cybersquatting

20 Advices to Secure your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide (5/5)

18
Jul
domain name extensions

This is the last part of our Cybersquatting Guide in which you will read some very useful advices about securing your domain name and avoid the nightmare of seeing your domain name stolen one day. We strongly advise you to also read the previous parts of our guide:

The best way to protect your domain name from cybersquatting is to be very careful from the day you are registering your domain name. Your domain name is your first and most important digital asset and as a consequence you should be very precautious about the registration process.

Secure your Domain Name:

  1. Carefully select the right accredited registrar and take care of the registration by yourself.
  2. DO NOT let a third party agent handle it for you even for free. Your domain name is your first and most valuable digital asset; it is not worthy to take any risk with it.
  3. Register all your websites from the same trusted registrar company accredited from ICANN or the sub branch of ICANN operating in your country. This will help you to not forget to register one domain name bought months ago.
  4. If you are not sure about a registrar company but they have some nice offers, don’t hesitate to search on the popular domain name forums (namepros.com, domainstate.com, and dnforum.com) to see if they are trustable
  5. Use as soon as possible the DOMAIN LOCK option if your registrar offers it. If they do not offer this, do not buy your domain name from them and look for a registrar which has it.
  6. Keep your own WHOIS information always up to date; be particularly careful with your email address as it can lead to a thief taking control of your domain. An invalid address or phone number can be reported by anyone to ICANN and your registrar which may cancel your domain registration.
  7. Some registrars hide a fee in their "Terms and Conditions", which allows them to charge you if you want to transfer your domain names to a new registrar. Avoid registrars with any transfer fees. Also you must be able to make changes to your personal information whenever you want
  8. Be particularly careful with offers from hosting companies that offer special package with a free domain name included. You never know what the conditions behind this are.
  9. If your website is managed by an independent webmaster, be sure that even if he has registered the domain name for you then he gives you the account login & password.
  10. When you notice the expiration date is getting closer DO NOT wait just because you think you still have time. The next time you notice something about your domain name it may be the email sent by the speculator.
  11. Setup a remember option or a warning message in the settings of the registrar administration desk so that you will receive a message few weeks before your domain expires.
  12. Renew your domain name for a period of at least two years, five years is even better.
  13. You should purchase several domain name extension such as .biz, .net in order to protect your domain name so if someone uses the wrong extension, they will still find your company and it will prevent people from registering similar domain name.
  14. If a registrar is offering you a discount in the case of a multiple year registration, be sure then the job is done. Most of the time the registrar will only book your domain name for one year, keep your money in their bank account and only pay the next year one week before the expiration date. This is a risky situation as: they may forget to renew your domain name and if the company goes bankruptcy you will lose your money for the upcoming years and your domain name.
  15. When you register a domain name a ‘Whois’ record is created which contains all your personal information: address, phone number, email address,… check that the registrar did its job by writing down your personal information.
  16. Always use the “Privacy Option” if the registrar offers it, this will protect your personal information to be seen if someone is doing a “WHOIS” on your domain name. This will stop possible spammer to find your email address then send you junk email and this will also stops speculator trying to steal your domain name and identity…
  17. But be careful, as registrars may use their Privacy Service to steal your domain as they will change the official record with their own details which is then submitted to the global WHOIS database. This operation makes the registrar the owner of YOUR domain name.
  18. Register the domain name in the correct global or country level domain. For a global audience use a .com, .org, or .net domain. In the case you are only focusing on your regional market then use the regional sub domain, such as .co.uk, … Some search engines will only consider country-specific domains if the request is made with a local tag.
  19. Buy several domain names with a close typography to your main domain, so you won’t lose any traffic if a competitor or a scammer wants to buy a domain name close to your original one.
  20. And last but not least, choose a relevant domain name to your industry or brand’s name in regard with the SEO requirements.

 

We hope you have enjoyed reading and learning some advices about the cybersquatting environment and the different ways to defend yourself and your domain name against cybersquatters. If you still have some questions or remarks, you are much welcomed to let us know in the comments.

How to Recover Your Domain Name in Court - Cybersquatting Guide (4/5)

12
Jul
Court Procedure

This is the fourth part of our guide dedicated to Cybersquatting, if you have missed the other parts you can read them:

You have tried the first two solutions and none of them were successful, in this case the last remaining solution is to bring your case to the court. The process is much more difficult than for the previous ones and you may be surprised with the results.

In this guide we only focus on the solution that exists for customers dealing in China.

1. Which Court Jurisdiction Will Be Chosen?

1.1 Between Chinese Companies

The first issue to solve is the choice of the court jurisdiction; if the new owner is in the same country as yours then you can choose between your local city jurisdiction and him. In case the two parties are bound with a contractual statement, it is very likely that the choice of the court has been clarified through an agreement in advance known as a choice of law agreement.

In China, In the context of the Internet and IP cases the general rules which have emerged (especially in the copyright area) based on existing laws and cases are that jurisdiction will be found at the place where:

  • The defendant is domiciled or the Hukou will be used if a Chinese person in involved
  • The equipment (such as the server or computer terminal) by which the tortuous acts is committed, is located; or
  • In domestic cases, if the previous two are unidentifiable or difficult to determine, the equipment (such as computer terminal) by which the plaintiff finds the infringement, is located.
  • The primary place of business for a legal person or where the company is registered

In a situation in which the activities extend beyond the boundaries of any one state and where potentially conflicting laws could may appeared, the court needs to determine which law has to be chosen. The rules used by the court to choose the one to apply are known as the choice of law rules.

If the situation involves foreign elements (Shewai cases) then the foreign law may be applicable under certain conditions within China.  While dealing with claims for damages, the law of the place where an infringing act is committed must be chosen.

1.2 Shewai Cases - Cases Involving Foreign Parties

Under the Chinese law, a set of provisions are applicable to civil proceedings involving foreign elements, Shewai cases, within the territory of China. Shewai cases refer to cases where:

  1. One or more parties involved are a foreign natural or legal person or organization; or
  2. The legal relationship between the parties establishes, changes, suspends or occurs outside the territory of China; or
  3. The place of the object of litigation is based outside mainland China.

If the defendant has a representative entity within China, the case would be under the jurisdiction of the Chinese court where the property is located, where the company is registered or where the tort happens.

Local Parties: In most of the cases involving only local parties, it appears that the place of the equipment (computer or server) by which the plaintiff finds the infringement will only be a part of the procedure in cases where it is hard to determine exactly the domicile of the defendant or the location where the equipment (server or computer) in which the act committed is located.

Foreign elements: In most of the cases which only include foreign elements, it appears that the place of the equipment by which the plaintiff finds the infringement will be the primary fact to be taken into consideration for the choice of jurisdiction in order to allow the Chinese courts to proceed.

An involved party may apply to a Chinese intermediary court for the enforcement of a judgment made by a foreign court provided the Chinese court has jurisdiction. Moreover, under international treaties in which China is a signatory party or the principle of reciprocity, a Chinese court may enforce foreign judgments upon the request of a foreign court.

2. Domain Name Court Procedure: Advantages

  • While with the UDRP you cannot ask for damages and any compensation resulting of the bad use of your domain names, under the court procedure you may receive a financial compensation.
  • You can use the UDRP procedure and even if you have been granted the use of your domain name, you can later go to court and claim financial compensation and present the result of the UDRP as evidence in a court case.
  • If the loss of your domain name is a matter of time, you can directly seek an urgent injunction from the court, which may be given in few days but in this case the costs will increase very quickly.
  • Contrary to the UDRP procedure, which can only be used if you have the rights on a domain name, court action can be started on other fields such as intellectual property rights, trademarks, copyrights, …

3. Domain Name Court Procedure: Disadvantages

  • The procedure takes, very often, a lot of time and will probably need several procedures and interventions in order to establish the final decision.
  • It’s much more costly than the URDP process and the situation is highly uncertain.
  • Before starting any international dispute, do not be surprised if the defendant (if you are the claimant) would present arguments to the court explaining why it should not hear the case.
  • In the same manner, the defendant can claims that you have chosen the wrong court jurisdiction and while interpreting the law propose a new court jurisdiction.
  • It may be difficult or even impossible to enforce judgment, particularly against individuals or companies based outside of China.

 

Be sure to read th last part of our cybersquatting guide as you will learn some useful tips and advices to avoid troubles with your domain name: 20 Advices to Secure your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide (5/5)

How to Negotiate your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide (3/5)

6
Jul
Domain Name Negotiation

The third part of our Cybersquatting Guide explains the tips that you need to know in order to successfully negotiate with the speculator. If you don't have read the other parts, we strongly advise you to read them here:

How to Negotiate your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide

If you are not comfortable with the UDRP procedure, you can still contact the current registrant and start to discuss about the price of “your” domain name. Before you contact them, you should think about the real value of your brand’s name and the amount that you are willing to spend to take it back.

1. Is the Domain Name Valuable for You?

  • Will the loss of your domain name impact your business?
  • Will you lose money if you don’t have the domain name?
  • Is the domain name a part of your digital strategy?
  • Could you change your domain name without affecting your Brand's name ?
  • Is your brand already known and well established ?

You need to answer the questions if you really want to know if it’s worthy or not to invest some time and money to take back your domain name. if you think you the loss of your domain name won't affect you, then do not waste time to take it back and look for a new one.

 

2. What is your Domain Name Worth to the Speculator?

Someone has taken your domain name and there are some reasons behind this situation. For the new owner of “your” domain name, the main goal is to earn a pretty nice amount of money by displaying advertising on of the website and also by selling the domain name.

To establish the value of the domain name the speculator will take in consideration two things:

  • The first one is your domain name value, if you have a domain name which includes some very expensive keywords in a given market or if you brand is very well known then don’t be surprised if the speculator ask a huge amount.
  • The second thing to take in consideration is the remuneration he gets with either advertising with a PPC or PPM campaign or affiliate program. In this situation, you need to establish the monthly traffic and as it is your website few days or weeks ago, it mustn’t be difficult to establish an accurate estimation.

 

3. What is the Goal of the “Owner” of my Website?

Well, obviously the new owner wants to make money from it and if it’s possible he want to make a deal very fast. Of course, selling the domain name to one buyer is one of his goals but selling your old domain to you is its main goal!

As most of them, do not want to keep the domain name for years while earnings few hundred dollars with the advertising campaign, they will try to get in touch with you as fast as possible to close the deal.

 

4. How to Lower the Price of the Deal?

Like any transaction, you will need to negotiate with the vendor but in order to have a relatively good price; you need to follow the following advices:

1. This situation is exactly a brinkmanship game, it means that if the deal happens both parties will gain mutually from it but if the deal doesn’t happen then both parties will lose. Knowing this will help you to understand the vendor's strategy.

2. If you are not comfortable with this deal, especially because you feel that he has stolen your domain name, you can hire a negotiator specialized in domain name trades. They know how to handle this situation properly without involving any personal feelings.

3. Be calm, polite and professional during all the process of the deal. Avoid involving your feelings into this deal and most importantly DO NOT insult, yield or express your thoughts about what he did. If you do so, it may ends the negotiation for a while or...forever.

4. Even if the situation you are involved seems to look alike a Mad Max one where no rules and policies exist anymore, keep in mind that from their point of view the situation is 100% legal. You forget to extend your domain name, they bought it, you need it back so they propose you a deal. Do not try to argue about this when you are exchanging with them.

5. The first price he will ask you is most of the time 5, 10 or even 20 times the price they are willing to accept. Do not worry and be surprised if they do so during the first round of negotiation.

6. Do not act or feel them like you are totally desperate and not know how to deal with the situation. It means that you shouldn’t reply their emails as soon as possible, take time to respond on phone, so they will feel that you are not giving a lot of importance to the situation.

 

The fourth part of the guide is dedicated to the court procedure.

ICANN Procedure - Cybersquatting Guide (2/5)

5
Jul
ICANN Logo

This is the second part of our guide dedicated to the Cybersquatting, if you have missed the other parts, we strongly advise you to read them:

Cyber-Squatting: ICANN Procedure

First, do not worry, you are not the first one to handle this issue and several solutions are available and you can try them one by one in order to take back your domain name. The possibilities are as following:

  1. ICANN Procedure,
  2. Trade with the new owner,
  3. Court Procedure

 

1. ICANN Procedure

In late 1999, ICANN launched the new Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDNDRP), this new tool allow people and organizations to resolve domain name disputes.

This international policy results in an arbitration of the dispute, not litigation. An action can be brought by any person who complains (referred to by ICANN as the "complainant") that: This arbitration mechanism has proved to be an effective way to gain control of domains for many trademark holders, but success is by no means certain.

 

1.1   ICANN Procedure: Explanation

Considering the specific circumstances of each case, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) appoints one to three panelists to review the dispute and issue a decision. The review will take from 30 to 60 days and will be published publicly.

Each panelist must confirm that they are not linked by any manner with each of the parties involved and explicitly reveal in a written statement all information that should be considered prior to appointment. If one of the two parties has some concerned about the viability of a panelist, WIPO will consider offering a replacement.

In order to successfully win an UDRP case, you need to convince the arbiter(s) of ALL of the following three elements:

  1. A domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights
  2. The domain name owner has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name, and
  3. The domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

All of the elements listed below must be established in order for the complainant to prevail. In the case of the complainant prevails, the domain name will be canceled and directly transferred to the complainant. In order to start the procedure you will need to give the following information:

  • The domain name in question
  • The registrant of the domain name
  • The registrar with whom the domain name was registered
  • The grounds for the complaint

Be aware that if the current registrant has re-registered “your” domain is not relevant enough for this procedure. Also, keep in mind that most of the cases brought by trademark holders which do fail, will fail because the trademark holders cannot prove that the domain is being used in bad faith. In this case, you need to prove that the current registrant has offered to sell the domain name; either by emailing you and explicitly proposing to sell the domain name or that he has displayed an announcement explaining its wish to do so.

If you want to start a dispute, a legal counsel is neither compulsory nor required even though it is recommended. The cost of this procedure depends of the number of panelists that you or the respondent is hiring and can be executed through different services like the WIPO or e-Resolution. Also, bear in mind that many of the professional domain speculators will have more experience with the UDRP than you, and will try to use this to their advantage. They know how to deal with this procedure and will use everything they can to not lose “your” domain name.

According to the WIPO organization, from 1999 to 2007 it was stated that 84% of all the procedures were decided in the complaining party's favor. If you are involved in any domain name dispute in which a .cn or .com.cn is implied, you should contact the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre (ADNDRC) which is the accredited organism by ICANN as dispute resolution provider in China.

 

1.2 Advantages of the Dispute Resolution Procedure

  • The UDRP process is faster than most of the court related judgment; decisions are given between 30 - 60 days from the day the complaint has been filled.
  • The cost of the procedure depends of the number of panelist and domain names involved. It cost around $1,500 for a single panelist and $3,000 for three panelists for a complaint involving up to five domain names. If the complaint involves between 6 and 10 domain names, it will cost USD$2000 if the decision is taken by one Panelist to USD$5000 if decided by 3 Panelists. You can find the list of the official accredited panelists in China here.
  • The complainant is usually responsible for paying the fees.  However, if the complainant chooses to have the complaint decided by 1 Panelist but the respondent chooses to have the complaint decided by 3 Panelists, then the respondent will have to pay 50% of the fees.
  • In exceptional circumstances, either the Panel or WIPO may ask the parties to make additional payments to settle the costs of the administrative procedure.  For example, if there are more than 10 domain names in dispute.  
  • The dispute resolution procedure doesn’t imply any jurisdictional issue which is very interesting as most of the registrants aren’t based in the same country. So you do not need to worry under which law and which jurisdiction you need to start a court-procedure.
  • Last advantage, as soon as your start to fill a complaint it will also immediately prevent the registrant from transferring the domain name to any other person or company until a decision has been reached.

 

1.3 Disadvantages of the Dispute Resolution Procedure

  • Contrary to a court, panelists are never bound to any of the previous decisions made and, based on this fact, will take their decision only on the present situation.
  • As a consequence, the WIPO has launched an internet information tool in March 2005 containing information and trends of the past decisions to improve the certainty of future decisions.
  • Decisions using the UDRP are also not binding on courts and proceedings can be initiated after the panel has published its decision and panelists have no power to issue emergency injunctions.
  • The panel’s decisions cannot be kept confidential unlike other Alternative Dispute Resolution possibilities (ADR). This has to be taken into consideration as a company may wish to avoid adverse publicity especially as it can be harmful your brand’s reputation.
  • The UDRP isn’t able to process all the disputes but only the generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) such as .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org.
  • The disputes concerning country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) such as .co.uk, .com.cn (China) are managed by the individual country registry.

The next part of our guide is dedicated to the second solution available to take back your domain:

How to Negotiate your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide (3/5)

Top 5 Domain Name Scams - Cybersquatting Guide (1/5)

4
Jul
Domain Name Cybersquatting

Internet is growing at a very fast pace in China, each day more and more companies realize the importance of having their own website translated in Chinese to directly reach their local customers. As the internet industry is gaining more importance, it also attracts some bad practices such as Cybersquatting.

We have created this guide in order to give you an accurate insight about Cybersquatting, the guide is divided into five parts and covers all the aspects of Cybersquatting from the definition to the procedure you need to follow to take back your own domain name.

We strongly advise you to also read the other parts of our Cybersquatting Guide to have a clear picture of the cybersquatting practices:

Cybersquatting: Increasing Trend

In Asia and especially in China, Cybersquatting or also known as domain squatting, defined by the fact that someone is deliberately registers a domain name that is relevant to your brand, is increasing dangerously. The reason behind this trend is very simple; domain name registration is very cheap in Asia especially for the “.cn” and “.com.cn” extension names. Chinese generic top-level domain extension is not the only one to face the troubles of cybersquatting, it has been reported that some others extensions such as “.in” for India and “.kr” for Korea are becoming more and more popular.

Cybersquatting: Several Types of Scam

1. Park and Wait

The first one is known as the “park and wait” scam. Someone is registering many different domain names and just wait that a company is willing to buy their legitimate domain name, for of course, an overestimate amount.

2. Domain Name Front Running

The second one is called the “Domain name front running”, in this tricky one, a registrar uses insider information (based on the domain name requests made by future customers) to register domains in order to re-selling them or earning revenue by placing advertisements on the domain’s homepage.

In this situation, the registrar blocks the other registrars from selling the domain to another customer. This situation is possible as whoever registers a domain name will benefit a five days trial period, where the domain can be locked from the other registrars without the need to pay any fee. After the five days period called the “Grace Period”, the registrar is registering again the domain name and so on, keeping you away from your rightful domain name.

3. Typo Squatting or URL Hijacking

The third is slightly different as someone or a company is registering one or more domain names which are very close in terms of typology to your website brand’s name. This trick is called Typo squatting or URL hijacking.

Let’s say that your company is called “Example” and that you have launched your website called “example.com”, one person had the idea to register “examples.com”, “example.org” , “exemple.com” or “eexample.com”. The main goal of this trick is, of course, to grab some of your incoming traffic and display some advertising on their websites.

Most of the biggest internet companies have already registered several domain names close in terms of typography to their brand’s names. If your brand starts to be well known and if you are planning to expand beyond your traditional market, it may be a good choice to register the closest domain names to avoid further troubles.

4. Fake Emails Scams

This one is quite similar to the fake emails scams that you are receiving claiming that you are inheriting from your old and never seen uncle few thousand dollars. One day, an email appears in your inbox from a registrar company warning you that some people are trying to register a similar domain name than your original one. Of course, they will try to charge you if you want them to start a procedure and take back the domain or overpricing it directly to you.

5. Reverse Domain Hijacking

The Reverse domain hijacking happened when a legitimate trademark owners starts to take back your domain name by making fake cybersquatting claims against you. This claim often intimidates the rightful owner (you) who are being asked to directly transfer the domain name ownership to the trademark owner and avoid the legal procedure. 

The second part of the guide is dedicated to the first procedure to take back your domain name: the UDRP procedure and is available here.