Cyber Squatting?

[ghosty o''shark]

Has anyone had experience of cyber squatters using your brand/identity or worked to resolve such a case? If so how would/did you go about resolving this?

[plotloss]

Didnt the courts rule that URL carpet bagging wasnt legal unless you were trading with the same/similar name before purchasing the website?

Case was Mohammed Fayed V's Some Bloke (over the harrods.com URL)

Matt.

[PetrolTed]

I think who you complain to depends if it's a .com or a .co.uk

[Deester]

When I was working for Tiscali in London, some guy registered tiscali.co.uk. We paid him 2000 quid and got it back.

Thought this would be the easiest / fastest way to deal with it rather than dragging it through the slow ass legal system.

Deester.

[davidd]

Take a look on nominet for disputes..

here are a few that are ongoing..

www.nominet.org.uk/DisputeResolution/Appeals/

[JohnL]

Quite a funny one a year or two ago - BAA were using BAA.co.uk, and they desperately wanted BAA.com. Unfortunately someone else registered Baa.com and filled it full of sheep jokes ... actually went to court 'cos BAA thought they had a deal to buy it from him for 10 grand or so, and then the bloke turned around and said, in fact I want £3M, which was a bit silly. Obviously BAA won in the end as BAA.com is now boringly all about airports, although I don't know what they had to pay for it.

[pbrettle]

Same story with Morse (the computer reseller). Had Morse.co.uk and wanted Morse.com. This was registered to some chap in Austrailia, who I think was called Morse. Anyway, had to pay £40K for the domain name...

Not worth taking through the courts as they didnt stand a chance of wining when he is in Oz. Incidentaly a friend of mine has the rather dubious claim to fame that it was he that forced the AA (Automobile Association) to have theaa.co.uk! Technically to the letter they couldnt register AA - which is bollox really, but in the long term is probably a good thing....

If the domain is a .co.uk or anything .uk then you have some legal protection. If its a US one then this is harder - but do note that there are several ongoing court cases in the US with incorrect, wrong or illegal name registrations - worth keeping a look out on these. Biggest one was Sex.com - the chap that lost the case has done a runner owing something like $30M.... nice!!!

Cheers,

Paul