For the past eight months, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd has engaged a GoDaddy Broker and Belinda Breakspear from McCullough Robertson to try and acquire the short, premium, generic domain name Hancock.com.au from a client of DBR (Domain Brokers).
According to Wikipedia, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd is an Australian-owned mining and agricultural business run by Executive Chairwoman Gina Rinehart and CEO Garry Korte. At various stages of its trading history, the company has been known as Hancock Prospecting Ltd, Hancock Resources Ltd, Hanwright Pty Ltd, Hancock & Wright Ltd, and Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd.
Hancock Prospecting, owned by Gina Rinehart, is Australia’s most valuable private company, with recent reports placing its worth around AU$15.8 billion and assets over $40 billion, driven mainly by its massive iron ore operations like Roy Hill, earning billions in profit and dividends annually from vast resources, cash, and strategic investments in future metals and tech.
Yet, they don’t seem to have any budget to make a reasonable and legitimate offer to buy a premium generic domain name?
After receiving a few low-ball five-figure offers for the domain name, which we rejected on behalf of our client, Belinda Breakspear has recently sent us the following threat of an auDRP WIPO Complaint:
“As a result of Your Client’s limited engagement with Our Client’s offers, Our Client has instructed us to prepare and file a .auDRP domain name complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and to vigorously pursue the transfer of the Domain Name to Our Client”
We responded to Belinda that should she move forward in filing an auDRP WIPO Complaint, she would be guaranteed to lose and probably found guilty of REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING.
Story developing… Keep an eye on Assets.com.au and sign up to the email alerts for future progress…
Yes, unfortunately this is still something we encounter on a very regular basis.
Large companies trying to take domain names that don’t belong to them from smaller businesses or individuals.
Not something that sits well with us in any shape or form.
Watch this space! 👍
I’ve had that done to me a couple of times over the years, and both times they failed. I guess if they feel it’s a lost cause, they may as well have a crack.
Either way, you won’t need much luck to win that battle. 🙂