Domain Name Ownership Liability
I have a couple domain names that I purchased personally. I have since created an LLC and would like to utilize these domain names for products created under the LLC. So my questions are:
Do I need to formally transfer the domain name ownership to the LLC?
Is this even possible?
Can I be held personally liable for site content/usage in the event of dissatisfied customers?
4 Answers
Yes, you need to formally transfer it.
It is possible by selling the website name to the LLC. Basically, you draft a sale agreement and transfer ownership to the LLC. It's a simple sales contract that you can get from http://www.nolo.com for example.
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Why yes? What if he doesn't? – Joseph Turian 14 years ago
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IF he wants the protection of the LLC, he has to have the LLC own the website. If he owns it, then he will be liable for any issues related to the website. – Jarie Bolander 14 years ago
From my understanding after talking to multiple lawyers about this, you can transfer the domain(s) to your LLC as a capital contribution. You will need to track it as a capital contribution for liability protection and accounting purposes. It would be best to have a separate account on your registrar for your LLC so you can easily tell the distinction between domains that you have contributed to your LLC and domains that you hold personally.
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To add to this, you need a formal document showing the transfer of ownership and will need to sign it as yourself (personally) and as a member of the LLC. – Bryan 12 years ago
I would transfer to the LLC. It is depends on your domain provider on how easy they make it to transfer domains. For GoDaddy it's pretty simple and straight forward.
IANAL (and you should have one) but for the site you'll probably want to have privacy and terms of use statements (that you actually follow) and avoid providing knowingly false information and you should probably personally be protected.
If you prefer to maintain personal ownership you could also just lease the domain to the LLC.
But if you intent to sell the LLC some day and your brand is a key value, then having it in the LLC is critical. If you go this route, be sure to tell your CPA the sale price as he will likely treat it as an appreciating asset (since they often go up in value) and needs to establish a basis.
