I'm working with a recruitment company who have the .com domain name for their company. One of their competitors have purchased their .co.uk domain name for their company and put it to direct to their own website. The company I'm working with are UK registered as a partnership if that can help?

 

Is there any chance of them getting this domain from them? or even stopping it going to their competitors site?

Is the companies name trademarked at all? This would help your case but the best bet is speaking with a solicitor regarding this as in some cases the company does have the right to take the domain from the competitor.

I did some research into this sort of thing for a client a couple of months ago. Basically, the only way you would be able to get the domain name from the clients competitor is if the companies name is a registered trademark.

 

I'll try and dig out the notes I made when I did the research if that'd help but I'm just thinking that you may have some weight in the fact that the domain name owner has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name AND the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith. (which are two of ICANN's criteria).

If the name has no meaning other than the company name then you will probably have grounds as it's possible to prove they did it just to impersonate your client. If it was something like 'itrecruitment.co.uk' then no chance but 'companyname.co.uk' is easier to prove. Since it's a .co.uk then it's a Nominet issue, see http://www.nominet.org.uk/disputes/when-use-drs/policy-and-procedure/drs-policy but the highlights are from 'Evidence of Abusive Registration'.

 

 

Circumstances indicating that the Respondent has registered or otherwise acquired the Domain Name primarily:

A. for the purposes of selling, renting or otherwise transferring the Domain Name to the Complainant or to a competitor of the Complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of the Respondent's documented out-of-pocket costs directly associated with acquiring or using the Domain Name;
B. as a blocking registration against a name or mark in which the Complainant has Rights; or
C. for the purpose of unfairly disrupting the business of the Complainant;

Circumstances indicating that the Respondent is using or threatening to use the Domain Name in a way which has confused or is likely to confuse people or businesses into believing that the Domain Name is registered to, operated or authorised by, or otherwise connected with the Complainant;

iii. The Complainant can demonstrate that the Respondent is engaged in a pattern of registrations where the Respondent is the registrant of domain names (under .uk or otherwise) which correspond to well known names or trademarks in which the Respondent has no apparent rights, and the Domain Name is part of that pattern;

As long as your company keep trademark name you fight them back. The process is quite long but most likely you can win.

Thanks a lot guys, really appreciated. I will pass this info on to them and hopefully they can get this sorted.

Just to update you guys the company name is not trademarked but they have seeked legal advice and still have a very strong case. This is because the company who've registered the .co.uk have it pointing at their own, current website. They've also been advised that as they have used emails genuinely meant for them for their own means, they are deliberately done this to trade on their name.

 

Lets hope it ends up as a good result for them!

CityCM and BrowserBugs - Your ICANN and Nominet resources are going to help massively with their dispute so I'd really link to thank you both on behave of my client.

CityCM and BrowserBugs - Your ICANN and Nominet resources are going to help massively with their dispute so I'd really link to thank you both on behave of my client.

No problem at all. As I said, I'll dig out the info I collected when I researched it a while ago and will send you a quick email with it.

CityCM and BrowserBugs - Your ICANN and Nominet resources are going to help massively with their dispute so I'd really link to thank you both on behave of my client.

 

No problem, it's what we're all here for