Domain Legal Issue

[mneylon]

I cant honestly but I would guess it is being that its providing false information.

It's a breach of the ICANN rules.

If the email address is no longer valid the registrar should be able to grant access to the domain via fax authorisation if you contact them. Of course I'm presuming that some of the domain details include references to the company in question ?

 

[Gavin]

It's a breach of the ICANN rules.

I was thinking that would be the case.

Of course I'm presuming that some of the domain details include references to the company in question ?

Only the mailing address of the whois.

The fax would help but that would be assuming the person's name and billing address is actual correct. If its false then maybe there would be somewhere to report it and hopefully the registrar or ICANN drop the domain. Would that be wishful thinking?

 

[decbohan22]

Whats the best course of action if a U.S. law firm demands a handover of a brand name domain? If it matters, legal documents were received today in the post.

Its a pretty big brand name.

Run for the hills or hand it over?

Just to note, they are not my domains but I'm interested in knowing if they have any jurisdiction over here and has anyone else received one of these?

I received quite a few letters over the years but they are usually just trying to bully you. Never email them as even a polite email will be used againist you should it go furthar.

I have a few 'Waterford' domains that I just laughed at them trying to get me to drop. I did own MensArmani.com and MensArmaniSuits.com and they received quite a lot of hits and the search volume for these terms is very decent but I dropped them as they are a very specific brand and it's obvious that it's their customers that I'd be catching.

ItalianSuits.com and they could whistle

I'd say don't worry about it unless you have a very non-generic name in the domain.

Declan

 

[Tom]

We had the same problem recently. The domain contained a trademark term of a big company and we were pretty sure we'd lose claim to it if it went to court so we just agreed to transfer them over to save hassle and fees. We immediately moved the site to a new domain, re-branded slightly and added trademark disclaimers to the tos. In our situation we did contact the law firm to let them know we would comply and to give us more time to make the change over. We also checked that they did in fact represent the company.

We didn't really consider trademark problems back when we registered the domains but I'll sure be conscious of them in the future to save hassle. Be careful about them wanting you to sign anything as well. At the end of the day you don't have to do anything they ask or demand, but at the same time you probably don't want these things to escalate to a court situation.

 

[Gavin]

I'd say don't worry about it unless you have a very non-generic name in the domain.

Its a very non generic domain name. We've heard nothing since and not particularly worried.