- Images comparison
- Domain name surveillance
- Pharma counterfeiting
- Domain name transfer
- Bank Phishing Scam
- LTU partnership
- IP Summit Brussels
- Combating online fraud
- LegitiName on RTL.lu
- Domain name strategy
- Domain name management
- Domain risk management
- .EU domain name launching
- R&D investments
- .EU domain news
- Communication Switzerland
- Blacklisting prevention
- Are .EU ready?
- Brand phishing
- Tamiflu® and avian flu
- Domain name recovery
- LegitiName Thailand
- Vanksen Group creation
- Domain name fraud warning
- BMW and Google
- Trademarks and sponsored links
- Tamiflu and UDRP
- ADR procedure and .eu
- Brand protection ROI
- E-mail fraud and registrar
- China: keyword registration
- Recover co.uk domain name
- IACC Conference
- Dot-asia registration launch
- Trademarks: .asia calendar
- Buzz monitoring
- Second Life and brand
What are the possible actions for a domain name recovery?
What is your situation?
Several situations exist that motivates the necessity of a domain name recovery.Situation 1: the domain name has not been renewed on time
Your portfolio is not centralized and several persons have registered domain names, with their personal e-mail as contact, for your company. One of these persons is leaving the company, and nobody is aware that “yourcompany.com” is not being taken cared of any more...Then you have the bad surprise to find out that your website has disappeared, your e-mail has stopped working and a person you’ve never heard of is listed as the owner of your domain name! This situation has occurred many times, even to the biggest companies.
Situation 2: You have engaged a lot of money in the finding of a new brand name and you didn’t check if the corresponding “.com” was already taken by a third party.
It is still common in companies to forget about domain name availability when they are thinking about registering a new trademark and promoting their brand online. This error can have harmful consequences when you find out that the corresponding “.com” has already been registered, before the registration of your trademark, and that it is active with a web site competing with your business activity.
Situation 3: Your trademark name is cybersquatted through a ccTLD domain name (country domain name extension)
You did not anticipate the internationalization of your company and your discover, now that it became strategic, that for example “yourtrademark.ru”(Russia) has been registered by a third party that has no legitimate rights to use this trademark.
Situation 4: Your domain name has been hijacked.
You suddenly loose the ownership or management of your domain name because of a fraudulent act that leads to the unauthorized transfer to a third party, or an unauthorized DNS configuration changes that disrupt or damage services operated under a domain name, including web site defacement, mail service disruption, pharming and phishing attacks. The damages can be tremendous, from money extortion to identity theft.
Why are domain names targeted for speculation?
As the number of pertinent possibilities of .com domain names has decreased with time, domain name speculators have adapted to the situation and developed new strategies. They are now re-registering “used” domain names for which there are incoming links from other websites, search engines and directories, which gives them online visibility and traffic. The most important criteria is not necessarily the name itself but most of all the level of traffic behind it. These domain names are used to generate revenues through pay per click (PPC), search engine or affiliate program.This trend has been accelerating in 2005 with an increase of domain name registration aimed at generating revenues through pay per click and typosquatting.
What are the options to get your name back?
It is useless to contact your registrar to claim back your domain name if you forgot to renew it. You could try suing the new registrant, but it will cost you several thousands Euros, a lot of time and sometimes you can even forget it from the beginning, when the registrant is located in Korea or Panama. Two possibilities are left to you: ICANN arbitration or domain purchase. You have first to evaluate the pros and cons of each option before spending time and money into it.ICANN arbitration
If you have a trademark on the domain name to recover, you have a chance of getting it back through ICANN’s “Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy” (UDRP) through the WIPO. Provided your brand is notorious, this arbitration mechanism has proved to be an effective way of regaining control of domain names for many trademark holders. Even if not mandatory, it is highly recommended to get a legal counsel to file a dispute. This procedure is taking around 2 months to get a decision and it is cheaper than suing.
In order to win a UDRP case, you need to bring the proofs for all the three following elements:
- The domain name must be identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which you have rights.
- The current registrant must have no rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name.
- The domain name must be used in bad faith.
The third element is the trickiest one because you have to demonstrate that the registrant has offered to sell the name. Registering a domain name without using it is usually not seen as “bad faith” by most arbitration panels.
Domain name negotiation
Depending on the localization of the registrant, it is recommended to start with trying to negotiate anonymously the domain name. It could give you an idea of the costs of recovery.
If you have a trademark, you can send a “cease and desist” letter to make the registrant know that you have legitimate rights on the domain name. If you get no answer, you would have to evaluate the chances of recovery ever by UDRP or by further negotiation.
Of course you have to ask yourself what is worth the domain name for you! How much is it worth for your business? If you have already spent money on trademark registration, web design, marketing and communication, and if the traffic potential is high, then your domain name is very valuable for the domain speculator.
On average you would have to be ready to put several thousands Euros to get it back.
As an example, a domain name that gets 100 visits per day could potentially generate 10 clicks per day. Knowing that each click through might earn from 0,02 € to 0,8 €, it could generate between 100 € to 300 € per year...
If the domain name you want to recover is not active yet you should consider monitoring it and try to recover it once it is infringing your trademark. When you have to deal with Russian or Chinese registrants it is recommended to employ the services of experienced negotiators and investigate on your chances of recovery beforehand.
