False Registration Info - Competitor Put our Address

[jam2005]

A competitor registered a domain name that is very similar to ours and then provided our mailing address for the whois info. We'd like to get this domain name because it has been confusing some of our customers.

Any advice?

[Don_Hoagie]

Huh?

Why would they provide your mailing address in the Whois? Are they that black-hat bent? I don't even know what purpose that would serve, as no average customer of yours or theirs would ever be bothered with the information in a Whois record. Haha, I guess they think that maybe the registrar will send the domain bill to you guys? That would be classic.

I don't know what the penalty is for providing false Whois info, but I would take it that the only leg you have to stand on, if any, is ironically the fact that they're putting you down in the Whois. I would go that route, contacting the registrar perhaps, and your lawyer. But as far as the name itself, the domain is theirs; you have no rights to it, as is my understanding. If it is important enough to be worried about now, it was probably important for you to purchase it back when it was available.

[jam2005]

I have no idea why they would do that. They've doing stuff like this for years and since they are not in the US we are not able to do anything about it.

[bird]

Ask the registrar what the procedure is if you lost your login info. You can claim to be the rightful owner by providing the proper paperwork, because you own the name/address/etc. used to register the domain.

After all, your competitor has registered the domain in your name, so it's really yours... ;)

[Webwork]

You might be able to offer a telephone number to address match that would prove something isn't right and move forward from that proof.

[Don_Hoagie]

Please do let us know what happens with this... I'm curious as to what legal validity a Whois record has, if any. My thinking was always that it is there only for reference, and since it is not policed (as you've already found out) beyond the occasional "please update your Whois" email from the registrar, it can't possibly hold any legal weight. The person whose bank account gets smaller in exchange for having the domain is the person who owns all rights to it, and can do what they please with the Whois. That's how I always saw it.

Good luck

[davezan]

Used your mailing address....but who's the listed registrant and admin email address?

If the admin email's yours... ;)

On the other hand, if only the postal address is yours but the rest aren't, legal options might be your only bet.

[aeiouy]

Actually I am pretty sure you could challenge it as invalid information. If they check on it, you should be able to contest the validity of it, because it is not your domain.

Although I would go the route of trying to get control of it first.