Bought a dropped domain, what should I do

I bought a dropped domain from a very busy usa contractor that has high value customers. The company name itself with its derivatives get between 5 and 10k a month searches without any of the other keywords its ranking for.

What's the best way to deal with this?

Should I be nice and message them and offer it back for what I paid

Should I sell it at a profit

Should I rebuild the site and collect the orders and contacts etc to sell as leads

Should I sell it to their competitors

I'd love to know people's HONEST feedback, and please no high and mighty people that say to give it back for free when they have done the opposite in the past. I want honest input if possible

Thanks

They may come to you and ask to buy it back. They may try to force you to give it back.

If I could make money with it I would keep it as long as possible.

Domains are domains... they cannot get it back without paying, that simple. Big brands have purchased certain domain for a couple thousand bucks for a reason... This is the tormenting world of domains
As long as you don't use their brand, you can simply rebrand the domain and keep the same business for whatever you like, for example prospects. You could even do a major variation of the name but still relatively recognizable, they won't be able to sue you if you do it right.
And you can always bluff like with a offer of the competence...
I remember this guy that got a expired domain from a church and return it back for free just in exchange of having a link in the front page to his site forever. But trust me they are not going to admit this and in case, they will remove it the sooner than the later if they are a relatively big company
Think that if you did not get that domain, probably other would have got it, and might be trying to make some business from the capture.
Do the best you can.

If the domain is a brand name, they will take it back by force.

@DropshipDave @SirLouen thanks for your input guys, i guess its just the business of domains. I think ill start to build a site ready to connect to it, and see what happens in the mean time. @roby006 do they have any legal right to take it back if i have already bought it, and they have not been competent enough to keep hold of it?

Shropdog said:

@DropshipDave @SirLouen thanks for your input guys, i guess its just the business of domains. I think ill start to build a site ready to connect to it, and see what happens in the mean time. @roby006 do they have any legal right to take it back if i have already bought it, and they have not been competent enough to keep hold of it?

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No, they do not. Only if you want to impersonate their brand.

roby006 said:

If the domain is a brand name, they will take it back by force.

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I think that he suggests that they will send some thugs to your house or something...

sell it back to them, some companies have so many domains they forget to renew them.

Since they're in the USA, they can sue you to get it back. It's happened before where people bought the expired domain for a company and offered it back to them at a huge markup. Instead of paying, the business owner sued on copyright and intellectual property (if memory serves) and the courts sided with the business. In that instance, both were US based. Not sure how it would work if international.

They can not do shit to you for using the domain just stay away from their content, logos, etc. make it a better replica work on that for a month and sell it to anyone for 10x higher.

thanks all, as i am in the UK, and they are in the USA i think they dont have a leg to stand on, i will keep the thread updated when something occurs

Shropdog said:

thanks all, as i am in the UK, and they are in the USA i think they dont have a leg to stand on, i will keep the thread updated when something occurs

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Hey Did anything come of it?

offer it by selling back to them otherwise they will force you to give them back.