for sale.

What should I do? Should I contact the web design company and ask them to remove it from their site as they don't own the rights to it?. Now this company will be able to do a WHOIS on the domain and get my contact details, I just hope that they don't try and cause any trouble for my business.

What steps would you take?

Just to clarify

Domainx.tld is listed as being for sale by Company Y.
Company Y don't own the domain.

Is that right?

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possible they did own it and have let it lapse ?

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That is 100% correct.

Yes it could be a case that they once owned it, but for example, they have many many domains for sale on their website, some are marked as sold. The one I purchased is not the only one that is currently available for purchase either. They literally have domains in the format [common_word][unique_word].com, where [unique_word] is random selection of nouns. Some result in fairly valuable domain name options.

Also, I purchased the domain about 3 - 4 weeks ago now.

Well I don't see how it's illegal. They're offering something for sale that they don't own - yes, but unless they actually take money (ie. attempt to execute a contract) then I don't see how it can be illegal. Silly and unethical ....

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Yes I think so too. However in the title of their web page they have the domain name specified. The domain name includes popular and obvious search terms for a site that would legitimately use that domain (namely my client).

I am considering contacting the company and asking them to remove the advertisment from their website as they do not have the domain to sell (anymore).

However doing this I risk some form of retalliation. Also the Irish number listed could very well be a planted VOIP number for Irish customers of the company. When I did a WHOIS on their own company website, all their contact details are listed as "Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc."

I didn't realise that one could have their contact details hidden (or at least masked) in DNS.

That's not DNS. That's whois

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Well then apologies for my ignorance. I thought a WHOIS query returned contact data associated with DNS records, or is DNS purely concerned with nameserver listings. If the latter, where is the contact info stored?

Cheers