Your contact info is updated when you sell a domain — Make sure

If you don’t, you could be on the receiving end of a UDRP.

Mike Mann just lost a UDRP. That’s what the record will show, anyway.

But he actually sold the domain in the UDRP, WashingtonJournal.com, for $75,000 earlier this year. The fresh owner didn’t update the Whois record. C-SPAN filed a complaint against the domain name. The fresh owner told the National Arbitration Forum that he was the correct owner of the domain, but the Forum decision also lists Mann.

The decision states that “when using GoDaddy’s account change process (discussed above), Mann could have chosen to have his contact information changed during the transfer to Rivero”.

I’m not sure if the panel came up with this on its own, but it doesn’t apply to this particular case. Mann transferred the domain from Enom to GoDaddy as part of the apparent sale. Only internal transfers at GoDaddy include this option.

Also, it appears the buyer added GoDaddy’s Whois proxy service following buying the domain, so Mann probably didn’t know the information wasn’t updated.

But the panel’s mention of GoDaddy’s transfer option is also a good reminder. If you have a domain at GoDaddy and sell it, be sure to check the box that states you want the Whois record to be updated to reflect the fresh owner.