Hopefully someone could advise me on the course of action I should take to sort out the following problem. I had registered a domain for an architect, the domain name was the first and last name of the company's owner. Unfortunately I allowed the name to expire. Someone has now re-registered this domain name and are now offering arichitect services from this site even though they don't have any real connection to the persons name. Is there a way to contest this or is this just a lesson for me to never allow a domain name to expire. Thanks for any advice.
[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 7:56 pm (utc) on April 28, 2004]
You're only real course of action is to threaten (or actually) sue on the grounds that it's copyright infringment. OR...offer them some $$$$.
Then I'd email the people and offer then half to two/thirds number given the attorney.
There seems to be bad faith activity on behalf of the new registrant. It's pretty clear that they have no reason to use the name other than to leverage off the goodwill and reputation of the previous registrant (your architect). This seems more clear cut than expiration and reuse of a generic "foobariscool.com" domain name.
Perhaps you should write a letter to them stating that you're not happy with the situation and would like to resolve it amicably and you offer a token payment to cover transfer costs / etc back to you, but failing that, you are prepared to seek domain name dispute resolution and you believe you have a good chance as you believe they are operating in bad faith.
You probably do need professional help in the dispute resolution process if you don't feel competent to handle it yourself.
Just as a side note: in regard to trademark renewals, if you lapse on payment of renewal, you have a six month grace period to correct it, and even after that, you may apply for restoration. I know this behaviour doesn't apply for domain names, but it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere in the future the principle will be developed along these lines.
