A lawyer in Washington DC that pre-emptively registered the domain "ClintonKaine.com" five years ago now hoping for a huge payout following Hillary Clinton announcing her official vice president running mate at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

In 2011, Jeremy Peter Green, now 28, had the feeling that in the lead up to the next US elections, Hillary Clinton would be in favour with the Democratic Party, and that she would choose as her VP running mate one of several senators that Obama had been considering when he made his bid for presidency.

To prepare for this eventually, he decided to buy several domain names – ClintonBiden.com, ClintonBooker.com and ClintonKaine.com, paying $8 (£6) each. And then he waited.

It has taken almost five years, but now Green's patience has been rewarded. Clinton picked Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate on Friday 22 July, which Green suspected since Obama also showed an interest in Kaine before he eventually settled on Joe Biden.

Due to the importance of such a domain name, Green wants to be paid $90,000 to relinquish ownership, according to CNN, and he is starting the bidding on domain auction site Flippa for $25,000.

But in the meantime, if you visit ClintonKaine.com, you will be treated to Green's collection of Harry Potter fan fiction drawings and stories that portray Hillary Clinton as Harry Potter and Donald Trump as Voldemort.

Hillary Potter
Jeremy Peter Green wants $900,000 to surrender the domain name ClintonKaine.com. In the meantime, you can look at Harry Potter-themed fan fiction about Hillary Clinto and Donald Trump Jeremy Peter Green

The world of domain speculation and cybersquatting

Domain speculation is a quirky hobby resulting from the internet revolution that doesn't often make the news, but holds great rewards for those who are willing to gamble and maintain dud, unused domains for years on end, on the off chance that someone might see a value in it and suddenly want to buy it.

Then there's cybersquatting, where someone deliberately registers a domain with the intent to profit from the goodwill being shown to an existing trademark that belongs to someone else, as well as typosquatting, whereby an individual registers variants of a popular trademarks, so that if internet users misspell words when typing in a URL, the URL reverts to the individual's site instead of the trademark owner's site.

Originally, domain speculation was seen as just a bit of fun and a way for the regular everyday Joe to make some cash with not much effort, but it can sometimes have unpleasant consequences for the people involved. For example, back in 2001, Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey fought and lost a landmark court battle in order to own www.kevinspacey.com in the US, and he eventually had to sue through Canada and get the domain arbitrators National Arbitration Forum (NAF) to rule on the matter.

Today, numerous countries now have laws about cybersquatting to prevent people from selling domains at an inflated price, and lawsuits against these individuals are proving successful. Most recently, in January 2015 eBay won a case over 1,153 domain names that were registered in its name, and before that, Microsoft, Dell, Bank of America Merill Lynch have all also had to battle with domain speculators.

Green doesn't think he will get sued as he maintains that he has always had his Harry Potter fan fiction website way before Clinton became the new Democratic nominee for US president. Let's hope the courts see it that way too.