When the wanted name is already taken

A committee settles on a name, types it into a registrar's search box and finds it taken. The instinctive reaction is that something unfair has happened, and it almost never has. Names have been registered continuously for decades, there are far more organisations than there are short memorable words, and a name that seems obvious to one group has seemed obvious to others before it. The useful question is not why it is taken but by whom, and to what end.

Establishing who holds it

Public registration data is the starting point. It will no longer show the name and address of a private individual, since personal details are withheld by default, but it still shows the registrar of record, the creation date, the last update and the expiry date, along with the status of the registration and often an anonymised forwarding address for contact. How to read those records is set out in WHOIS and RDAP.

The creation date alone tells a story. A name registered decades ago and renewed ever since belongs to somebody with a long standing attachment to it. A name created recently, shortly after a group started using the words publicly, suggests something else entirely. An expiry date close at hand is worth noting, though it should not be relied on.

Reading the site that is there

Whatever is published at the address is the best evidence available. There are broadly three cases, and they lead to different conclusions.

An active site belonging to a real organisation means the name is in genuine use. That organisation has as much right to it as anyone, and the name is realistically unavailable at any price. A parking page carrying advertising or a for sale notice means the holder is treating the name as an asset, which makes a purchase plausible and probably expected. And a blank page, a default server message or an error means the name is registered but idle, which is the most common case and the most ambiguous: the holder may have plans, may have forgotten it, or may be sitting on a portfolio.

Historical archives of the address are worth a look too. A name that once carried a business that has since closed often belongs to somebody who no longer thinks about it and will respond to a reasonable message.

The realistic options

Five routes exist, and the first two are the ones most groups take.

The first is to choose a different name. This costs nothing but pride, and it is the correct answer far more often than committees like to admit, particularly when the alternative would be a long negotiation over a name that is merely convenient. The second is to take the same words in a different extension, which is frequently available and reads perfectly well, particularly for a group whose audience is local or whose character suits .org, as discussed on the page about what .org means.

The third is to approach the holder. This works more often than expected with idle names, and it works best when the first message is written carefully, which is a subject in itself. Another is to wait for expiry, and the last is a dispute, which is available only where the group holds trademark rights and the registration was aimed at those rights, as explained in the UDRP explained.

What waiting is actually worth

Waiting for a registration to lapse feels like a free option and rarely is. Names held by anyone attentive are renewed automatically, often years in advance. Names that do lapse pass through a sequence of stages before becoming available, and the moment they are finally released they are frequently caught within seconds by services that monitor deletions. Watching an expiry date is worth doing as a background activity for a name of modest interest. It is not a plan for a name a group intends to print on anything.

An idle name and an available name are not the same thing. Registered and unused is still registered, and the holder is under no obligation to explain or to answer.

Deciding what the name is worth

Before any approach is made, the committee should settle privately on what it is prepared to pay and what it will do if the answer is no. Names held as assets are priced by their holders according to what they believe the name is worth to a buyer, and a buyer who has already announced that nothing else will do has weakened their own position considerably. Deciding the walk away point in advance, in a meeting, protects the group from the momentum that builds once a negotiation starts.

That decision made, the first message can be written with a clear head, and the practical craft of writing one is covered in approaching an owner.