Domain Name Disputes

Your domain name is where customers, search engines, and email expect to find you, and a cybersquatter who registers an infringing domain can divert your traffic, run a scam under your brand's name, or hold the name for ransom. Hank has recovered hundreds of infringing domain names for Fortune 500 companies, celebrities, professional athletes, and other trademark owners, and recovery runs along one of two tracks, an administrative proceeding or a federal lawsuit, depending on how the registrant behaves and what you want back.

Most recoveries start with the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy ("UDRP"), the dispute policy every registrant agrees to when registering a domain name. Hank files complaints with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center with evidence to support the three elements the UDRP requires, that the domain is identical or confusingly similar to your trademark, that the registrant has no legitimate interest in it, and that the registrant registered and uses it in bad faith. A panel decides on the written record, with no live hearing, and orders the domain transferred or cancelled, which recovers the name in weeks rather than the months or years a lawsuit takes.

When a domain registrant hides its identity, cybersquats across multiple domains, or you want to recover monetary damages, the matter often belongs in federal court under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. That statute applies to anyone who registers or traffics in a domain with a bad-faith intent to profit from another's mark. A court can award statutory damages from $1,000 to $100,000 per domain, order the name transferred, and hear an in rem action against the domain itself when the registrant can't be found or served with legal process. Hank also defends the other side of these disputes, the legitimate registrant a brand owner tries to muscle off a domain it has every right to keep, where an overreaching complaint can amount to reverse domain name hijacking.

Hank has handled domain disputes for global brands protecting a trademark, public figures reclaiming their name, and registrants defending a domain they registered legitimately. Every engagement works toward the same result, the right party in control of the name, recovered through whichever forum gets it back fastest and for good.