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Hi guys, I was wondering if you may be able to give me some advice on what to do with a valuable domain I own. For privacy reasons, I really don’t want to list the domain(s) in question so I will refer to them as ‘CompanyX.com’ and ‘CompanyX.co.uk’.

For the past 12 months, I have been running the website ‘CompanyX.com’. I also have a registered trademark in a specific internet field for the use of the name ‘CompanyX.com’.

6 months ago, I realized that there was a large publicly listed company in the U.K that used the domain ‘CompanyX.co.uk’. This particular company is an old fashion brick and mortar company that has been around for over 50 years. Now this company isn’t just big, it’s huge. I was shocked to find they have assets of over 5 billion dollars USD and last year alone made nearly a billion dollars in profit. They also have a very fancy website which makes me think they are concerned with their online image.

So over the past few months, I have considered selling my ‘CompanyX.com’ domain name to them, for a hefty price. However, now I’ve just started reading about these Cyber squatting laws against people demanding huge amounts from big companies for their domain names. While I did not purchase my domain name or use it in bad faith what so ever, I am now concerned that it could be seen as cyber squatting if it was reported to the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.)

One website I visited even said that one of the easiest ways a big company will ‘win’ against a cyber squatters is if that cyber squatter makes first contact with the large trademark holding company and offers to sell it for an inflated price. Does anyone know if this would apply in my circumstances if I have run a legitimate website and own a trademark for the name ‘CompanyX’?

Secondly, if I choose to send an offer to ‘CompanyX.co.uk’, the big question that keeps going through my mind is how much do I ask for? I’ve done a bit of reading on previous domain name sales and there doesn’t seem to be much consistency. It just seems to be whatever they’re prepared to pay, which could be anything…

I would really love some feedback, even if you are unsure. Considering it is a multi-billion dollar publicly listed company….how much should I set as my asking price?

$20,000?
$50,000?
$100,000?
$500,000?

I would appreciate as many opinions as possible. Thanks to all who reply!