I recently came across the situation where the state business name under
which the .com.au domain name was registered was sold to another company -
all that was required was documentation be submitted to INA supporting
change of ownership of the business name.

Is this 'zero risk'? It is still done manually by INA. I don't know how long
it takes for the change to be recorded but will let the group know once I
do.

Meliza Smith


----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin Sullivan" <js&#167;justnet.com.au>
To: <dns&#167;auda.org.au>
Sent: Sunday, 1 October 2000 9:17 AM
Subject: [DNS] Selling com.au names [was: Re: AuDomains.com]


> At 02:55 1/10/00 +1000, you wrote:
> >anthony white wrote:
> >
> > > check out www.audomains.com for the latest.
> >
> >You'll notice they're trying to sell .com.au names contrary to the
policy.
> >There's a big risk in doing that, I would have thought.
> >
> >Regards
> >Patrick Corliss
>
> Actually INA has a way of allowing "selling" which is presumably official
> enough as they have formal documents and application forms to support it.
> This is the "terminate and re-apply" process. Essentially, company A that
> currently holds the name asks them to cancel the license, and in the same
> breath company B applies for the same name. Obviously company B must meet
> all the usual com.au allocation/application terms such as having a
suitable
> business or company name.
>
> This is only processed offline (paper based forms) and is done manually,
> presumably to ensure both things happen at the same moment.
>
> The only bad news is there is still a disclaimer on the top of the first
> page that essentially says they don't guarantee someone else won't snap up
> the name midway through the process :-( Not good news when our clients
have
> just agreed to pay a third party a sizable sum for a particular name and
> then have to agree that they may be throwing it all down the drain.
>
> And for those completely opposed to selling names at all, consider also
the
> case of (fictional) character "Fred Smith Antiques" who is a sole trader
> with a small business and the name "fredsmithantiques.com.au". He has
built
> up a thriving online presence over the years and incorporates and becomes
> "Fred Smith Antiques Pty Ltd" and on his accountants advise he cancels the
> business name registration, maintaining just the company. But as the
domain
> name is licensed to the business name, technically the domain can now be
> revoked as the business name (license holder) doesn't exist any more. So
he
> really needs to sell the name to the new company entity in order to keep
> using it - even though essentially there is no change in use in most
senses
> of the word.
>
> I believe there needs to be a zero risk option for people in this position
> to ensure they keep their established names and do not have to face any
> risk of losing them. The difficulty with picking out this particular case
> is that there's no way for the registrar to conclusively tell whether it's
> essentially a change in the legal structure of the business like this, or
> an actual sale to an unrelated party. Ensure the "old" owner is a
> shareholder or director of the new company? I'm sure that would be worked
> around in the same way as some of the current policies are worked around -
> "we'll buy your domain name from you and here's your token 1 share out of
> the 10,000,000 on issue so that the registrar sees this as a related party
> transaction not a third party, and we make sure we get the rights to the
> name we're paying for..."
>
> Maybe the current "terminate and re-apply" process actually is zero risk,
> but it certainly doesn't read that way from the disclaimer. But maybe
> that's INA covering themselves just in case... If anyone (especially
> someone from INA) can shed some further facts on the process I'd
appreciate
> it. Whatever one thinks of selling of com.au names generally, I think
> everyone should agree that people like the "fredsmithantiques.com.au"
> example should have a way to go through the above scenario in complete
> confidence.
>
> Regards,
> JS
>
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