Company Recovers Domain Name from Web Developer

If a business discovers that someone else has registered a UK domain name which is similar to its own name or trading style, it can make a complaint to Nominet UK through its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS). Recently, a DRS complaint made by an architectural company resulted in an independent expert directing that a domain name be transferred to the company from its web developer.

The web developer had registered the domain name on the company's behalf. Some years later, the web developer stopped responding to the company's communications and the company was left unable to manage its website and email. It sought to recover the domain name from the web developer.

The domain name was identical to the company's trading name, which it had used for many years. The expert was therefore satisfied that the company had established rights in a name or mark identical to the domain name.

The company also needed to show that the domain name constituted an abusive registration in the hands of the web developer. Although the web developer had been acting as agent for the company, it had either registered the domain name in its own name or later transferred it into its own name, most likely without the company's consent. The expert considered such behaviour to be abusive. He also noted that the domain name had been registered as a result of a relationship between the company and the web developer, and that the company had used it exclusively and had almost certainly paid for its registration and renewal.