Can anyone advise me? For the last 5 years I have run a website for a very small company. I've taken no payment, only expenses for telephone charges etc - its been a hobby more than anything else. The site was registered to myself, I have the passwords, I pay for the domain name upkeep - it was always a "joke" between myself and the company owner that if ever a multi-million pound company took us over it was my insurance! Its been an arrangement we were both happy over and still am.

6 months ago he sold the company to a multi-million pound organisation.

The new firm are retaining the old company name - it has a 200 year history which won't be changed. The new owner has JUST found out that he doesnt own the website domain names (I have .co.uk and .com). He's rung me and told me what plans he's got for the website and I've to send him the passwords and any relevant paperwork. To be honestI felt like this was someone demanding my consent to abuse my children!! I got irritated by his jackboot style of negotiation, and put the phone down on him.

Can anyone give me any advice - where do I stand legally? Do I have to let him have the domain names, because he owns the company now? Help!!

Unless there is anything written down and signed by you to state that the website belongs in any way to the company, and it sounds like there isn't, then the website is yours and just happens to have the name of the company. Correct me if I'm wrong.

In my opinion, there could be legal issues if the domain name is something like "company name".com or "brand name".com. If that is so then the company in question would have a pretty good case for taking ownership, regardless of who registered and owns the domain.

I can't see him being able to take possession of your domain names just because he ownes a company that matches it. If that were the case then I could start a company called "webmaster talk limited" and demand that the site domain was handed over to me!

I would say that you cannot continue (and I doubt you want) to run the site as before because you are now impersoanting his company but if he wants the specific domain name and its associated PR, and traffic then he should pay for it!

In my opinion you would be classed as a service provider for the previous company and so you would own the site and provide the service, regardless of how much you got paid. This means that if he rejects your offer for service he could buy the site off you.

I don't know whether you could post this thread on a business forum for some more qualified advice, maybe someone like www.startups.co.uk could provide some advice..

Good luck with it.

MattD

I suggest getting the past owner involved with this since he/she can provide the details of your "ownership" to the new owner of the company. That way you may be able to negotiate a deal (in a peaceful way) with the new owner.

Good luck with gettting this resolved in a great way!

Dave