Domain names
A domain name is not an intellectual property right known to UK law, although courts have been willing to use the laws of passing off trade marks to tackle domain name issues.
To avoid domain name disputes, it is best practice to register all variations of your brand name.Domain name disputes
If you have a dispute, you should follow the procedure that applies to you:- .com, .net, .org domains – these are governed by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) based in the USA. For more information visit www.icann.org/udrp/.
- .uk domains – UK domain names are governed by Nominet UK Limited. They also operate a dispute resolution service. For details visit www.nic.uk/DisputeResolution/.
This should be your first point of contact. It will not stop you taking court action if you decide to do so.
Forms of dispute:
- Cybersquatting – where someone has registered a domain name knowing that it may be wanted by someone else. There have been court cases in the UK where domain names have been successfully retrieved from cybersquatters.
- Typosquatting – where a near-identical domain name has been registered, usually to take advantage of misspellings. For example, www.painewebber.com took action against wwwpainewebber.com, where the only difference is the missing dot.
- Concurrent use – where two companies can both claim the right to use the same domain name. There have been expensive and inconclusive cases relating to this type of dispute. Try to reach an amicable agreement to divert the relevant traffic to each other’s web site.
Important: check with the person responsible for registering your domain name
to find out who actually owns the name.
