buying a new gtld with name same as cctld (minus the cc)

[eudemony]

Hi everyone,
I've found myself in a messy situation where I've registered a new gtld that is the same as the company I work for.
As the company I work for does not have a trade mark for their registered company name (we will use a hypothetical name like smith bike group pty ltd)
They currently own the domains smithbike.com and smithbike.com.au
I pre-registered the new gtld smith. bike and won it when it went to public availability after two companies that have the trade mark smith did not contest my pre-registration.
I then contacted my work and told them i had registered the domain and was giving it to them (stating I was not selling or trying to profit) for nothing as I wanted to secure the name for them as they dont have a trademark for smith bike group.

I was then summoned into see senior management with my manager where i was accused of "theft of company assets" even though I stated I didnt want to keep the domain and wanted to give it to them for nothing. I was thrn told that this incident is going on my permanant company record. Even though I am happy to transfer the name I was told now they need to contact their lawyers to draw up a contract of sale which will cost them more money.
My questions are:
what is the legality of me purchasing a domain as a gift that is not a registered trademark?
Is it "theft of company assets" just because I registered the domain specifically to protect their name and give it to them as a gift?
Would this incident actually be character defamation in the workplace due to being accused of theft even though the company never owned the domain smith.bike?

 

[findtim]

if they own the .com and .com.au what is the extension you registered ??

.melbourne ?

in my unprofessional non legal knowledge opinion i think they are being D*^Kheads

ask them if they also own the .it, ,cc, co, xxx, .tv etcccccc of their domain name?

there is nothing legal to do, just do a COR and transfer it to them, a few bucks and its done ! end of story

use NF or Drop or Ventraip and it will happen VERY fast.

i think they are TOTALLY out of hand given the info you provided.

there is NO stealing of company assets here, whats happened is the person ABOVE you is now protecting their ARSE as they didn't know what you knew ! and the best way to do that is frame YOU.

domain names are "first come first served" if not trademarked etc.

if its not a .com.au then i think there are no legals to deal with as a "gift".

it may have been best to not register it but INFORM them of the potential availability , but that is hindsight, so now you have just p^^SED off your boss who obviously is currently on google trying to understand what a "domain name" means and thinks godaddy is a "new dad's" information service.

i have been in this situation before 20 years ago, my suggestion is suck it up and shut up, investigate the COR transfer cost and have that to present when next you meet with management, crawl crawl crawl and live to fight another day. stick by your story, " i did it to HELP the company........ " add in " sorry, but i though i was actually showing initiative, go the positives, " well you guys didn't know this was happening and our competitors could have got it...... then NAME the competitors" , " maybe i deserve a pay rise instead of a mark on my record " , " i had limited time to ask permission "

and if push comes to shove you could go with the time that your direct boss ignored you on the way to a meeting and he with his back turned just said " yes, yes, got to go" BUT make sure you have a date and time when they did that.

i think you definitely have a case for "character defamation in the workplace" but you have NOOOOOOOOOO chance of proving it, NONEEEEEEE

honestly when this type of thing happened to me in 1990 i stood tall and walked out with a pay rise, it can be done.

its just insecure management with bully tactics.

tim

 

[helloworld]

Why are you buying presents for your employer? Well it's obvious why you are, but seriously did you think that they'd give you that promotion you had been working hard all day for? (Simpsons quote).

You're not going to go for defamation, that is also crazy talk.

As Tim said there's plenty of other extensions they don't own.

If you want to keep the job, write a decent apology for the reasons they stated they were angry. Don't bad mouth them to other staff, if that's the culture someone is bound to mention it.

On the other hand, balls in your court. You own the domain now. Register the trademark. God if they haven't registered their logo take that too. Tell them you're walking and starting smith bikes dubbo

 

[Cooper Mills DomainLawyer]

Hi everyone,
I've found myself in a messy situation where I've registered a new gtld that is the same as the company I work for.
As the company I work for does not have a trade mark for their registered company name (we will use a hypothetical name like smith bike group pty ltd)
They currently own the domains smithbike.com and smithbike.com.au
I pre-registered the new gtld smith. bike and won it when it went to public availability after two companies that have the trade mark smith did not contest my pre-registration.
I then contacted my work and told them i had registered the domain and was giving it to them (stating I was not selling or trying to profit) for nothing as I wanted to secure the name for them as they dont have a trademark for smith bike group.

I was then summoned into see senior management with my manager where i was accused of "theft of company assets" even though I stated I didnt want to keep the domain and wanted to give it to them for nothing. I was thrn told that this incident is going on my permanant company record. Even though I am happy to transfer the name I was told now they need to contact their lawyers to draw up a contract of sale which will cost them more money.
My questions are:
what is the legality of me purchasing a domain as a gift that is not a registered trademark?
Is it "theft of company assets" just because I registered the domain specifically to protect their name and give it to them as a gift?
Would this incident actually be character defamation in the workplace due to being accused of theft even though the company never owned the domain smith.bike?

That is one of the most stupid employers I have heard of. How can it be theft when they never owned it? Technically their lawyers may claim you breached the Corporations Act, but common sense is, to say thank you and take the domain. If you had any sinister intentions why would you tell them....

Unfortunately there is still a perception out there in the business world that if I am Bobs Bikes that I automatically own bobsbikes.com.au - it is a first come first served system, provided a party meets eligibility in .au they are usually many people entitled to register a domain.

 

[plano]

I am not certain but I think he is saying he bought the domain name "www.smith.bike"

 

[findtim]

I am not certain but I think he is saying he bought the domain name "www.smith.bike"

that is my impression "smith.bike"

 

[plano]

I re-read the post he actually says it explicitly. Just shows how complex office politics can get, sometimes its hard to keep track of what is going on.

 

[jamesau]

Either there has been a huge misunderstanding, or your employer has built a management team of idiots.

Frankly if I was put in that position I would be writing a letter of resignation and taking the domain name to a competing business.

A more sensible step would probably be to write a letter to the stakeholders clearly outlining your genuine intentions. Explain to them if creativity and initiative is not something they want in their employees, you'll be moving somewhere that values those traits.

If I was hiring for a competing company and you explained that story to me I would certainly praise your initiative and laugh at such a stone age company culture.

 

[Data Glasses]

Hilarious //could only get funnier if Snoopy was your boss …. he loves the new gtld's

 

[findtim]

http://screencast.com/t/G14Dw18vKUm

 

[Data Glasses]

http://screencast.com/t/G14Dw18vKUm

Ha Ha …..

 

[plano]

There's no need to be talking about eudemony resigning it is all a learning experience it is important to learn some communication, negotiation, and coping skills if you are going to survive as an employee in the modern business environment.

We actually don't have all the facts regarding this case but it sounds to me like eudemony might have gone outside his job description to be purchasing domain names on behalf of the company.

The correct approach would have been:

1/ You alert the line manager to the new domains and the possibility a competitor might secure the company name in the new domain name
2/ Have the line manager say he is not interested in using the new domain name
3/ Spend time convincing the line manager that you need to purchase it for defensive reasons even if you are not going to use it
4/ Finally convince the line manager about the need to buy the domain name so he puts the case to a senior manager
5/ Senior manager rejects the idea so line manager runs through all the arguments you presented to him (but doesn't say they are your arguments)
6/ Senior manager finally agrees and the company purchases the domain name
7/ Company newsletter email mentions the purchase of the new domain name and praises the line manager for his knowledge and vision in recommending the domain name be purchased

This is how it is meant to work. You don't just buy the domain name with your own money and then tell the line manager you have bought the domain name and want to donate it to the company. Things don't work that way.

From the few facts we have I would suggest making clear that you understand now that you made a mistake but you were worried a competitor might get the name and as you were going to give the domain name to the company you had no intention of profiting in any way.

From the company perspective there is a process involved in having a capital item appear on the balance sheet so that is why they might be saying they need to draw up a contact of sale.

If you are feeling really confident you can suggest that you just have the domain name deregistered and let one of the competitors pick it up, but presenting this proposal might be taking things a bit far.

As I already said, it's a learning experience, so try to have a laugh about it and deal with it as creatively and proactively as possible to try to minimise any damage and maybe even enhance your standing.

Good Luck.

 

[findtim]

There's no need to be talking about eudemony resigning it is all a learning experience it is important to learn some communication, negotiation, and coping skills if you are going to survive as an employee in the modern business environment.

We actually don't have all the facts regarding this case but it sounds to me like eudemony might have gone outside his job description to be purchasing domain names on behalf of the company.

The correct approach would have been:

1/ You alert the line manager to the new domains and the possibility a competitor might secure the company name in the new domain name
2/ Have the line manager say he is not interested in using the new domain name
3/ Spend time convincing the line manager that you need to purchase it for defensive reasons even if you are not going to use it
4/ Finally convince the line manager about the need to buy the domain name so he puts the case to a senior manager
5/ Senior manager rejects the idea so line manager runs through all the arguments you presented to him (but doesn't say they are your arguments)
6/ Senior manager finally agrees and the company purchases the domain name
7/ Company newsletter email mentions the purchase of the new domain name and praises the line manager for his knowledge and vision in recommending the domain name be purchased

This is how it is meant to work. You don't just buy the domain name with your own money and then tell the line manager you have bought the domain name and want to donate it to the company. Things don't work that way.

From the few facts we have I would suggest making clear that you understand now that you made a mistake but you were worried a competitor might get the name and as you were going to give the domain name to the company you had no intention of profiting in any way.

From the company perspective there is a process involved in having a capital item appear on the balance sheet so that is why they might be saying they need to draw up a contact of sale.

If you are feeling really confident you can suggest that you just have the domain name deregistered and let one of the competitors pick it up, but presenting this proposal might be taking things a bit far.

As I already said, it's a learning experience, so try to have a laugh about it and deal with it as creatively and proactively as possible to try to minimise any damage and maybe even enhance your standing.

Good Luck.

sorry to duplicate such a large amount of content from a post but plano has basically got it RIGHT IMO.

please pay attention to everything he details except

If you are feeling really confident you can suggest that you just have the domain name deregistered and let one of the competitors pick it up, but presenting this proposal might be taking things a bit far.

don't do this, make THEM mention it ( which i think is what plano meant????? )

BUT ALL PEOPLE reads words differently so be mindfull of that.

we are giving you advise and we don't know how big this business is, is it dubbo.bikes or is in anz.bank ????? as you can see there are major differences in what you would say to each.

-------

i'd be taking the HIGH ground without nasty

"if I could have done this then someone OUTSIDE the company could have, so why are you hassling me"

"you are LUCKY i saw it available AND by the way I AM the one that saw it available !!!!"

"because of this problem there is actually is another one i have come across that you should be buying but i didn't want to do it as i may get into more trouble" they will ask " WHAT ONE !!!!!!!! , and then you can say "got ya, so stop F'n hassling me you DH's on what i just did as you don't know jack S^^T and i want my bosses job right now as its that person who let you down NOT ME."

"can you tell me what is your real concern here......... pause........, is that i registered the domain or is that your upper management FAILED to know about this possibility and failed to act and thus someone else registered this domain.......... lets look at the facts and forget i am an employee, the realty is if i was joe blogs in dubbo i could have registered this domain name and you would have NO HOPE of getting it back, in fact you got lucky and i did it for the company, YESSSS i may have done it the wrong way ( refer to plano suggestions ) but HEY........... it all cool, just give me a promotion and i'll give you the domain and we are all sweet.

as everyone knows i could go on forever, but please do stand up for yourself AFTER you say sorry, as you did do it the wrong way IMHO

tim

 

[plano]

If you are feeling really confident you can suggest that you just have the domain name deregistered and let one of the competitors pick it up, but presenting this proposal might be taking things a bit far.

Just to be clear, in no way did I mean to suggest this in a threatening or a confrontational way.

The facts as presented have the company saying they have been forced to draw up a legal document to cover the transfer.

What I am saying is that you could say you are sorry for causing any trouble and helpfully point out that they can avoid having to draw up this legal document by you deregistering the domain name.

You could say you have emailed the registrar and they have told you there is no problem deregistering it.

The intention here is to focus the company's attention on the benefits of the domain name and whether they want to own it or not rather than just focusing on how someone might have registered it without authorisation.

 

[snoopy]

Just do the contact of sale and forget about it. Never goes down well when employees start registering domains without authority.

 

[snoopy]

The intention here is to focus the company's attention on the benefits of the domain name and whether they want to own it or not rather than just focusing on how someone might have registered it without authorisation.

Going down a bad path talking about competitors etc, they clearly see no need for the name, which is pretty logical in my view.

 

[plano]

Going down a bad path talking about competitors etc, they clearly see no need for the name, which is pretty logical in my view.

Yes it might be going too far to mention competitors, but that doesn't mean he can't suggest that deregistration might be an acceptable outcome.

If as you say they have no need for the name, why not just deregister it?

I don't really care about the domain name itself, my focus in all this is to produce the best possible outcome for eudemony in maintaining a harmonious working environment (as opposed to others who have suggested he resign).

 

[snoopy]

Yes it might be going too far to mention competitors, but that doesn't mean he can't suggest that deregistration might be an acceptable outcome.

If as you say they have no need for the name, why not just deregister it?

It is a good option it is is simple to do.

 

[James]

I would have got senior management sign off before buying any thing, that is how I have always operated in the past.

Any purchased I have made for any clients in the past or when I have worked for big business I made 100% sure I went and got approval from some one very senior with the authority to buy it or I had it in writing and signed off.

Because if you do not have approval then you are acting on your own, and it can get messy if its an expensive purchase and budgets are not that great for the month.

 

[Shane]

I was involved in something very similar back in my young and naive days, and ultimately it cost me my job at the bank.

Looking back I cringe at how stupid the whole thing was, but at the time I genuinely thought I was doing something good.

Lesson learned!