Knowledgebase

Domain Name Disputes

What is a Dispute?

A domain name dispute is where 2 or more parties claim the right to own and operate a domain name.

Domain names are supplied on a first come, first served basis

In the main, domain name registration is on a first come first serve basis.  Simply because you have a registered trade or service mark, have a registered company name, or have been using a trade name for a lengthy period of time does not mean that another person with a legitimate reason for registering the domain and who uses it in good faith must give it up.

Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting is where a registrant having registered a name, or names in order to gain some commercial advantage, such as trying to sell it to a party it knows would be interested in having registration of that domain name. The price wanted by cybersquatters is invariably inflated, and/or they may use the domain to direct traffic to their website or the website of a trade competitor of the trade mark holder in return for payment of a commission. There are many legal precendents in cases involving cybersquatting, and a claimants case is usually fairly easily proven, however you will have to take legal action against the cybersquatter in order to rightfully gain the domain name.

In most dispute cases, you should initially attempt to resolve the issue directly with the registrant of the domain name, but where that isn't practical, or contact has failed, you will have to open dispute proceedings with the registry concerned.

Dispute Resolution

When a person registers gTLD the Uniform Dispute for Domain Names Resolution Policy (UDRP) is automatically incorporated into the registration agreement. Some country code top level domains (ccTLDs) such as .mx (Mexico) and .ro (Romania) have also opted into the UDRP. Complaints can be filed with one of four of bodies, the largest of which is WIPO. Countries not using ICANN's UDRP may use a different form of dispute resolution, e.g. Nominet for .uk domain names.  The processes for these will depend on the rules of that country's registry; however they are often similar to the ICANN procedure.  If no dispute resolution procedure exists you may have to issue court proceedings.

UK Domain Name DRS

Nominet, the UK registry have a DRS process that can be used to resolve domain name disputes registered in the .uk domain space, please visit the Nominet DRS page for more information.

ICANN (US) DRS

Under ICANN (the US registry) rules we do not, and cannot act as arbtrators to resolve the dispute, that has to be a legal process, and entitlement has to be legally proven in favour of the claimant, after which we can act on that resolution by changing the registrant information, and transferring the domain into the claimants account on our system. A fee £40 to cover administrative costs is payable to make such changes.

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