I hear it all the time as a domain dispute attorney: Someone stole my domain name. It happens every day, hundreds of times a day. Someone hacks into an email account, which gains access to the domain registrant account with GoDaddy or Network Solutions. All of a sudden, your domain name is lost; someone has stolen your domain name. You’re trying to understand what your options are.
In many instances, these can be extremely serious domain theft matters because your domain name is where your website lives. So, if someone gets control of your domain name as a result of domain name theft, they also can control what is called the DNS, the domain name server, which says what website your domain name is going to point to. So essentially, they can take down your website once they gain control of your stolen domain name.
Welcome to Cybersquatting Law Radio where domain name, cybersquatting, and trademark domain name issues are always the hottest topic of discussion. Whether you are a trademark owner who believes they are a victim of cybersquatting or a domain owner wrongly accused of trademark infringement, you will find all the tips you need to protect your rights right here.
Enrico Schaefer: I hear it all the time as a domain dispute attorney: Someone stole my domain name. It happens every day, hundreds of times a day. Someone hacks into an email account, which gains access to the domain registrant account with GoDaddy or Network Solutions. All of a sudden, your domain name is lost; someone has stolen your domain name. You’re trying to understand what your options are.
In many instances, these can be extremely serious domain theft matters because your domain name is where your website lives. So, if someone gets control of your domain name as a result of domain name theft, they also can control what is called the DNS, the domain name server, which says what website your domain name is going to point to. So essentially, they can take down your website once they gain control of your stolen domain name.
Let’s take a look at this from a legal point of view. If someone has stolen your domain name, you need to immediately contact an attorney to understand what your options are. If the person who stole your domain name is an ex-partner or an employee or a disgruntled web developer and you know who it is who has control of your stolen domain name, then you’re in a pretty good position because then a cybersquatting and domain theft attorney can help you understand how to gain the leverage against that person to get control of the domain name back.
If a hacker steals your domain name, hacks into your registrant account, gains control and you don’t know who it is that’s engaged in domain theft, then you’ve got a much more challenging proposition. They may or may not change the domain WHOIS information in the backend of the system. Even if they do change the domain WHOIS information, they might provide false WHOIS information or use a domain name proxy service to hide their identity. In those instances, the first thing a domain dispute attorney is going to do is understand what trademark rights you may have in the domain name.
So, let’s take a look at that narrow issue because that’s where you’re going to find a lot of the leverage to recover a stolen domain name. It’s in your trademark rights. If you have the exclusive right to use your domain name because it is also your company name, your brand name, the name of your product or service, then that is going to be added leverage under cybersquatting law.
What I mean by that is, that if your company name is the domain name and the person who has stolen your domain name re-points the website to some other commercial service, to some other commercial website, or tries to compel you to buy the domain name back from them, they essentially extort a purchase price to say you can have your domain name back if you pay X.
Then, you’re going to have to take a look at cybersquatting law principles and your attorney is going to take a look at it and say, “OK, if you have trademark rights and they’re using the domain name adverse to those trademark rights, then you can use the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act as leverage, which provides up to $100,000 in statutory damages plus attorney’s fees against the person who stole your domain name. You might be able to use the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, or UDRP, as added leverage.
Now, the best thing, of course, is to prevent domain theft in the first instance. Protecting your domain name assets is critical. If you’re doing business off of the Internet, if your website is generating revenue, you need to treat that domain name with the respect it deserves. You need to protect it the same way you protect your most valuable assets as a company.
There are lots of ways to do that. Number one, you need to control the registrant account with the domain name registrar so that only you or select people have access to the account. You need to change the password regularly to that account. You need to use a domain registration service that is going to provide you added layers of security. Some services, such as Moniker, won’t make a significant change to your domain name absent a phone call first, so they won’t transfer your domain out of Moniker or take other adverse actions unless they actually call the designated person by phone.
So, you want to prevent domain theft and stolen domain names from occurring to you and your company. But if it does happen to you and your domain name is stolen, contact a domain dispute attorney right away. The more time that goes by, the worse your situation is going to be.
My name is domain dispute attorney, Enrico Schaefer. Have a great day.
You’ve been listening to Cybersquatting Law Radio. Whether you are filing or defending a claim of cybersquatting under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) or Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), we have a cybersquatting and domain dispute attorney ready to answer your questions.
