So I received a DRS complaint

[Lovekraft]

This has come as a bit of a surprise. Just received a DRS complaint via Nominet from a property letting company who operates on the .org for the domain they are filing a complaint against.

The domain in question is a surname and is currently parked (I do understand that this might not be in my favour if it displays links of a similar service, should I mention the ads are fed by a third party supplier?). They claim on their site they have a trademark for the term, although oddly I can't find one listed on ipo.gov.uk and there is no mention of a trademark in the complaint so seems a cheeky claim they have on on their website which just shows how much they are chancers.

Reading the complaint it seems there may be history of them trying to buy it in the past and they claim I've tried to sell it for "thousands". However I only caught the domain last year and have never had any correspondence with this person so they can't use past negotiations against me surely. He also claims my site receives hundreds of visitors that takes away business from him... my stats show it's barely received any traffic whatsoever!

I've never contacted the company or tried to sell them the domain.

I'm a bit miffed, if they had actually bothered to contact me before carrying out such a knee jerk reaction they probably could have bought the domain for less than it costs to file a DRS.

I'm also miffed because it is going to eat into my time to defend it. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Also if it is found in their favour, what consequences can this have on me as a tag holder?

 

[timter51]

I'd say the only thing that is slightly against you is the ads situation. Have they included screenshot of ads on the parking page? Have they even mentioned it? If not, make no mention of it at all, and take the parking page down asap (or at least remove the ads). Get it taken out of web archive as well if it's in there.

The rest of it sounds like pissing in the wind on their side. They have to prove that it is an abusive registration, I can't remember the exact wording but they need to show that you registered the domain purely to profit from or disrupt their business. All you've done is registered a surname domain name, one of the most common practices of domain investors across the planet.

 

[Lovekraft]

I'd say the only thing that is slightly against you is the ads situation. Have they included screenshot of ads on the parking page? Have they even mentioned it? If not, make no mention of it at all, and take the parking page down asap (or at least remove the ads). Get it taken out of web archive as well if it's in there.

The rest of it sounds like pissing in the wind on their side. They have to prove that it is an abusive registration, I can't remember the exact wording but they need to show that you registered the domain purely to profit from or disrupt their business. All you've done is registered a surname domain name, one of the most common practices of domain investors across the planet.

Thanks for the advice, they have mentioned the links yes but they claim I have created them myself, they are just auto generated. It will make me think twice about parking domains in this manner in future though as this is about the one concern I have regarding my ownership.

I think I stand a good chance of winning the case though, it's not like it is some made up word or trademarked term.

 

[dee]

@Lovekraft Do you lose control of the domain under such circumstances ? I mean do Nominet lock it any way while DRS is under way ?

Good luck. It's clearly allowed to register domains with purpose of selling so hopefully they dont have a leg to stand on.

 

[Sam]

@Lovekraft Do you lose control of the domain under such circumstances ? I mean do Nominet lock it any way while DRS is under way ?

Good luck. It's clearly allowed to register domains with purpose of selling so hopefully they dont have a leg to stand on.

No nominet dont lock it away

Not always the case depends im guessing you never had a DRS so depends who you have reviewing the case and depends if they pay for the full decision...

 

[dee]

So in theory if someone else offered you a price you would accept before the DRS came up, you would be allowed to sell it on to someone else ? Would the other party then have to start a new DRS I wonder as it would be a new owner ?

If it's a surname, im sure you must get a few offers.

 

[Sam]

So in theory if someone else offered you a price you would accept before the DRS came up, you would be allowed to sell it on to someone else ? Would the other party then have to start a new DRS I wonder as it would be a new owner ?

If it's a surname, im sure you must get a few offers.

No as nominet would get the name back if they won the DRS and you would have to pay back the client so no its not how it works.....

 

[dee]

No as nominet would get the name back if they won the DRS and you would have to pay back the client so no its not how it works.....

Okay. That makes sense. Figures they would let a loophole like that go unplugged

 

[scottmccloud]

Do you still get the option of going to mediation? Might be most cost-effective all-round to come to a cash settlement during this process.

 

[Admin]

Contact them direct and offer them the domain for £700 (if you would be happy with that). They accept. Game over.

 

[Sean]

Contact them direct and offer them the domain for £700 (if you would be happy with that). They accept. Game over.

I wouldn't underestimate the bitterness that some have towards towards "cyber squatters" and if they refuse you'll almost certainly lose the name as your offer to sell could be seen as proof of an abusive registration. Personally, I wouldn't have any contact with the complainant, go through the channels.

James Dale (a member on here) had something similar happen with oasis .co.uk which he had parked at Sedo. If I remember rightly he lost the name initially and then appealed after it was discovered that Oasis (the clothing people) where buying ads for the keyword oasis.co.uk which were then displayed on the Sedo page. I know he's a busy chap but maybe give him a shout and see if he can offer any advice.

The other person to ask would be Garth Piesse. He comes out all guns blazing if he gets this type of DRS. He's spent good money fighting a few and I think he even got the expert to deem it reverse hijacking on one case.

 

[Lovekraft]

Do you still get the option of going to mediation? Might be most cost-effective all-round to come to a cash settlement during this process.

Yes I have the option of going to mediation. Their complaint is very weak and is mostly made up of false information and figures pulled out of mid air with no facts to back them up so if it does reach that stage I'm hopeful of a positive outcome.

Contact them direct and offer them the domain for £700 (if you would be happy with that). They accept. Game over.

Funnily enough I did call Nominet to see if contacting the complainant direct was an option and they have said that it is fine to do so and can't be used against me as it is seen as trying to resolve the issue amicably and he mentioned if that means settling on a cash figure then so be it. I am a little skeptical of that though, I feel they could still try and use it against me regardless of Nominets advice here.

 

[scottmccloud]

Funnily enough I did call Nominet to see if contacting the complainant direct was an option and they have said that it is fine to do so and can't be used against me as it is seen as trying to resolve the issue amicably and he mentioned if that means setting on a cash figure then so be it. I am a little skeptical of that though, I feel they could still try and use it against me.

That's why you should do it through the mediation process.

 

[Sean]

Funnily enough I did call Nominet to see if contacting the complainant direct was an option and they have said that it is fine to do so and can't be used against me as it is seen as trying to resolve the issue amicably and he mentioned if that means setting on a cash figure then so be it. I am a little skeptical of that though, I feel they could still try and use it against me.

Bollocks to that. Nominet won't make the decision, an independent "expert" will. Read some previous DRS's before you go down that route, there's some stinkers!

 

[Lovekraft]

And before today I didn't realise it was free for anyone to submit a complaint. I always thought the £750 fee was applicable at the first stage and not just for a final decision. Seems open to abuse.

 

[Sean]

And before today I didn't realise it was free for anyone to submit a complaint. I always thought the £650 fee was applicable at the first stage and not just for a final decision. Seems open to abuse.

It is open to abuse but you'll see how serious they are when they have to pay for an expert decision.

 

[timter51]

He might not thank me for saying it but I second contacting Garth, he helped me a lot when I got DRS'd last year. My DRS went to mediation and the complainant agreed to just pay me the low £x,xxx I was asking for in the first place They obviously realised their complaint was baseless, I absolutely smashed it in my initial complaint response (even though it was a massive time sink and ball ache), Garth's advise was incredibly helpful.

 

[Lovekraft]

He might not thank me for saying it but I second contacting Garth, he helped me a lot when I got DRS'd last year. My DRS went to mediation and the complainant agreed to just pay me the low £x,xxx I was asking for in the first place They obviously realised their complaint was baseless, I absolutely smashed it in my initial complaint response (even though it was a massive time sink and ball ache), Garth's advise was incredibly helpful.

Thanks, yes I know Garth has received more than his fair share, he owns so many domains he is bound to get a considerable amount I guess.

 

[Nigel]

It's about time Nominet charged complainants something for filing a complaint. Seems to me that a lot of these complaints are baseless and defendants spend loads of time (and money if they instruct solicitors) to defend themselves. I also wonder whether Nominet fully explain to enquirers that they'll very likely have to spend £750 on an expert decision fee. At the present time there is nothing to stop someone filing 100s of complaints in one go. There should be a minimum £100 fee for simply filing a complaint - followed by a higher expert decision fee (it's been £750 for a very long time - perhaps it should have been increased at the same rate as nominet pay!)

 

[Lovekraft]

It's about time Nominet charged complainants something for filing a complaint. Seems to me that a lot of these complaints are baseless and defendants spend loads of time (and money if they instruct solicitors) to defend themselves. I also wonder whether Nominet fully explain to enquirers that they'll very likely have to spend £750 on an expert decision fee. At the present time there is nothing to stop someone filing 100s of complaints in one go. There should be a minimum £100 fee for simply filing a complaint - followed by a higher expert decision fee (it's been £750 for a very long time - perhaps it should have been increased at the same rate as nominet pay!)

I complete agree, like I say I always thought the fee was charged at the first stage so learning today that this isn't the case has come as quite a surprise!