Hi, One of my clients has a little problem and i'm not sure if we can do anything. She has her website running on a .net version of her domain. Sometime ago someone wanted to buy into her business. Before he made her the offer he registered the .co.uk and the .com himself. She turned down the offer and he wasn't to happy. He is now sitting on these domains and not using them and, as far as we now, he has no intention of using them. Is there anyway to get these domains or, as he registered them fairly, can't we do it unless he agrees? The domain names are the name of her company and i heard somewhere that if you registered a logo then there was some law that said you were entitled to the related domain names. Is this true? Hope this all makes sense!!
To be specific a bit, your client needs to demonstrate 2 things if they choose to go the "legal" route: 1. They need to show they have established trademark rights for the term/s. 2. They need to show the other party has a "bad faith" intent to infringe #1. If your client can do both, it's best they seek an attorney who specializes on these things to assess their risks. They can either sue in court under any law applicable to such a situation, or file a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy to try to wrest control of the domain name from the party in question. But unless your client can do #1, they likely have no enforceable claims.
Both the US & UK have gov't trademark offices and websites. If you already have a trademark on the name you can file a UDRP at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm If you do not already have the name trademarked then you cannot now get a trademark to "reverse-hijack" & get existing domains from current owners.