a new client of mine has "forgot" to renew a .co.uk domain name.
The name is his registered company trading name (companytradingname.co.uk) and is trademarked (in the UK).
He has never used the domain name, not even for forwarding, prefering to use a shorter companytrading.co.uk domain. But he wants to get it back to protect his brand. (horse / door / bolted spring to mind)
The domain was snpped up when it expired and is pointing to a holding page (with a few non subject related affiliate links on it).
Can anybody give me any advice on the best (ie cheapest) way to get the name back for him?
Would an email to the new owners secure it (or just bump up the price?). I'm inclined to get him to send a strongly worded lawyer's letter to the new owner pointing out the trademark situation and see if that shakes them up a bit.
Personally, I'm loathed to go down the Nominet DRS route and pay out £900 with no guarantee of getting the name.
Any assistance appreciated.
Would an email to the new owners secure it (or just bump up the price?). I'm inclined to get him to send a strongly worded lawyer's letter to the new owner pointing out the trademark situation and see if that shakes them up a bit.
make sure you have a water tight case first, I snapped up a brand type domain and when the old owner came knocking, the a laywers letter stating that we most take the site down, we did when we won the case we counter sued for loss of earnings and won that too...
but we settled out of court on more times than i dare to count due to the fact that we would lose!
registered company trading name (companytradingname.co.uk) and is trademarked (in the UK).send them a friendly email the chances are are better if you take the softly softly approach and you have a better chance of getting it back, go in hard and they could destroy the domain ( porn site or something else like that )
DaveN
