Leasing Domain Names

Hey Guys,

Have any of you ever heard of leasing domain names out for a certain period of time?

I was approached by someone who wants to lease my domain Gay4Pay.com for 5 years! Whats slightly weird is that he is offering a reasonable amount monthly and could quite easily buy the domain from me over a two year period at that rate. However he just wants to lease it?

Does this sound fishy? I mean he'll lose whatever traffic he has built up during that period at 5yrs and it will revert to me.

So, my question is ... "Where's the catch?"

Why not just buy it out right?

I remember these sorts of deals being quite common back around '99-2000 when some not-so-amazing domain names were fetching obscene prices, but like you, I've personally never seen the sense in promoting a brand and online identity that will eventually belong to somebody else.

The only issue I'd have is whether the guy would try to do something with trademark, registering the trademark, arguing that he'd used it in commerce for x years, and then trying to argue that you don't have rights to the name. I suppose if you had an attorney draft a short-and-sweet agreement in which he stipulates that you own the trade name or service mark associated with that domain name for any and all uses on the web, and that he is merely leasing the name and right to use it and not acquiring any trademark rights, that would probably be pretty bulletproof, but IANAL.

whenever i've seen leased domains, it's because the domain owner wouldn't agree to sell. if he's paying his lease by the month, it's probably because he can't afford to buy the domain outright.

Does the name get type in traffic now? Seems like a no brainer on your end to lease it to him. You still control the domain but point it to his DNS. If he stops paying then well you take it back