Siemens takes the gigaset.co.nz domain name off us
We sell Gigaset phones, to help us sell these back in February we registered the gigaset.co.nz domain and pointed it to our website. When we started selling Gigaset phones back in 2010 we were the only ones bringing them into the country and selling them. No local support from Siemens.
In July this year the AU/NZ manager for Siemens contacted us requesting the gigaset.co.nz domain for their own use. I (Hadley) responded saying;
"I'm happy to discuss gifting the gigaset.co.nz domain to you guys for use promoting the brand in New Zealand. Perhaps we could talk about a compromise such as a preferential link on your new site back to nicegear as an online retailer of Gigaset phones."which I thought was quite reasonable. After many email exchanges Siemens eventually came back with this document prepared by their legal team in Germany. It involves some interesting things that we would have to agree to;
- Pay for the Siemens to transfer the domain name to their name.
- Waive all sorts of legal rights.
- Not talk about the agreement during and two years after it's existence.
- Siemens could terminate the agreement whenever they wanted (and keep the domain).
As you may have gathered, we didn't agree to the terms.
Consequently Siemens lodged a claim with the Domain Name Commissioner's Disputes Resolution Service in late September. Following through that process, at their cost of $2000, an expert was appointed in late November to decide the outcome. Last week the expert made their ruling stating that the domain name should be transferred to Siemens. There's a copy of the ruling available here.
All in all it's been an interesting experience. I'm not terribly concerned that the domain was taken, I don't personally consider it an unfair registration, we registered it to help people find Gigaset phones available for sale in New Zealand, not to hurt Siemens or mislead anyone.
In New Zealand (for .nz domains) there is no cost to transfer and this can be done at any time without extending the expiry date.
Ignoring for a second the other terms of the agreement, would it not have been (as per the terms of their own agreement) fine for you to proceed and then pay them the $0 transfer fee?
@Ross; It's certainly possible that that could have been the outcome in respect to that clause, yes. I did find it one of the most amusing clauses myself.