I have owned my domain name since 2006. I use the url on all of my business cards, tags, logos, etc.
Last year I renewed my domain with GoDaddy. Recently is was sold to someone else. Godaddy says that they emailed me (to my current email addres) six times. They never emailed me. Believe me, this is my business, if they would of emailed me to say it was expiring or they were selling it, I would of renewed it right away.
I own another domain. That one expired at the same time, I got an email and renewed it right away.
Yes, I should of realized, remembered that it was expiring but I was used to <the company> reminding me each year and renewing it that way.
Anyway, now someone else owns my domain. I tried contacting this person through their whois info but got no reply. The info and answering maching did not seem like real info for a "real" person.
I need to buy my domain back because it would be really expensive for me to redo all of my printed items with the url on it.
The url is my trademarked business name. The url still pulls up my website- still connected to it, I just can't edit it and it is missing my template and graphics.
Please help me with this.
Where do I go from here?
TIA!
[edited by: Webwork at 4:37 pm (utc) on Nov. 17, 2009]
[edit reason] Tidying up. Click "Charter" link to read and understand practices and policy. [/edit]
The url is my trademarked business name.
We do not give legal advice here however, in my opinion, since you owned the name before and IF it is genuinely trademarked, as opposed to a trading name, then you should not have a problem getting the name back however you will most probably need the advice and letter sent by a good lawyer to exert the right amount of pressure.
If it was merely a trading name then you may have a much bigger problem but you do have prior history with the name, it may just take a bit more pressure to get it back.
I own another domain. That one expired at the same time, I got an email and renewed it right away.
Do you have a registered tradenark>
It's odd how when you went to your GD account to renew the other one you did not notice the importsnt domain in the Domain Manager list. It should have been real obvious on the page.
P.S. GD is normally very good at sending a series of reminder emails.
I used to have my business domain through another registrar also. This is the first year that I used Godaddy and the first year that I did not receive notification that it was expiring.
I have a very small business and am not sure that I can afford a lawyer. Is there anything else that I can do?
How do I even contact the new owner? we have tried and they have not replied.
[edited by: Webwork at 6:38 am (utc) on Nov. 16, 2009]
You should also check that GoDaddy has the correct email address for you and that their emails aren't dumped into a spam folder. Having verified these are ok, you could reasonably ask GoDaddy for proof that they emailed you, however, I doubt that will get you very far.
Incidentally, bad grammar/spelling can be off-putting to potential customers, so, when you sort out your current problem, this might be something to check, for instance "would/should of" should read "would/should have" or "would/should've" however the latter is usually only used in speech.
Kaled.
I have a very small business and am not sure that I can afford a lawyer.
I'm guessing he doesn't have a registered trademark. Assuming the domain name is the same as the company name and is a made-up word then ICAAN's rules with respect to domain-squatting might apply.
Kaled.
I have a very small business and am not sure that I can afford a lawyer.
Obviosuly I have no idea where you live however in the UK we have an association called the FSB, Federation of Small Business, which has more than 215,000 members and an annual fee of, I think GBP 75.00. This entitles a member to free legal advice etc and many other benefits.
No matter in which country you are these associations are worth their weight in gold at times like this plus the fee is tax deductible.
Are you not elligible for any free legal advice service?
Please remove name drop if necessary however many small businesses forget the power of the collective:-)
Try to find the owner, or see which registrar its pointing to and then contact them. (you will probably be asked to send them an email describing what happened)
best of luck.
I have an editor that reviews my site for grammar errors- for free, family member. ;)
I am a female and in the US... business is baby related. I will look up the squatting info. Thanks.
I do own three other domains- 2 related to this business and one family. All three are through other sites and updated as soon as they are close to expiring and I am notified. I was not notified this time.
It is a great money making scheme. You can sign up on GoDaddy's site to be notified when urls are about to expire... you just pay a fee to godaddy. And then the original owner pays money back to godaddy to acquire it again.
I sent a registered letter to the address of the new owner today so that I know if they receive it or not. So far we have had zero luck contacting them via phone or email.
