Domain Name details being withheld by ex-employee

Hi All

I have a slight problem with our organisations domain name and I was hoping somebody might be able to point me in the right direction.

Our organisation is fairly new and is set-up as a not for profit Social Enterprise, because funding was scarce in the first few months we relied upon the extra help of our volunteers and employees.

One of our employees registered a domain name for us which we fully reimbursed them for. However the employee then became an ex-employee and changed all the domain log-in details so we no longer have access to the account. The domain name is due for renewal in a couple of months time and any appeal made to the ex-employee for the log-in details for domain renewal have went ignored.

Is there any process we can go through to force the ex-employee to give up the domain details and hand over the account details.

Any help would be appreciatted, even links to sites that contain further info for this kind of dispute.

Thanks

 

YIKES!

Time to call your lawyer.

And, of course, next time: take more appropriate actions to protect your domain(s).

Good luck.

P.S. I doubt any domain registrars will be willing to help here. IMHO.

 

I agree -- sounds like this is what the lawyers are for! You shouldn't have any problems if your organization is properly registered and hopefully you have a receipt of reimbursement to that employee.

 

Although I do agree with both of the replies above, the only thing I would suggest that you do is to just put the domain on watchlist. Godaddy or some other domain registrars offers this options for you to pay for a domain in advance while the said domain is still registered to another person.

The purpose of this domain watchlist is that Godaddy will automatically grab the domain for you when that said domain expires. You will need to be discrete about this because once that ex-employee of yours finds out, he might re-register the domain again. Since it is almost expiring, you can do this approach.

I do not guarantee it will work for you but it surely is worth a try.

Go to godaddy.com then type in the domain on the search box, once the domain appears to be as a taken domain, they will have an option there for you to put in as watchlist.

Hope it helps,
Paul
servermode.com

 

I'd say the 3 posters above gave appropriate responses. This situation happens
quite often.

Depending on how long the domain name is registered for (especially if it will
expire soon) and where it's currently managed at, the registrar might have an
option to "sell" the domain name to an interested party once it expires but not
renewed timely. Otherwise, seek legal advice.

Unfortunately there's no immediate resolution to this sort of thing, especially
if it's a civil issue (which this is unless otherwise stated by a lawyer).

 

Godaddy will try to grab the domain for you.

If there are any decent backlinks/PR on the domain there will be many people trying to grab the domain, not just you, so there is no guarantee that you will get it back.

 

due to your organization's lack of funds, you may also recruit some college lawyers studying intellectual property laws or try a lawyer looking for some publicity

 

Okay the email and passwords are changed.

Is the WHOIS still on your name?

 

true, I stand corrected on this... tke71709 is pretty much correct on making my statement a better one...

 

Also Godaddy is the worst of all the drop services..

Try snapnames.com if it gets that far..

 

Yep the e-mail accounts are handled by our web hosts and all passwords have been changed. It is only the domain name we cant get access to. The WhoIs information still lists the ex-employees details.

Thanks everyone for the advice and help, very much appreciatted

 

I would consider filing a WIPO proceeding. They are not that bad to pursue, and being that you are a not-for-profit, they may even waive the proceedure fee.

Essentially, you could have the domain back within 30-45 days.

Another alternative is to file a small claims action against your employee. They are also very low cost and can have some real bite.

Good luck.