On the 15th September, two weeks before the domain was due to expire, our registrar supposedly sent an email to our parent company (no letter or fax) informing them that they had 2 weeks to pay up or loose the domain.
About 4 weeks later the WHOIS details have now changed and the domain is pointing to a blank page hosted on a different IP!
The domain is the name of our company which is trade marked.
I can't believe that a domain can be snatched off us like that. We have sent multiple emails and a letter to the new resitrar and current owner of the domain and asked them to hand over the domain but we have had not reply from them and they don't pick up thier phone (in France).
Is there anything other than taking internationl legal action to get our domain back? We are losing business every day and its really starting to hurt.
Thanks for the feedback.
If the name is trademarked then the legal route is open to you. You don't say if the correspondance you have had with the new owners of the domain came from a lawyer, but I would say that is the first step.
It may be though, given the cost of going to law, that the cheaper and more pragmatic and likely faster way is to make them a decent offer on the basis that if they turn it down you will then go to law, and pointing out that as the name is trademarked you have a very strong case.
