Domain name is locked. Urgent advice is needed!

Hi guys. My friend recently got a notification that his domain name is locked by domain name registrar because of the opened case in wipo.int. They gave him 20 days to answer. The fact is that his domain name contains a trade mark word. And the trade mark owners wish to take his domain or to block for good. My friend does realize that he probably will lose his domain name but he wants to make a 301 redirect to save the site and business itself.

Therefore we have a main question: will this arbitration organisation WIPO.int give us enough time to transfer a site to another domain? How much time will they give us? As it was written by Google it's needed up to 180 days to transfer a big site to a new domain using 301 redirect.

If someone had such a problem - please give an advice. What should we do? Thanks in advice.

 

I think there's no chance. Try to contact with them for telling your situation.

 

Intersting, I don't know anything about tm disputes. But, what about country limits. If the trademark owners wish to take his domain : shouldn't they have to pay. They cannot simply take anything if someone paid and possess it.

 

 They cannot simply take anything if someone paid and possess it. 

Code (markup):

Yes they actually can, if you are infringing on a trademark and they win they can take this domain from you, also you incur any costs associated with the filed case.

Also give an example of what the domain is and the trademark name. Cause they wouldnt bother doing it if they didnt think they would win.

 

I also heard, but didnt heard any real case. May b this is first one.....i hear.

 

locking is to prevent the transfer the domain.

if the domain is resolving then u can still do redirection with hosting.

 

Yes, but the question is how long will they let my friend make a redirection... if they take the domain, the 301 redirection will be over and he can lose some pages, etc.

 

I don't know about other countries but in the US they can take your domain name if it contains a trademark and there is nothing that you can do about it. It is really unfortunate but tell your friend not to fight too much because the company can try and sue you for the money that you made using their trademark name. Legal trademark issues are a really sticky subject. Good luck!

 

It's 10 days for the registrar to hand over the domain. You are not entitled to anytime for a 301 redirect. The trademark holder can also choose to sue you in court and seek damages and all profits from the site - plus treble their legal fees. Sometimes a trademark holder will allow a redirect for a short period of time if it saves them the expense of filing a WIPO - but that is up to them and if they have already paid, there is absolutely no reason for them to do it. You are going to lose all the backlinks to the infringing site eventually, so it would be best to get a new domain immediately (one that doesn't contain a trademark).

 

Thanks for the advices, guys! They gave 20 days to answer and my friend started 301 redirection to save as much traffic as it's possible. As for backlinks - now he is redirecting them to the new domains too. Let's hope he'll have enough time to save the main part of his business.

 

Out of interest what was the url that was in dispute ???

 

They will surely give you the needed time. Just you need to reply them, don't worry they have just made a transfer and you can tell them that you will make a hosting redirect and need more then 180 days for the domain to stay active.

I think they would allow you.