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A domain name or URL is the address that you enter into the browser bar in the format of www.yourbusinessname.co.nz.

Its also a key piece of intellectual property for any business or organisation. This is amplified when the company has spent a considerable amount of time and money working on their online brand already, regardless of the success they have had to date.

Recently, Passionfruit has been dealing with a couple of other New Zealand web companies for existing clients, who are being very stubborn giving over transfer details for domain names that the our clients hold. This is further complicated by the fact that Passionfruit has no direct authorisation to make change requests for the domain, so the client has to spend time chasing up complex internet related technical details. Of course we’re assisting in this process, writing emails for the client to send to their old web company, and advising each step of the way, but this is time consuming and less than ideal.

It’s raised the question -

do you own your domain, or does the company who registered the domain own it?

How your domain should be registered

It’s perfectly acceptable for a company who is operating on your behalf to register a domain name for you. But what you may not know is that there are three contacts on the registration of which you should be one:

• Registrant Contact
• Admin Contact
• Technical Contact

Your name, or business name should be listed as the Admin Contact, while the third party registering the domain, should fill the other two contact positions.

As a rule at Passionfruit we ensure that all domains registered on behalf of our clients automatically have our Clients details as the Admin Contact. Because we believe that the way to keep clients coming back, is to provide them with great service and exceptional quality work, rather than muscling in on their intellectual property.

If you’re not sure you can check who the owners are using this simple search tool: http://who.is/. If you find that you aren’t listed as the Admin Contact, this should be able to be solved with a simple email, as all registrants have the ability to make changes to the Admin and Technical contact.

To whom it may concern

I noticed via a whois search that my company is not listed as the administrative contact for our domain name  www.yourdomain.co.nz. As the registrant could you please alter this on our behalf with the following details:

admin_contact_name: Insert Your Name Here
admin_contact_address1: Insert Your Address Here
admin_contact_city: Insert Your City Here
admin_contact_postalcode: Insert Your Postal Code Here
admin_contact_country: NZ (NEW ZEALAND)
admin_contact_phone: Insert Your Phone Number Here
admin_contact_email: Insert Your Email Here

Kind regards

If the company you are dealing with drags their feet or makes this process difficult, it’s highly likely they’re less than reputable, and it may be a good indication that you need to look elsewhere. Feel free to contact us if you wish for any assistance in this area.

Hero article image by El Bichólogo Errante (Busy again!)