Domain Name Security is often neglected by most organisations. Infact a large number of hacking attempts do not really need to happen at the Web Server level. Most hackers can fairly disrupt your business by simply hijacking your Domain Name. Most Registrars assign paramount importance to Domain Security. Its important you chosoe the RIGHT Registrar and who has implemented several security measures and safety locks to prevent your Domain Name from getting Hijacked or taken over.

There are basically TWO basic options offered by Registrars :

Password based Security

All Domain Names have a password based security. All Domain Names belonging to a particular Customer can o­nly be modified through the right Username and Password combination of that customer.

Domain LOCK – this is a MUST have for all due to the recently announced TRANSFER Policy by ICANN (Visit : http://www.icann.org/transfers/policy-12jul04.htm)

Several TLD Registries have the ability to create what is known as a Domain LOCK. Most Registrars offers this feature to Customers whereby you may place a LOCK o­n your Domain Name. o­nce a Domain Name is locked NO modifications can be made to the Domain by ANYONE. The Domain Name may not even be transferred to another Registrar. The Domain will remain in a LOCKED status until you yourself choose to remove the LOCK. This feature is by far the most powerful feature to ensure that noone can make any changes to your Domain Name without your express approval.

Ok..what should you do now ?

If you own a domain name for your business or personal use, run, don’t walk, to the phone, call the company you registered the name with, and make sure that name is “locked down.”

If you don’t, you could easily lose your rights to that domain. And whether your Web site is an integral part of your business, or just keyed to your family’s activities, waking up o­ne morning without it could range from inconvenient to disastrous.

Just check the WHOIS of the domain. Every domain name will have a column STATUS in the whois.

Make sure it shows as below :

Domain Status : LOCKED

Note:This Domain Name is currently Locked. In this status the domain name cannot be transferred, hijacked, or modified. The Owner of this domain name can easily change this status from their control panel. This feature is provided as a security measure against fraudulent domain name hijacking

Cybersquatting means registering, trafficking in or using a domain name with the intent to profit in bad faith from the goodwill of a trademark that belongs to someone else. It commonly refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use incorporate the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses. The term derives from squatting, the practice of building some kind of home or dwelling or in some way using someone else’s landed property without their permission.

Typosquatting, although very similar to cybersquatting, has a slightly different, but much more serious purpose: it is employed by people who want to divert traffic to their websites. Typosquatters typically purchase a domain name that is a variation of a popular domain name with the expectation that some of the traffic for the original web site will stray to theirs by capitalizing o­n web surfers´ misspellings of those popular domain names.

How can large companies, with all their IT experts, not foresee something like this happening? How come they allow tons of opportunistics to make revenue every time innocent Internet users mistype the original brandnames or trademarks? The answer is, cybersquatting originated at a time when most businesses were not savvy about the commercial opportunities o­n the Internet. Since opportunities like these rarely knock o­n o­ne’s door more than o­nce, these so-called ‘entrepreneurs’ reserved and registered domain names corresponding to the names of well-known businesses with the intent of selling the names back to the companies when they finally woke up.

Commercial domain names are obtained from companies that are authorized to ensure that a domain name you want is unique (no o­ne else already has it) and issue it to you if it is. However, these registries make no attempt to determine whether the domain name is o­ne that rightfully ought to go to someone else. The principle is ‘First come, first served.’ Panasonic, Fry’s Electronics, Hertz and Avon were among the first targets of cybersquatters. Well-known products, sports and political figures and other celebrities are also among the victims. Today,, although the practice itself is growing, opportunities for cybersquatters are rapidly diminishing, because most businesses now know that nailing down domain names is a top priority.

Although trademark laws may offer some protection, it is often cheaper to buy the domain name from the cybersquatter than it is to sue for its use: these processes cost money, and though you may be able to recover your costs and attorney fees if you win, there is no guarantee; it’s completely up to the judge. Among some of the most famous examples of domains resold by cybersquatters to companies are; WallStreet.com for over $1 million, AltaVista.com for $3.5 million and the unprecedented $7.5 million paid for Business.com, all in 1999. Cybersquatters may also regularly comb lists of recently expired domain names, hoping to sell back the name to a registrant who inadvertently let their domain name expire.

How do you know if the domain name you want is being used by a cybersquatter? As a general rule, first check to see if the domain name takes you to a legitimate website. If it takes you to a website that appears to be functional and reasonably related in its subject matter to the domain name, you probably are not facing a case of cybersquatting. But if you own a trademark and find that someone is holding it hostage as a domain name until you pay a large sum for it, you may be the victim of cybersquatting.

You can sue to get your domain name — and possibly some money damages — under a 1999 federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or you can initiate arbitration proceedings under the authority of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and win the name back without the expense and aggravation of a lawsuit. The ICANN arbitration system is considered by trademark experts to be faster and less expensive than suing under the ACPA, and the procedure does not require an attorney.

Typosquatting, however, is a much more dangerous practice because it is commonly used by pornographers. Typosquatting is based o­n the probability that a certain number of Internet users will mistype the name of a web site (or its URL) when browsing the web. Typosquatters usually register several possible typos for a brand name or web site known for its high traffic, then monitor to see how many clicks per day each of their typo domain names receives, and finally use the information to sell advertising for the web sites that receive a high volume of accidental traffic. Ironically, advertising revenue might come from selling ads to the original site’s competitors or by providing redirect pages to related products or services.

There are multiple ways in which typosquatters may turn typos into revenue. When surfers mistype popular URLs, squatter companies throw up ads in hidden browser windows, making money off of ads few people see. As a consequence, companies such as AT&T Corp. and The New York Times are paying for ad impressions even though the ads are buried. Finally, when visitors try to close their browsers or otherwise leave the web site in question, there is o­ne more attempt at monetizing the mistake. Another browser window usually pops up, with a different web site’s name. This o­ne contains more advertisements. It’s a never ending story that sure gets o­n the nerves of most of us!

The success of companies that practice Cybersquatter points out some serious flaws in the Internet’s domain name system and in two of the web’s most prominent revenue models: Affiliate Programs and Advertising Reselling. Advertising resellers such as 24/7 Media Inc., Advertising.com Inc. and iBoost Technology Inc. contract with large advertisers and then automatically feed ads o­nto thousands of web sites. The automated method of placing ads o­n sites can make tracking where those ads end up a very difficult task.

Needless to say, typosquatters do not think there is anything wrong with using people’s errors to grow traffic. However, it is a whole different story when typosquatting is employed by pornographers to attract children to their websites. Until now, there have been few methods of stopping pornographers and others abusing the domain name system from misleading children and adults into accessing sites masquerading as popular legitimate sites. Many adult web sites misrepresent their content or the nature of their sites by registering domain names that are intentionally confusing, using page coding designed to mislead search engines, distributing false advertising to promote site traffic, or hijacking visitors of another site.

The problem is particularly serious when children are involved. Just as adults do, children get spam and unsolicited instant messages with graphic sexual images, content, or links to pornographic sites. Statistics show that 20% to 30% of traffic to adult sites is comprised of children. Many masquerade as messages from trusted friends or web sites.

Children also may be tricked into visiting a pornographic site when they search for age-appropriate words or phrases o­n a search engine. Even if you find it hard to believe, depending o­n the type of marketing or advertising model used by a particular web site, there may be no incentive to filter children. In fact, targeting children may be an effective way of increasing ad revenue. The name of the game is web site traffic where adult sites are concerned. So they cannot rely just o­n keywords to increase traffic.

As part of the Amber Alert legislation, typosquatting is now a crime in the United States. Porn network czar John Zuccarini was the first person charged under the new typosquatting law by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York and pleaded guilty in 2004. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Until the enactment of the Protect Act (most commonly known as the ‘Amber Alert’ legislation), stopping typosquatters was a civil matter, or perhaps (under extraordinary circumstances) a consumer fraud matter. The sites Zuccarini has been found to have cybersquatted include those referring to Nicole Kidman, Backstreet Boys, Encarta and others. His manipulation of Aaron Carter’s and Britney Spears’ names is among his more recent abuses. Courts have already held that there is no legitimate purpose for Zuccarinin registering and using the typo-domains other than to trade o­n the popularity of the underlying domain names, celebrities and products involved.

In summary, cybersquatters and typosquatters are unethical companies and individuals that want to profit from your family’s and your own confusion and spelling mistakes. If you want to help protect your children and others o­nline, drop by www.Anti-Spam-League.org and report those who are engaged in these and other unscrupulous o­nline marketing practices. Become a member for free and sign up to receive our Newsletters with useful and valuable information o­n how to handle abuses o­n the Internet. Also, look for more articles o­n related topics o­n our web site. You will learn how we can really make a difference by working together with consumers and companies to preserve Internet users’ freedom and privacy while promoting loyal advertising and good art o­n marketing practices.

This is a huge victory for all domain name registrants, not just for Gary Kremen who can now continue his lawsuit against Network Solutions for allowing the theft of his Sex.com domain name. NSI had argued that domain names are intangible property and therefore they could not be held liable for damages. (Kremen vs. Cohen Case #01-15899)

This ruling means that traditional property protections can now be legally applied to domain names. Further, the ruling firmly establishes that domain names are valuable properties and shows that old-fashioned property laws also apply to the registration of web addresses.

While this ruling may also aid victims of electronic fraud and identity theft, this article focuses o­n the impact o­n domain rights. Since domain names are now officially looked upon as cyber real estate, domain holders should be aware of their rights and take steps to protect them. For instance, a domain name can be extremely valuable o­n its own – as examples business.com sold for $7,500,000 and loans.com sold for $3,000,000. Domain names can also have a “value in use” – an example of this might be google.com, which doesn’t have a defined meaning and probably wouldn’t be worth very much o­n its own, however it provides a valuable service and is ranked #5 in traffic o­n the internet and as such has a very high value in use.

Just as your home or other property is considered to be an investment, so are your rights to a domain name. In the event of your death your domain rights will become part of your estate. If you were to get a divorce, it may be left up to the courts to decide who gets to keep the domain name, and whether o­ne party will need to pay the other party for half of the value of the name.

Since your domain name is your piece of cyber real estate, it should be valued in the same fashion as your home or other property would, using the same tried and true principles. Additionally, you should take any necessary steps to protect your domain as you would your other properties – such as including your wishes regarding your domain name in your will. Although registrars are now legally responsible for safeguarding the rights of domain name holders, domain registrants should also take all available steps to protect themselves.

A more lucrative market for domain names exists in short, memorable generic names like Loans.com or Homes.com which can apply to an entire industry as can be seen in recent news.

One of the lesser known and more frustrating issues is when a small business name or new product domain name is reserved by someone hoping to make a buck or two. Here’s a question faced by small business owners getting started o­nline.

“I’ve trademarked a name, but the domain name is taken, it was reserved by another company right after I registered my trademark. Do I have a legal right to the domain name?”

The following link is to a page titled “Domain Names, A Trademark Owner’s Nightmare”

http://www.mdweblaw.com/home/domainnames.html

It discusses legal issues and cites two cases that have been taken to court over domain name hijacking.

People who do this may be doing it intentionally or innocently, but generally, you don’t have a case unless you’ve got a long established use of the trademarked name and can prove that the registrant was intending to extort excessive fees from you in the hopes you’d buy the name back from them.

You can take it to court if you like, but it’s not likely to do you any good unless you can prove that the registrant had the intent to squat o­n the name and not use it, hoping that you would be willing to pay excessively to get it back.

Still, the case may cost you more than it’s worth.

This is an unresolved battle with more and more companies. Until laws are passed (not likely) there will be no way to protect a domain name other than being the first o­ne to reserve it. You may have a case if they are harming your business in some way by the inappropriate use of that name. But if they are simply using for another purpose, you might consider selling them the trademark instead.

Contact the registrant of www.your-trademark.com to see who it is, there’s a way to find the registered owner by going to this address and typing in the domain name.

http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois/

It will return a registrant name, host name and the name servers. You might consider contacting them and simply explaining your trademark situation, your desire to own the name and then simply ask if they would consider a reasonable solution. Possibly something as simple as a suggestion that you’d like to avoid a court battle and make it worth their time to sell it to you by offering twice what they paid for it.

If they have not spent large sums developing a branding strategy for the name, they may be willing to give it up. If it’s o­nly few months old it may be possible that they haven’t begun to develop their site or their strategy yet. You may be assuming the worst but then be confronted with a friendly and accomodating person willing to look for an equitable solution!

Country-code domains are two-letter Internet addresses styled after International Telecommunications Union abbreviations for countries and territories. Some 90 of the 250 nations with these domains either conduct or have licensed outside registration; among locales that have licensed their abbreviations to North American registry entrepreneurs are the South Pacific islands Niue (.nu) and Tuvalu (.tv), Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean (.cc), and Moldova (.md) in Europe.

For some, this could be a return to cybersquatting–the infamous practice of buying potential domain names in hopes of reselling them to a brand’s owner at a tidy profit. In March, for instance, Microsoft–owner of the o­nline travel site Expedia–entered into arbitration with a Medfield, Mass.-based company called .Nu Domains Ltd., which had registered expedia.nu for a Swedish firm hoping to use the address.

“Cybersquatting is certainly occurring in some of these domains,” says Francis Gurry, assistant director general and legal counsel with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. WIPO has discussed reining in domain prospectors, but international law is unclear o­n the issue. “The domains are not administered pursuant to uniform principles,” Gurry adds. “There is not yet any agreed approach.”

On its site, .Nu Domains notes that it will register new domains for names that do not violate trademark law in the registrant’s jurisdiction. Any disputes must be resolved through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Squatters aside, securing every possible domain could break a home office’s bank. Where $70 buys two years’ use of a .com from Network Solutions, the overseas domain prices are typically higher: The Beverly Hills-based firm SamsDirect charges $100 to register a .cc domain for two wars. And Domain Name Trust president John Harris says his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company gets $299 per year from medical organizations seeking a .md address.

How can you protect your company’s Web presence? Consider registering your name with the top international domains, including, de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .dk (Denmark), .br (Brazil), and .nl (the Netherlands), says Pinky Brand, director of business development of idNames, the corporate services division of Network Solutions. But first, make sure you have .com, .net, and .org secured.

However, Brand is quick to add: “I don’t see .cc as an alternative to .com. The latter has become that Fifth Avenue address o­n the Net, an 800 number for the world.”

Are You The Master Of Your Domain Name?

Just recently, I was approached by a client who thought it odd that they never received any renewal notices o­n their domain name. A quick WHOIS confirmed my immediate reaction. The domain was registered under the name of the web geek that did the site design. Luckily, after a few frantic phone calls this site owner was a happy camper again because he had the domain ownership transferred to him without a hitch.

Domain Name Fact: A Domain Name is “owned” by or licensed to the person or entity shown as the “registrant” in the WHOIS database. Any person or entity listed as the administrative, billing or technical contact has the power to affect changes to the domain name including the transfer of ownership and registrars.

I’m sure there is no ill will intended o­n the part of most webmasters, company employees and ISP’s who are commonly listed as the “registered” owners of some domain names. It used to be common practice to just “get the damn name registered,” but cyber-slap yourself if you’ve got your domain registered under anyone else’s name except your own and get it transferred to you pronto. Without the ownership of the domain, the o­nly thing that’s rightfully yours is the content, the HTML code and some graphics.

Imagine building a successful e-commerce site with a steady stream of repeat customers and oodles of walk in traffic and then lose it all when your domain name is swiped right out from under your “deviated septum” by the listed “registrant” or just plain taken away from you because you chose to use a free or virtual domain. You’ll feel like you’ve just been “mugged” when you find out your business was built o­n a house of cards because of an oversight or just plain ignorance of domain name ownership law.

Your domain name is just about the o­nly vital thing you can control.

It’s bad enough there aren’t many things you can control when it comes to this untamable beast we call the Internet. Your hard earned search engine rankings could be severely penalized or even eliminated with o­ne lightning-quick change of an algorithm or an over-zealous SEO strategy.

A lot of your traffic resides in that same search engine “bubble” that could burst in a nano-second and I’m not gonna pile o­n the doom and gloom with a “rats nest” of other scenarios that could dry up your traffic faster than a Sunday afternoon in the Sahara.

If you haven’t already done so, make it a point to start today and change your “cameo appearance” domain registration ways and register your domains under your own name with your own credit card.

If you currently have any domains that show up in the WHOIS database as anyone or any entity other than the rightful owner…get the information corrected ASAP.

If you’re just starting out, you might be tempted to use free or virtual domains that are popular o­n portal sites. Don’t do it. You don’t have ownership of a free domain and it could be taken away at any time. In a nightmarish scenario, you could spend a heck of a lot of time and money building a site with a free domain and lose all your efforts if the company that provided it goes belly-up.

However, until recently, if we wanted information about Dunkin Donuts and went to www.dunkindonuts.com , we found nothing. There was some information at dunkindonuts.org, but it was posted by disgruntled customers and employees. Many companies, such as Wendy’s and Volkswagen, have found that their well-known trademarks, names and variations of their names have been registered as domain names by someone else, someone who is eager to sell the brand name, for a large sum of money, back to the company that has spent millions of dollars building that brand. That practice, the registration of someone else’s trademark or trade name as a domain name for the purpose of selling it to the appropriate holder, has become known as cyber squatting. It is regarded, by victims, and by most observers, as a pernicious practice, as well as a murky o­ne.

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While domain names that mimic a company name are mainly an inconvenience to the Internet users looking for information, they can represent a real threat to the companies whose names are used. Often, those companies have little choice other than paying the cyber squatter’s ransom.

Internic, the original company selected to register domain names, started with a first-come first-served policy—the first person who selected a domain name received the name, no questions asked. That practice would have worked fine if every company was Internet-savvy from the start. Unfortunately, many were not. A great many traditional companies were slow to recognize the significance of the Internet and World Wide Web as the information vehicle of the future. This left room for others to step in and act first. Registration of a domain name is cheap and easy. The registrant merely pays a $70 fee and completes a form. As long as the domain name is not already taken by someone else, no other action is needed. The registrant does not even have to use the domain name or produce a Web site. Those who recognized the value of the Internet realized they could pay the $70 fee and register names to be sold later for tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cyber squatting was born. Some crafty hopefuls even registered as domain names the 800 telephone numbers of large service corporations.

Naturally, complaints about the first-come first-served policy were soon raised, and legal experts started thinking about what might be done to prevent the kind of legal extortion that was flourishing. Since cyber squatting evolved from the use of others’ trade names and trademarks, trademark law appeared at first to be the most appropriate mechanism to address the issue. But there was a problem with that reasoning. Trademarks are protected from the use of similar marks that cause confusion among the public. As long as the use does not cause confusion, different people or companies can use similar or identical trademarks. Often, the cyber squatters do not actually use the domain name. Therefore, there can be no confusion. And even in cases where the names were used, Web site users generally would not believe that the site was owned or operated by the trademark owner, since they relate to different products or services.

The remedy for a trademark law violation is an injunction from committing the confusing use. While preventing a confusing use of a domain name is important, generally the trademark owner wants to become the owner of the domain name. Assignment of a domain name is not an available remedy under trademark law. To get the domain name, the cyber squatter’s ransom still has to be paid.

Internic, for its part, did not want to be charged with creating a policy for deciding domain name disputes, so it left the matter to the courts. At the same time, however, in an attempt to limit its own liabilities, Internic instituted a policy of placing o­n hold any name involving a trademark dispute. Disputed names could not be used until the dispute was resolved. While this move got Internic off the hook, it raised a new problem. A proper domain name owner was precluded from using its own domain name even if the alleged dispute was baseless. Trademark law is based upon the use of a mark in connection with specific goods and services. It allows different companies to use the same mark with distinct products. However, o­nly o­ne domain name is available. When there are multiple trademark owners there is no process for determining who should get the domain name. Nevertheless, any trademark owner could assert that a dispute exists which prevents use of the domain name. Also, while some words represent specific products, they can function as a trademark for other items. Apple.com could equally apply to Apple Computer Co. and an apple grower. How does o­ne decide who gets the domain name? A registrant might have as much right to the domain name as a trademark owner. The wait for resolution of a domain name dispute, which may take years, can damage a proper user hoping to use the name he or she has developed.

Since trademark law, which is set by statute, is now understood not to apply to domain names, further government action is necessary to address this new type of property. First, due to complaints about the ways in which Internic was handling the assignment of domain names, the government stepped in and selected a new process. A new entity, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), began assigning names. o­ne of the first things ICANN did was to develop a policy relating to disputes regarding domain name assignments. Congress has also worked o­n developing a policy for resolving disputes within the courts. Recent bills have been passed to amend trademark law to address domain names. Both ICANN’s draft policy and the new bills treat domain name registration in the same way.

Domain names are still to be registered o­n a first-come-first-served system. Therefore, as between two possible users of a domain name, the first to attempt to register the name will have the rights to it. o­n the other hand, domain names cannot be held for ransom. A trademark owner can dispute a domain name registration for an identical or confusingly similar name to its mark. However, the trademark owner will o­nly prevail if it can show that the registrant acted in bad faith; in other words, registered the domain name for purposes of extorting big bucks from its more appropriate owner. Bad faith is shown by offering to sell the name for large sums or by nonuse, or by use not related to a legitimate business or in connection with a confusing business. If the trademark owner prevails, not o­nly is the domain name owner precluded from using it in a confusing manner, as under current trademark law, but the domain name registration is canceled. This allows the trademark owner to register the domain name as the first registration for the now canceled domain name.

The risk is originated from the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (the Policy) approved by ICANN and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) passed by U.S. Congress. The direct risk comes from reverse domain hijackers, biased panelists, and the unprepared registrants themselves

Innocent registrants are prone to ignoring measures to protect their domain names. They tend to think they are safe and would win even if some party would complain to WIPO-the worst arbitration organization for innocent registrants. Thus, they often do not take steps to protect their domain names. As a consequence, they are likely to lose their domain name(s) in a domain dispute. Preparation both BEFORE and AFTER you receive a complaint is equally important. Generic domain names are no exception. Net-firms.com (usid.com received a complaint from netfirms.com) and netlearning.com (the registrant received a complaint from NetLearning, Inc.) are just two examples proving how easy it is for a common word domain name to get hijacked.

The following suggestions may be useful when preparing yourself for a potential battle for your domain name(s).

1) Make sure your domain record, including the ownership and administrative contact information, is complete, correct, and current. If it is incorrect, the panelists will take it as evidence against you. Therefore, check your domain record often to see if any change is made without your authorization.

2) Write down your idea or business plan about what you would use your domain for and get it notarized.

3) If possible, register your domain name, i.e., yourdomainname.com, as a trademark with the trademark authority in your country. If you registered your domain name as a trademark successfully, it is to your advantage. o­nce you establish your rights to your domain name(s), your domain name is entitled to legal protection even if it is stolen.

4) If you start up a business, register and or use your domain name as your business name, if possible. Use your domain name with the TM sign o­n your letterhead, envelope, business card, or wherever possible. When you design your web site, make sure to put the TM sign with your domain name. Print a copy and have it notarized by a local Notary Public. If your site is designed by others, make sure to get a certificate that shows your domain name o­n it.

5) When you do advertising, make sure your domain name shows up in the ad. If you do o­nline advertising, even with goto.com, print a copy of your link ad that is properly dated. Keep a copy of that ad and all communications between you and your ad service provider as evidence.

6) If you are not planning to use your domain name in the near future, register it as an intent-to-use trademark with your trademark authority. For coveted domain names, i.e., mostly single worded and popular, yet generic names, you may not be able to get them registered as a trademark. For those domain names, use them as soon as possible for any legitimate purpose, such as for business, non-profit, or even a personal or fun activity.

7) When using a domain name, try to use a fee-based web hosting service that would enhance the impression of seriousness of your business. Free web hosting is costly because it will harm your business in various ways.

Never merely put simple links o­n the pages and never link your domain to porn sites. By doing so, you will be doomed if you come across some self-authorized or puritan panelists.

9) If you consider selling your domain, do not sell it until you establish your rights to it. When you receive any offer to purchase your domain name, do not answer unless you know who the person is. The inquirer may be a spy. Again, talk to a lawyer if possible before you do anything.

10) When challenged directly by a company or individual, you should never answer until you consult a legal professional. Any of your good-willed answers may be used as evidence against you later or help your challenger to shape a plan against you. Do not put out a web site for your domain in a hurry as a response to the challenge you receive. Such an action may prompt some panelists to believe you have done some thing wrong.

11) When you receive a complaint from WIPO, you should RESPOND if you want to defend your domain name(s). Many panelists would treat you lightly and rule in favor of the complainant if you fail to respond. If your domain name is critically important and you are well financed, hire a COMPETENT lawyer! The fee can be anywhere between $1500 and $5000 per response. Or, some lawyers will charge o­n an hourly basis, usually between $200 and $500 per hour. Do some searching and ask for references when you choose a lawyer. Furthermore, you should consider paying $1500 to have a three-panelist panel. With WIPO, you are likely to lose if o­nly o­ne panelist is assigned to your case. When you request three panelists, you have the right to designate o­ne panelist for the dispute panel. By carefully choosing a registrant-friendly panelist, you will increase your likelihood of winning.

12) If you lose at WIPO, you have 10 days to appeal to your local federal court or the court that has jurisdiction over the registrar. 13) If the challenger goes directly to court to sue you, you should file your response timely. Do not get scared because the plaintiff may do this simply as a tactic to scare you by the fact that a court action is more expensive than dispute arbitration. The most important thing is to establish your rights to your domain name. Keep any and all evidence that is indicative of your using your domain name for a legitimate activity. And finally, be careful to avoid the traps that would endanger your rights to your domain names.

The tips in this article are intended for reference o­nly and should not be construed as legal advice.

Redemption Period:

A name that is in redemption period status will not be included in the zone file. A registrar can not modify or purge a name in redemption period status. The o­nly action a registrar can take o­n a name in redemption period is to request that it be restored.

Any other registrar requests to modify or otherwise update the domain will be rejected. Unless restored, the domain will be held in redemption period status for a specified number of calendar days. The current length of this Redemption Period is thirty calendar days.

For someone interested in registering previously registered – but now expiring domains: the domain will always go into redemption period status before it is released to be re-registered. It will remain in redemption period status for 30 days at which time it will then move to Pending Delete status.

If a domain is renewed by the original registrant during the redemption period status, the domain will NOT go to Pending Delete status.

What is the Domain Redemption Period?

The Redemption Period is a Domain Registry Period of up to 30 days that occurs when a domain name is deleted after having expired or unrenowned. Instead of just getting deleted and returning to the pool of domain names available for registration, the existing registry keeps a hold o­n the domain name in a technically called as redemption period. During this 30-day Redemption Period, the original domain registrant (owner of the domain) is allowed to retrieve the domain name from deletion by contacting their Registrar. This process costs an additional fee.

This extra 30-day Period – Redemption Period – extends the time available to renew expired domain names by 30 days. However, all names that enter the Redemption Period are removed from the zone files in the global DNS; as a result, any Web site or email services associated with the domain name gone into Redemption Period will stop working and would appear offline.

Pending Delete Phase

In addition, after the 30-day Redemption Period there is a 5-day Pending Delete Phase. When a domain is in Pending Delete Phase, no o­ne is allowed to renew the domain and it cannot be yet registered because it’s still not returned to the public domain pool. After the 5-day Pending Delete Phase the Registry will release the domain name back into the public pool of available domain names enabling fresh registration.

Renew domain before redemption phase

It is strongly recommended that you renew your domain registration o­n time before the domain name is placed in redemption lock because o­nce its placed in redemption, the zone files of such domain gets automatically removed from the Domain Name Service and associated website and email etc services will cease to work.

See, what the domain sellers won’t tell you is that the domain name you are purchasing or have purchased can possibly infringe o­n trademark rights and you can lose that domain name or even worse.

Trademark and servicemark laws apply not o­nly off-line but o­n-line as well and they even apply to domain names.

Now, a trademark generally applies to goods where as a servicemark applies to services. For the purpose of this article I will refer to trademarks as the same rules apply.

A trademark can be a word, name, symbol, or device and it is used to distinguish and indentify the goods and services from o­ne person or company from that of another.

The purpose of a trademark is to prevent confusion in the eyes of the consumer relating to particular goods and services. Basically, they are in place to prevent unfair competition.

So with that said, just because you purchased a particular domain name it does not necessarily mean you have exclusive rights to it.

If there is a trademark in your domain name, the mark owner has a legal right to send you a “cease and desist” letter and possibly take that domain name away from you.

If you don’t believe a word I’ve said so far then I offer myself as proof because it happened to me. I recently lost o­ne of my domain names under this exact same circumstance.

For legal reasons I can’t tell you the domain name as I agreed to make no further references to it, but there were two words in my domain name that were associated with a trademark.

Now, I wasn’t aware of this when I purchased the domain name. And I definitely wasn’t aware of trademark laws.

Don’t be ignorant o­n the subject like I was. You can avoid any potential problems by educating yourself and thereby preventing the samething from happening to you.

Don’t make the same mistake that I did!

Do your research before you buy a domain name and make sure there is NO trademark associated with that name.

There are trademark search engines where you can type in a word or a phrase and it will tell you if it is a trademark.

You can visit the United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) website to do a trademark search:

http://www.uspto.gov/

Now, in my case I chose not to fight the trademark dispute and gave up my domain name voluntarily. I felt it just wasn’t worth the time, money and headaches to launch a fight over this.

If this should ever happen to you, you do have rights and there are proper channels to go through to settle the dispute. Contact a lawyer who specializes in this field.

And don’t even think for o­ne minute that this sort of thing can’t happen to you. Trust me. If you have a trademark in your domain name it is o­nly a matter of time before you get that letter in the mail like I did.

There are numerous cases all over the internet concerning disputes over trademark and domain names.

Don’t you be o­ne of them…

If you would like more information o­n the subject of trademarks and domain names then I highly recommend you visit this website:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain

This article and any links associated with it are for informational purposes o­nly and not intended as legal advice. As always, speak to an attorney who specializes in this field in the event of a dispute.