The Drama Of Domain Names
Every CEO and small business owner has a lot on his or her plate. And with so much changing in the web world, most executives are more likely to delegate in this area than any other. But there are some fundamental issues about domain name registrations that every business owner needs to understand so they don’t find themselves blind-sided down the road.
What To Do
First and foremost, you should know that a domain name is tech lingo for your website address. For example, the Worcester Business Journal’s domain name is WBJournal.com. Secondly, you should know how your domain name is registered and who the contact people are for that domain name.
It’s important to note that domain name registrations typically last for a limited period of time and then come up for renewal. Sometimes that period is one year, sometimes it’s longer. But if you don’t renew in time, you could lose ownership of that domain to a competitor. And that can be devastating. Just imagine. What if the brainiacs at Google failed to renew their domain name and Microsoft was able to snatch it up? We would all be Bing-ing, not Googling, in pretty short order.
So, now that we’ve covered the basics, we can talk about the nuance, namely who registers the domain and who receives the renewal notices.
During the registration process (with companies like Go Daddy or Network Solutions), you provide several different contacts, including administrative and technical.
The trouble can come in if an employee, no matter how well-intentioned, registers the domain in his or her name alone. That scenario is all good if the employee sticks around. But if that employee leaves, and the knowledge of the registration information goes with him, the business could be in jeopardy, according to Jim Donnelly, a partner at the Worcester-based law firm Mirick O’Connell.
In that situation, the employer has to go back to the ex-employee and carefully negotiate getting the information on the registration (which includes password access to the online registration records). If that employee left in a huff, that can be a very awkward, and potentially costly, conversation.
“That’s why it makes sense to pay attention to the early stages,” Donnelly said. “And that means not only getting early registration, but also making sure they are set up in such a way that you won’t lose it just because an employee retires or moves away.”
Michele Young, a partner with the Worcester-based law firm of Bowditch & Dewey, recommended that business owners make sure the e-mails about domain renewals go to several different people, that way if one person leaves, there’s always someone else kept in the loop. For example, it’s a good practice to use a generic e-mail address for domain registrations (ex. info@company.com) and have messages sent to that account directed at multiple people within an organization.
Young said she’s handled cases where an employee did walk away with important domain registration information.
“The best resolution is to contact the person and encourage them to do the right thing,” she said. “Beyond that, you might end up in court looking for an injunction, which might not be resolved right away.”
If the prospect of an employee who has the keys to your online kingdom leaving scares you, consider what might happen if that individual dies. Imagine the awkward phone call to the widow as you try to explain why you need access to their e-mail accounts to search for domain renewal notices and passwords.
While the rules are not always caught up to the technology, Go Daddy (which has 40 million domain names in its portfolio) does have policies in place for such cases.
Camille Ede, director for Go Daddy domain services, said the first step is to contact the site registration company’s domain services bureau by e-mailing change@godaddy.com. Then, there’s a form to fill out and various documentation that’s required (including a death certificate and a copy of the business license). Understandably, there are a lot of hoops to jump through, and Ede acknowledges keeping up with the complexities of domain registrations is a challenge.
“Currently, creating and implementing procedures and guidelines to handle such requests is fairly new,” Ede said. "As the Internet business grows, requests to obtain domain names and related services from deceased customers will become more frequent.”
Another important issue to consider is what domain names to register. Back in the early Internet ages, it was enough to register one domain. But now experts like Donnelly and Young say every business should register a family of domains, including common misspellings or the names of brands within your business.
And while there’s a cost associated with each of those domains, Donnelly said that in the long run it’s well worth it.
“It costs money to register extra domain names, but that can be small fraction of the cost of dealing with the problem if somebody else has come in and registered one that is so close to your name that there’s confusion,” he said.
Style Note
I want to take a moment to acknowledge a small change in style here at the WBJ. No longer will you see website written as two words in our pages. We've decided to follow the lead of the Associated Press, which issued a edict that it's now okay for journalists to write website as one word.
Got news for our Digital Diva column? E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com
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