Domain drop catching or domain sniping is the practice of registering a domain name after registration ends immediately after it expires. When a domain is first registered, the customer typically has the option to register the domain for a year or more, with auto-renewal as a possible option. Although some domain managers often make multiple attempts to notify a registrant of the impending expiration of a domain name, a failure by the original registrant to provide the domain registrar with accurate contact information makes it possible for an unintentional registry lapse. Practices also vary and registrars are not required to notify customers of the impending expiration. Unless the original registrant has a trademark or other legal right to the name, they generally run out of any form of recourse to get their domain name back. It is the responsibility of registrants to be proactive in managing their name records and to be good administrators of their domain names. By law, there are no perpetual rights to domain names after payment of registration fees has expired, except for trademark rights guaranteed by law or statute.
Also read How to Buy the Expired Domain Names.
Redemption Grace Period (RGP)
The Redemption Grace Period is an addition to ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) that allows a registrant to retrieve their domain name for a few days after its expiration. This period varies by TLD and is usually about 30 to 90 days. Before ICANN implemented RGP, individuals could easily appropriate a domain to extort money from the original registrant in exchange for the back ordering of the domain name.
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After the period between the domain expiration date and the start of RGP, the domain status changes to “redemption period” during which the owner may be required to pay a fee (typically around $100) to reactivate and reactivate – register the domain. ICANN RAA requires registrars to delete domain records as soon as a second warning is given and RGP expires. At the end of the 5-day “pending deletion” phase, the domain will be removed from the ICANN database.
Domain Collection Services
For particularly popular domain names, there are often multiple parties anticipating expiration. Competition for expired domain names has since become the competence of domain collection services. These services provide the dedication of your servers to protect a domain name according to its availability, usually at an auction price. Individuals with their limited resources find it difficult to compete with these collection companies for highly desirable domain names.
Retail registrars, such as GoDaddy or eNom, retain names for auction through services such as TDNAM or Snapnames through a practice known as domain storage. Domain collection services are performed by both ICANN-accredited registrars and unaccredited registrars.
Future of Domains
Some registry operators offer a service whereby a pending request can be placed in a domain name.
If a domain name must return to the open market, the owner of the pending request will have the first opportunity to acquire the domain name before the name is deleted and is open to a free-for-all. In this way, pending orders often take precedence over domain collections.
There may be a fee for the order waiting for itself, often only one order on hold can be made by domain name and another purchase or renewal fee may apply if the standby order is successful.
Pending requests typically expire in the same way as domain names, so they are purchased for a specific number of years.
Different operators have different rules. In some cases, pending orders can only be placed at certain times, for example, after the domain name has expired, but before it has returned to the open market (see Redemption grace period). In the commodity market, an overdue order is often more like an “option” than a “future” as there is often no obligation for the new registrant to receive the name, even after it has been delivered to the owner of the back-order. For example, some records give the new registrant 30 days to purchase a renewal of the name before it is returned to the open market.
