Friday 24 February 2023

New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?

Ask HN: How to prevent a company from taking my domain name?
17 by lname_dot_com | 5 comments on Hacker News.
I have bought a 5 letter COM domain name that I'll call lname.com, which matches my last name. It has no meaning in English. I'm from a poor country and I spent like a year or so to save up for it, which cost roughly 6 months of average net salaries in my country about 7 years ago. I was in my early 20s and one could argue, that it was not the wisest decion of a young adult, but I don't regret it honestly. It always felt like I have a small piece of the web realestate which has my name labeled on it and I absolutely love my fname@lname.com email address. I created an address for my wife, father, mother, brother and his wife in the same way which they are using daily and are proud of. I was very stressed for any domain or registrar errors that might cause that I lose the domain name and I still am very afraid of it. I have however read quite a few "horror stories" in the past years, regarding bigger companies which were able to obtain people's personal or business domain names, just because they are huge companies with extensive finances and good lawyers. I already know of two companies in different countries which have the very same name as I occasionally receive emails written to them on my catch-all email address. For now the domain is used to host our personal sites, but I recently started working as a web developer and may do freelance work or even create a startup or company in the future. I don't know what this domain will be used for, but I can't say that it will always be for personal use. Maybe it will be the same industry as other companies with the same name. Maybe not. I know a domain name can't be patented. Trademarking is possible, but there are a lot of requirements. What do experts propose? TLDR: What can I do to secure my domain name, no matter what happens?

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