I would hit the new owner with several tons of legal bricks, they need to understand immediately you intend to get it back and don't care about how much it costs in legal fees (even if you do care).
Most of the people that prey of expiring domain names are scum....a warning shot is not usually warrented....nuke 'em straight off the bat!
Woah....IMHO The Cayman Islands means you are in trouble. Forming a company there is not too difficult, but obeying the rules associated with doing so legally is something that only the very serious can achieve.....means huge legal bills as these guys ain't gonna laydown their cards easily!
People who own companies in the Caymans play hardball...If your domain name is now held by a Cayman Islands corporation....I wish you luck, you will need it.
I recommend you contact the new registrant first though. Who knows he may not be attached to the domain and would be willing to give it back for the cost of his registration. Worth a shot.
Bluesky seems to know his/her stuff.
UDRP is the way to go. But research it well first. I used the UDRP - and arbitration through WIPO - to reclaim a domain, and I didn't use lawyers. BUT of course standard disclaimer of I-am-not-a-lawyer, get-legal-advice always holds. It did cost me about $1500.
Read old cases of domain disputes. WIPO for example have a lot of cases in their online database. Read through a few. See what grounds people lost or won on. In brief you will need to prove
1. That you have an interest in the domain (having owned the domain before this may be easy to prove. If you have a trademark in that name it will help your case)
2. That the new holder doesn't have any interest. Do a whois, get whatever information you can on him. See if the word relates in any way to his business. (A little more difficult to prove, but if his main business is scavenging domains then it will be a piece of cake, Search arbitration records to see if his name/domain/nameservers etc featured in a previous case)
3. That the new holder is acting in bad faith. (This is the tricky part. He could claim that he's looking to start up a business with this name. What's very useful here is going through previous cases to see how others have proved part 3)
Good luck
teeceo.
P.S. Speaking of (take your emotions out of this)....."Most of the people that prey of expiring domain names are scum....a warning shot is not usually warrented....nuke 'em straight off the bat!"..... Now thats exaclly the emotions i'm talking about. Speaking with your heart and not with your head on this matter will get you nowhere.
And as for as (domain snipers) being "scum", that is just mean, untrue, and shows your "low intelligents". Expired domain grabing is not about (sticking up your a$$) its a business and not only that, the people who do this are not stealing from anyone, they are just picking up some property that someone else left out. In a sence, i guess you can say that they are the same as garbage men and bankers (both come around to pick-up un claimed realestate:).
p.s.s. "percentages"
I just had a look at your (Occupation): "Traffic Cop" no wonder your so mad:).
look on the icann site for the specific rules that
the registrars must operate under.
++++
Bluesky - I have already emailed the new owner along the lines of 'we hope you will consider selling the domain back to us to avoid any formal dispute' - no reply as yet!
Macro - yes it's a .com and I have been researching cases as you suggested - which leaves me somewhat un-optimistic of the outcome - one in particular seems similar to my case and the complainant lost the case (btw against the same company that grabbed our domain)- I hope it's OK to post the url of the details, if not I'm sure a mod will soon delete it:
[arbiter.wipo.int...]
Teeceo - excellent advice, thank you
take your emotions out of this. The domain did have PR4 but obviously this has gone now and no great amount of traffic; nor is it a one-word domain either; so don't know why it was grabbed. Suppose it's possible it could be used for a porn site though...
I do hope you get it back, and at a reasonable amount.
I know I would not be happy if our domain had expired and someone else nabbed it up.
teeceo.
In that particular dispute you cited, the domain is descriptive/generic, and the complainant didn't register it as a trademark or meet criteria showing exclusiveness. This BVI company has a track record of grabbing generic named domains. They also appear to set up portals trying to legitimize use until a buyer is found. If you have a trademark on this name, it might be worth exploring more into his reseller activity to show he's really cybersquatting these domains. Doesn't appear this type of info was brought up in the other case.
If you cannot get it back informally, I think you might be better off just getting an attorney and filing a lawsuit against all three.
