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How Can Cybersquatters Be Evicted, Cheaply?

Posted by Cliff on from the if-you-ain't-using-the-domain-give-it-to-someone-who-will dept.

wmshub asks: "Slashdot has covered stories where big mean companies threw poor little people off of web sites with names too close to that of the company. But what about when you are the company and the cybersquatter isn't even using the name? I have a small (ok, basically just me) company. The web site that exactly matches my company name has been registered since 2001, which is before I legally registered my company name but after I started doing business. Despite being registered for 4 years, the site is still nothing but a pile of banner ads - not even a hint as to why they want that particular name for their site. I contacted the owner, but they are not interested in selling (at any price, they said). If I read the ICANN guidelines correctly, domain name owners who have 'no legitimate claim for the name' can be evicted by people who do, so I think I should be able to demand they hand the name over. Has anybody ever tried this, or heard of a case where somebody with very limited funds (ie, not enough money to hire a lawyer) has been able to evict a squatter? Or do you always have to hire a lawyer and pay thousands in court fees to make this happen?"

6 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Where do you draw the line? by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So at what point is it a squatter versus a "legitimate" website? If you produce a definition, squatters will simply modify their design to meet the definition, perhaps adding or copying a minimum of information to become "legit". Face it, they've had the domain for longer than you've had your registered name or trademark. You're stuck, so live with it or change your own name.

  2. I'm waiting for this to happen by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My domain name is based on my own name, but it also happens to be the exact same name as a Taiwanese company. They currently use the ".com.tw" variant. However, I often get emails to the company, even though my catchall address is blackholed. What's more, I have no visible index page...just a blank white emptiness. But I do use the domain heavily for my own email, my own file storage and web-based services for my family and others. If anyone tried to prove I was cybersquatting, I'm sure that I could prove otherwise. But it would suck to lose the email addresses that I promised to myself and my users would be there in perpetuity regardless of ISP changes.

  3. Squatted domains based on family names? by TMacPhail · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What about domain names that are based on a last name? I believe there are provisions for claiming a domain based on your name when it is simply being squatted. Has anyone ever had luck with this?

    Yes, this is still dependent on defining what it means to simply be squatting and having no legitimate clame to a domain. Take my name for example: MacPhail.

    • macphail.net appears to have no legitimate claim to the MacPhail name other than using the domain to host a page filled with links. I am sure there are many other sites owned by the owner of this domain that are the exact same thing. Unfortunately they hide who they are in the whois database by using a company called "Whois IDentity Shield" but the dns servers for the domain give a hint at the real purpose of it: ns1.hitfarm.com, ns2.hitfarm.com. And there is nothing to be found at www.hitfarm.com.
    • macphail.com seems to have a use for the name in that it resells e-mail accounts under the domain so you can have your own @macphail.com e-mail. This hardly seems legitimate to me but would probably pass in court because they have made a business of it. This bothers me because they are potentially making a profit from thousands of last names they have no claim to other than having registered the domain first.

    Anyone ever been able to get their last name out of the grips of a company like these?

    1. Re:Squatted domains based on family names? by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      macphail.com seems to have a use for the name in that it resells e-mail accounts under the domain so you can have your own @macphail.com e-mail. This hardly seems legitimate to me but would probably pass in court because they have made a business of it. This bothers me because they are potentially making a profit from thousands of last names they have no claim to other than having registered the domain first.

      Anyone ever been able to get their last name out of the grips of a company like these?

      Whaddaya mean, your last name? You're obviously not the only person named MacPhail, based on the success of macphail.com. Who are you to say that the last name belongs to you and you alone?

      Unless you're using your whole name, or you're famous somehow, you don't deserve macphail.com. What the current owner is doing with it is fair - offering relevant services to all MacPhails, including yourself. What could you possibly do with the website or domain name that would be fair to the thousands of other MacPhails?

      And if you, T. MacPhail, can take the domain name from the current owner, what's there to stop P.D.Q. MacPhail from taking the domain from you?

  4. You're sunk, I'd guess by focitrixilous+P · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The web site that exactly matches my company name has been registered since 2001, which is before I legally registered my company

    IANAL, but that statement seems to say that you have lost. Because he got it first, before you legally registered your company name, you are probably out of luck.

    --
    SAILING MISHAP
  5. Duh. by geminidomino · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You should have put the link in the summary. After a good slashdotting, the squatter would be BEGGING you to take it off his hands!