Similar Domain Name Registered by Third Party to Company Address

[HelenT]

Hi
Advice please. Hopefully this is the correct thread for this question.

Our website address is: companyname. com

Someone has registered our company name with a dash: ourcompany-name. com

It is registered and hosted with Network Solutions. The user used our real postal address to register the domain to make it look genuine.

We discovered the owner is sending out emails using the domain pretending to be our company.

Network Solutions say there is nothing they can do about it unless we have a court order. I don't see why we should have to pay to sort this.

Does anyone know if there are rules about using false whois information to register a domain. Surely Network Solutions have a responsibilty?. I contacted Icann and they simply refered me back to Network Solutions :/

[LawResearcherMissy]

Read here, and get an attorney.

Does it suck that it's going to cost you money to get this straightened out? Yup. But it's not NS's fault. They have rules to follow too, including not just wiping a domain name on someone else's say so.

[Conrad Hunter]

This is why domain registration businesses are such a racket and why anyone with a domain name that is at all valuable and consists of two or more words should always get the version with hypens and if possible the .net versions as well. The way around that is to have a domain name root that is a registered trademark. Trademarks can also be registered at the state level and it is more liberal and can be very very useful. Also, most trademarks are not used in interstate commerce and don't qualify for federal registration

In fact, you should immediately register the .net versions and .org if you can afford it. I think all the others are worthless though I have picked up a few .info when they were offered at 99 cents each. You need to build a legal and operational wall around them. Submit them to all the blacklists that block spam at the server level. There are things you can do short of civil actions.

If they are spamming, perhaps you can attack them legally as a spammer in state court. There is lots of info on the internet how to do this. It is complicated by them using your address. However, they have to have a valid and working email address to register and control the domain. You will have to go to court, get some court orders and find out who the email address belongs to.

If you can show that their conduct is a trademark or copyright violation, you can take them to federal court or state court for a state trademark violation.

Even without tracking the email address, if you can get a court order awarding the website to you because of its illegal conduct, your problem is solved. You will have to go through a dance though on service and jurisdiction. It can be done in Florida. All you then have to do is serve the order on the domain registrar and the site is transferred to you. I have done this in federal court a few times. Often the defendant will not even show up or appear by counsel. You then get a default judgment. I doubt your spamming competitors will actually show up in court.

You can register trademarks on the state level and enforce them in state court. Many people are not aware of this and this approach can accomplish many things a federal court is going to take a long time to do, if they will do it at all.

This is not going to happen pro se though. You do need to follow my advice though and protect yourself in every way that you can before things get worse.