News site The Register.co.uk has reported that ownership of a
domain name used for the web site of a PR company in England was
mysteriously transferred to a Wisconsin resident and that he is now
auctioning it for sale on eBay.
The name portfoliocomms.com was owned by Portfolio Metrica in
the UK. Its new owner claims he was able to purchase the name
because Portfolio Metrica failed to pay its renewal fee. This is
disputed by the company, which says it did not receive any renewal
notice. However, its domain name registrar has gone out of business
- raising the possibility that renewal demands may not have been
forwarded to the company, which flags up a real risk for any web
site to consider.
The auction carries the following message from the seller:
“We acquired this domain name because some
Company in the UK does not understand IT or just does not wish to
accept they lost it… Were not Squatters and were definitely not
people who enjoy this sort of dispute... Since there is no U.S. TM
and as far as were aware there is no UK TM rights to this domain.
Maybe we can at least get our money back. As TheRegister.co.uk says
its not that great of a Domain. Watch for these other domains of
theres which were unpaid as of Tuesday. Maybe they will get a clue
and pay for them.”
