For Sale Canadian GEO domains - safe to hold/sell?

[whitebark]

We've seen both sides of the coin - some geos being taken away, and others being sold to those that could potentially launch a challenge, so just where do we stand?

Like you I've accumulated a number of Canadian geos in not only .ca but also .com, .info etc and have developed some but there is only so many hours in a day... and is development really a solid bulwark against a domain being taken away?

I've received lots of interest over a particular Canadian geo as of late, including from both a provincial and municipal government. I'm open to selling but I have an unnerving feeling that my wanted price point will only embolden them to mount a challenge. I turned down their email enquires, but today one of them called to ask again if I'm willing to sell.

So what's a guy to do?

 

[fwdtech]

Which ones have previously been taken away?

 

[Jacksplat]

So what's a guy to do?

You can phone cira and ask them point blank how secure your domain is. If they do the usual and give a vague explanation, ask to talk to thier legal dept.

Cira is easy to talk to but thier legal guys are quite difficult to get a response from.

Good luck with it Roy, let us know what happens please. Many of us have choice geo .ca's

Kevin

 

[DropWizard.com]

Originally all the place names were reserved for the various goverments that ran them. About two years ago any that had not been taken up had notices sent to them and they were given a reasonable time to either take them or CIRA would release them.

So if you have a geo domain it pretty much seems the gov org didn't take them up on it or let it expire.

It seems it would be pretty hard to mount any court challenge under those circumstances.

 

[whitebark]

Originally all the place names were reserved for the various goverments that ran them. About two years ago any that had not been taken up had notices sent to them and they were given a reasonable time to either take them or CIRA would release them.

So if you have a geo domain it pretty much seems the gov org didn't take them up on it or let it expire.

It seems it would be pretty hard to mount any court challenge under those circumstances.

Do you have any documentation on that? I looked but all I could find was CIRA's rules which read:
"Reserved Names. CIRA will maintain a list of reserved names that are not available for registration in the CIRA Registry. This list will include, but not be limited to:

the names, and all abbreviations of names, of Canada, of Canadian provinces and territories as well as the names listed in the following classes in the applicable version of the Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGNDB) obtained by CIRA under licence from Natural Resources Canada: city, ville, town, village, hamlet, hameau, other municipal/district area –major agglomeration, autre zone municipale /de district – agglomerations majeure, other municipal/district area- miscellaneous and autre zone municipale/de district – divers. The applicable version of the CGNDB will be the one used by CIRA on the date on which a CIRA Certified Registrar submits a request to CIRA to register a municipal name on behalf of an applicant. The terms of the licence do not permit CIRA to disclose the data to others. Interested persons may obtain a licence of the CGNDB by contacting Natural Resources Canada or by visiting http://www.nrcan.gc.ca"

Going to the website and using the Canadian Geographical Names Database, you will see pretty much all of Canada is covered unless their own version which they can't tell us what's on it, is much different.

 

[hugegrowth]

I don't think you'll find any solid answer on this, if a government wants to mount a legal challenge for your domain, they can. You will have to either hand it over or get a lawyer to defend it.

If you don't want to sell, don't sell. If you do want to sell, just name your price.

These can't be 'pure' geo domains, like an exact city or town name. Are we talking about domains like CityofCalgary.ca or VancouverRegion.ca?

One case where someone had a name taken away, it was NiagaraRegion.ca or something like that. He was using it for a nearby area for real estate i think. From what I remember he didn't even bother to defend himself. I think with a good defense he could have ended up keeping the name.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

Whitebark, shoot me a PM with the name, its killing me to know lol

 

[whitebark]

Well the first party emailed again this morning. I told them to make me an offer, and I extended the same to the other party - if they are near my price point I will sell. If they don't request a nd, I will disclose the domain name then.

 

[DropWizard.com]

Do you have any documentation on that? I looked but all I could find was CIRA's rules which read:
"Reserved Names. CIRA will maintain a list of reserved names that are not available for registration in the CIRA Registry. .

I think that is the key. They do have names that show up as reserved even though they are not owned. And they are not available for registration! Obviously the name you own is not on that list.

I never kept the email they sent but it was a few years back (2-3?)

 

[whitebark]

I think that is the key. They do have names that show up as reserved even though they are not owned. And they are not available for registration! Obviously the name you own is not on that list.

I never kept the email they sent but it was a few years back (2-3?)

That's my line of thinking as well, but that doesn't account for those grabbed via the tbr or purchased from others. But one would think that those they want reserved once they expire wouldn't be put back in the tbr... but then this is CIRA we are talking about! You can't register motherf**ker but you can register fatherf**ker! LOL

 

[Namefox]

Do you think I would have a problem with the Geo domains in my signature below?

 

[DomainBELL]

will be interesting to see how this turns out...

I hope it turns out in YOUR favor...

Best of luck to you...

~DomainBELL (Patricia)