# How do you buy a domain name that someone already owns? Find the owner or reach them through the registrar's contact form or a broker, check the name before paying, and budget price, fees and renewals together. --- You buy a domain name that someone already owns by reaching its current holder, directly or through a broker, agreeing a price, checking the name itself before any money moves, and then having the registration transferred to you. The name is not bought from a registrar or from a registry: it is bought from the person or company that holds the registration today, and only that holder can release it. Most of the work sits before and around the offer. The holder is often hidden behind redacted registration data. The name may carry a trademark conflict, a history of misuse or a registrar lock that delays the handover. And the price you agree is only one line of what the name costs you, because renewals follow the name for as long as you keep it, sometimes at a premium rate. The rules described below are those that ICANN sets for generic extensions such as dot-com and the newer generic ones. Country-code extensions are run under their own national rules, which differ from one country to the next. This is general information, not legal advice.
60 daysduring which a registrar may refuse to move a name to another registrar after it was created or transferred
30 daysof redemption grace period after a generic name is deleted, in which the former holder can still restore it
USD 1,500filing fee for a trademark owner bringing a single-panelist complaint over one to five names at WIPO

ICANN Transfer Policy, ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy and the WIPO schedule of fees for domain name disputes.

## What are the ways to get a domain name that is already registered? A registered domain name can be obtained in three ways: buying it from its current holder, waiting for the registration to lapse and catching the name when it is released, or registering a different name that is still free. Only the first gives you a date and a degree of certainty, which is why a business with a launch planned almost always starts there. Buying from the holder means a private sale. You find the holder or a channel that reaches them, you make an offer, and if you agree, the registration is moved into your account at a registrar. The holder may be a company using the name, an investor holding it for resale, or an individual who registered it years ago: the investor expects to be approached, the active business rarely wants to sell, and the individual may never reply. Waiting for expiry costs little but offers no control. Registering an alternative is the cheapest route and is sometimes the right one, when the registered name is priced beyond what it would earn you. ## How do you find the owner when the registration data is redacted? When the registration data of a domain name is redacted, you reach the owner through the contact channel the registrar is required to publish, through the website on the name itself, or through a marketplace listing or a broker, rather than by reading a name and an email address in the public record. Finding the identity is often not necessary: reaching the holder is. Start with a registration data lookup. ICANN operates a public lookup tool, and every accredited registrar offers one. The record shows the registrar, the creation and expiry dates, the status codes and whatever contact data is published. Under ICANN's Registration Data Policy, where personal data must be redacted, the record no longer shows the registrant's name, street, postal code or phone number. The registrant's country and state or province remain visible, and the organisation name appears only if the holder agreed to publish it. The same policy gives you a way through. Where the registrant's email address is redacted, the registrar must publish an email address or a link to a web form that forwards messages to the registrant, without revealing the address behind it. Keep the message short: say that you are interested in acquiring the name, ask whether the holder would consider an offer, and give a way to reply. Other sources often work faster than the record: - **The site on the name.** A page saying the name is for sale, a parking page with an enquiry form or a company site with a contact page tells you who to write to. - **Marketplace listings.** Investors list their names on domain marketplaces, where an offer or a fixed price can be submitted without knowing the seller. - **The registrar.** Some registrars run their own brokerage desk and will approach their customer for a fee. ICANN also runs the Registration Data Request Service, which passes requests for non-public data to the registrars that take part in it. It is built for requesters with a legitimate interest, such as law enforcement, intellectual property and security professionals; the registrar decides each request, and wishing to make a purchase offer is not what the service exists for. ## Should you approach the owner directly or through a broker? Approach the owner directly when the name is listed with a price or when the amount is small, and use a broker when the name is not for sale, when the holder does not answer, or when your identity would raise the price. The choice turns on three things: how hard the holder is to reach, how much the name is worth to you, and how much a visible buyer changes the answer. | Channel | Fits when | What it costs you | Where it stops | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Direct message to the holder | The holder is reachable and you are comfortable negotiating | Your time | Your name and email travel with the offer | | Marketplace offer | The name is listed for sale | Usually nothing for the buyer; the seller pays a commission | Only covers listed names | | Buy-side broker | The name is unlisted, the holder is silent, or discretion matters | A fee or a commission, agreed in writing beforehand | No broker can make a holder sell | | Registrar brokerage desk | The name sits at that registrar and you want one counterpart | A service fee, sometimes plus a commission | Limited to an approach and a relay of offers | A buy-side broker brings contacts built over many transactions, a sense of what comparable names have sold for, and a buffer between you and the seller. Ask how the broker is paid before the first approach: a flat engagement fee, a commission on the price, or both, and whether the commission is due if you later buy the same name without them. The written agreement should also say who the broker acts for. A broker paid by the buyer and a broker paid a percentage by the seller have different incentives, and both arrangements are legitimate as long as you know which one you are in. ## Can you buy a domain name without revealing who you are? You can buy a domain name without the seller learning who the end buyer is, by having a broker, a law firm or a holding company make the approach and take the transfer. Discretion in an acquisition is common practice and lawful; what it does not permit is a false statement about who you are or what the name is for. The reason for discretion is price. A holder who learns that a funded company wants the name for its main brand will value it differently than if an unnamed individual asks. Buyers therefore keep their name out of the first contact in one of three ways. A broker approaches in its own name and says only that it represents a buyer. A lawyer does the same and signs the agreement as agent for an undisclosed principal. Or the name is bought by an entity created for the purpose and transferred to the operating company later. Two limits apply. A second transfer shortly after the first may be held up by the lock that follows a change of holder, described further down. Whoever handles the money, whether an escrow agent, a bank or a payment service, is usually required to verify who is paying, so anonymity toward the seller is not anonymity toward the regulated party holding the funds. Stay with accurate statements. "I represent a buyer who prefers not to be named at this stage" is true and sufficient; an invented story about the project is neither. ## What should you check before you pay for a domain name? Before paying for a domain name, check six things: trademark conflicts, the dispute record, the history of use, blocklists, the status codes and dates in the record, and the seller's control of the name. A domain name carries its past with it, and none of these points is repaired by the transfer.
Due diligence on a registered name, in the order that saves the most timeThe first two checks can end the purchase; the others change its price or timing
  1. Search the trademark registersLook for marks identical or close to the name in the countries where you will trade and in the classes of your goods or services. WIPO's Global Brand Database covers many national and international registers in one search.
  2. Look for past disputesSearch the published decisions of the dispute resolution providers for the name and for the seller. A past complaint over the name, or a seller with several decisions against them, tells you how the name was used and by whom.
  3. Read the history of useGo through archived copies of the site year by year. Content unrelated to the name or pages stuffed with links point to a period of misuse.
  4. Test the name against blocklistsCheck whether the name appears on the reputation lists that mail servers and browsers consult, and whether search engines still index it. A listed name has to be cleaned up before you send a single invoice from it.
  5. Read the status codes and datesThe public record shows whether the name is locked against transfer, when it was created, when it last changed and when it expires. A lock set by the registrar after a dispute or a payment problem is a question to put to the seller in writing.
  6. Confirm the seller controls the nameAsk the seller to prove control by a change only the account holder can make, such as adding a record you specify to the name's zone.
The trademark search is where a professional clearance earns its fee on any name you intend to build a business on, because similarity is a legal judgment and not a string match. Put the results in the purchase agreement. A seller can reasonably warrant that they hold the name, that no dispute or claim is pending to their knowledge, and that the name is free of any pledge or prior sale. ## How does the UDRP affect someone buying a domain name? The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy lets a trademark owner ask for a domain name to be transferred or cancelled, and it applies to you as the new holder from the day you acquire the name. Buying a name does not buy protection from a complaint, and the purchase itself is one of the events a panel looks at. Under the policy, which ICANN adopted and every accredited registrar applies to generic extensions, a complainant must prove three elements, and all three are required: the name is identical or confusingly similar to a mark in which the complainant has rights; the holder has no rights or legitimate interests in the name; and the name has been registered and is being used in bad faith. The remedies are limited to cancellation of the name or its transfer to the complainant. The policy awards no damages and refunds nothing of what the holder paid for the name. The wording matters to a buyer. Among the circumstances the policy lists as evidence of bad faith is having "registered or acquired" the name primarily to sell it to the trademark owner or to a competitor for more than documented out-of-pocket costs. Acquisition is named alongside registration. A buyer who takes over a name matching someone else's distinctive mark is exposed whatever the previous holder did. The policy also lists what protects a holder: use of the name, or demonstrable preparations to use it, for a genuine offering of goods or services before any notice of a dispute; being commonly known by the name; or legitimate non-commercial or fair use. A buyer with a real project under a descriptive or generic word, documented from the start, stands on that ground. At the World Intellectual Property Organization, the largest provider, the fee for a complaint covering one to five names is USD 1,500 with a single panelist and USD 4,000 with three, according to its schedule of fees. Where the conflict is real, the purchase price is at risk, which is why the trademark check comes first. ## Which registrar locks and dates can delay the handover? Three things in the registration record can delay the handover of a domain name: a recent registration or transfer, a recent change of holder, and an expiry date that falls during the transaction. All three are visible or can be asked about before you agree a closing date. ICANN's Transfer Policy lists the cases in which a registrar may refuse to let a name move to another registrar. Two concern timing: the transfer is requested within 60 days of the creation date, or within 60 days after the name was last transferred. The same policy says the registrar must impose a 60-day lock on transfers between registrars after a change of registrant, and that the registrar may let the holder opt out of that lock before the change is requested. A change of the holder's name, organisation or email address counts as such a change. Many sales are completed by moving the name into the buyer's account at the seller's registrar, after which the buyer may have to wait before moving it elsewhere unless the opt-out was used. Ask the seller's registrar how it applies the lock before you sign, since a revised version of the policy is being phased in and registrars implement it on their own schedule. Expiry is the third date. A name that expires in the middle of a sale puts the transaction in the hands of the registrar's expiry process, and the seller may have to pay a renewal or a restoration fee to regain control. Where the name expires within a few weeks, make renewal by the seller a condition of the deal, or price the renewal in and have it done before closing. ## What does the domain name cost in total, renewals included? The total cost of a purchased domain name is the price paid to the seller plus the fees of the transaction plus every renewal for as long as you keep the name. The first two are paid once; the third never ends, and on a name with premium renewal pricing it changes the answer. Renewal pricing depends on the extension. In dot-com and the older generic extensions, every name renews at the same standard price, whatever was paid for it on the aftermarket. In the newer generic extensions, the registry can classify a name as premium. ICANN's base registry agreement for those extensions requires uniform pricing for renewals, with an exception: a higher renewal price applies where the registrant expressly agreed to it at the initial registration, after clear disclosure. A premium tier of that kind stays attached to the name, so the buyer of such a name inherits the renewal price along with the registration. Ask the seller for the last renewal invoice. Take a worked example with illustrative figures. A company agrees to pay $18,000 for a one-word name. It uses a buy-side broker at 10% of the price, pays an escrow fee of $150, and has a trademark clearance done for $600. The name is then held for five years, the first of which is added by the transfer. The table compares the same purchase for a name that renews at a standard $15 a year and for a name that renews at a premium $400 a year. | Line | Standard renewal | Premium renewal | | --- | --- | --- | | Price paid to the seller | $18,000 | $18,000 | | Broker, 10% of the price | $1,800 | $1,800 | | Escrow fee | $150 | $150 | | Trademark clearance | $600 | $600 | | Transfer, which adds one year | $15 | $400 | | **Cost to acquire** | **$20,565** | **$20,950** | | Four further renewals | $60 | $1,600 | | **Total over five years** | **$20,625** | **$22,550** | Everything on top of the price comes to $2,625 for the standard name, or 14.6% of the $18,000 paid to the seller, and to $4,550 for the premium one, or 25.3%. The gap between the two names is $1,925 over five years, and it is made of renewals alone.
Renewal cost by number of years heldIllustrative: $15 a year at a standard price, $400 a year at a premium price, first year paid at transfer
Standard renewalPremium renewal
1 year $15 $400 5 years $75 $2,000 10 years $150 $4,000

Renewal prices held constant for the illustration. Registries can change their prices, so a long horizon carries more uncertainty than the bars show.

## What is the most you can offer within a fixed budget? The most you can offer for a domain name is your total budget, minus the costs that do not depend on the price, divided by one plus the commission rate you pay. Working backwards from the budget, before the first message, keeps the negotiation inside a number you chose calmly. Stay with the same illustrative example and give the company a ceiling of $25,000 for the name over five years, all costs included. For the name with standard renewals, the costs that do not depend on the price are the $150 escrow fee, the $600 clearance and five years at $15, or $825 in all. That leaves $24,175 for the price and the 10% broker commission together. Dividing by 1.10 gives a maximum offer of $21,977. For the name with premium renewals, the fixed costs are $150, $600 and five years at $400, or $2,750. That leaves $22,250, and dividing by 1.10 gives a maximum offer of $20,227. The premium renewal lowers the highest defensible offer by $1,750, although the two names might look identical in a listing. If the seller offers payment in instalments, the total paid is the figure to hold against the ceiling, not the monthly amount. ## Is it worth waiting for the domain name to expire? Waiting for a domain name to expire is worth doing only as a background option, because a holder has several weeks after the expiry date to keep the name and most names of value are renewed or captured before they reach the open market. ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy sets the minimum protections for the holder of a generic name. The registrar must send at least two renewal reminders before expiry, one about a month ahead and one about a week ahead. After expiry, if the registrar deletes the name eight days or more later, it must interrupt the name's resolution for at least the last eight days so that the holder notices, and the holder can still renew during that time. Once the name is deleted, the registry must offer a redemption grace period of 30 days, during which the former holder can restore it, usually at a higher fee that the registrar must publish. Only after that does the name move toward release. Two practices narrow the chances further. Many registrars do not delete expired names of value at all: they offer them in an expiry auction, where the winning bidder takes over the registration. And for names that do go through deletion, backorder services compete to register them in the instant they are released. A backorder is a standing instruction to a specialised service to attempt the registration when the name drops. In outline, you place the order, usually paying only if the service succeeds; if several customers of the same service ordered the same name, it is settled by a private auction among them. A name several parties want can end up costing as much as a negotiated purchase. ## When is registering a new name the better choice? Registering a new name is the better choice when a free name serves the same purpose and the registered one would cost more than the difference is worth to your business. Registration takes minutes and costs one year of fees: you search for the name at a registrar, and if no one holds it, you register it for one to ten years. The checks do not disappear because the name is free. Run the same trademark search, since registering a name that matches someone's mark exposes you to the same dispute policy as buying one. Read the renewal price as well as the first-year price, as the two often differ and a premium name in a newer extension can carry a high charge every year. And look at who holds the same word in the main extensions: if an established business sits on the dot-com, some of your mail and visitors will go there. ## How do the payment and the transfer fit together? The payment and the transfer of a domain name are arranged so that neither party has to act on trust alone, most often through an escrow service that holds the price until the name is in the buyer's account. Settle the method in the purchase agreement, together with who pays the fee, the deadline for the seller to start the transfer, and what happens if the name cannot move because of a lock. Then verify the result yourself: the public record should show your registrar and the new dates, and the name should sit in an account whose login, recovery email and two-step verification are yours alone. The first renewal date goes in your calendar the same day.