Lord Of Your Domain?In these booming Internet days, domain names are becoming increasingly important. Recent domain name auctions have seen bids in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for key generic domains. A current domain name dispute provides an important lesson for all domain name holders about ensuring that they retain what they have paid for. What Happened? This particular dispute involves a company which was established a few years ago. Before the company was established, a future shareholder who was closely involved in establishing the company registered the proposed company name as a domain name. This was a sensible course to take to prevent any opportunistic opportunistic /op·por·tu·nis·tic/ (op?er-tldbomacn-is´tik) 1. denoting a microorganism which does not ordinarily cause disease but becomes pathogenic under certain circumstances. 2. domain name registrations by those who monitor new company registrations and snap up the corresponding domain with a view to offering it to the new company, for a fee of course. The company was established and commenced operations. It used the domain name for both its website and its email purposes. The company spent a significant amount of money establishing its website and conducted a substantial amount of its business through its website. Subsequently, the shareholder and the company/other shareholders had a falling out. The end result was that the key employee/shareholder left the company. Not surprisingly, there were various matters in dispute between the employee and the company/other shareholders. No one remembered (or possibly was even aware) that the now ex-employee was the registered holder of the company's domain name. After leaving the company, the ex-employee tried without success to resolve the various disputes which had arisen. After a time, the parties reached a stalemate stale·mate n. 1. A situation in which further action is blocked; a deadlock. 2. A drawing position in chess in which the king, although not in check, can move only into check and no other piece can move. tr.v. with neither side willing to make any concessions. When it became apparent to the ex-employee that recourse through legal channels was likely to be expensive and time consuming, he set up a new website and directed the domain hoster to repoint Verb 1. repoint - repair the joints of bricks; "point a chimney" point fix, furbish up, mend, repair, bushel, doctor, touch on, restore - restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken; "She repaired her TV set"; "Repair my shoes please" the domain to his website. Because he was registered as the owner of the domain, this was a simple matter to organise. As a result, all enquiries aimed at the company's website were redirected to his website instead. The company's email system was also affected. The company is now in a major dispute with the ex-employee over ownership and rights to the domain name. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , the company's business continues to be affected as the ex-employee continues to be listed as the holder of the domain and all web traffic is diverted di·vert v. di·vert·ed, di·vert·ing, di·verts v.tr. 1. To turn aside from a course or direction: Traffic was diverted around the scene of the accident. 2. to the ex-employee's site. A simple oversight by the company has resulted in considerable business disruption disruption /dis·rup·tion/ (dis-rup´shun) a morphologic defect resulting from the extrinsic breakdown of, or interference with, a developmental process. and the need to incur expenses in seeking to obtain a transfer of the domain name from the ex-employee. What Are The Lessons From The Dispute? The lessons from the dispute are fairly simple but are worth setting out: Ensure all domain names are registered in the name of the company rather than individuals who are associated with the company. Sometimes, it can be easier for the domain names to be in the name of an individual because this avoids the need to provide the necessary proof of authority. However, it can lead to the kind of problems which the above scenario demonstrates. You can find out whether a particular domain name has already been registered and the identity of the registrant An individual or organization that signs up (registers) for a training class or service. See domain name registrar. by using search tools of domain registrars See domain name registrar. accredited accredited recognition by an appropriate authority that the performance of a particular institution has satisfied a prestated set of criteria. accredited herds cattle herds which have achieved a low level of reactors to, e.g. by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers See ICANN. (body, networking) Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - (ICANN) The non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for IP address allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system (ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, www.icann.org) A non-profit, international association founded in 1998 and incorporated in the U.S. It is the successor to IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which manages Internet addresses, domain names and the huge number ). Some of these accredited domain registrars may be found at http://www.melbourneit.com.au/, http://www.namescout.com/, http://www.enom.com/. Review existing domain names to ensure that they are all registered in the name of the company and not in the name of any employee or, even worse, a consultant or ex-consultant who may have assisted with obtaining the domain names. When personnel are leaving the company, particularly personnel involved in the establishment of the company or personnel with responsibility for IT matters, ensure that they sign any necessary transfer forms or attend to any matters required to transfer domain names belonging to the company which have inadvertently (or deliberately) been registered in their name. These are all reasonably simple measures to take but failing to take them can result in very significant expense and considerable inconvenience. And while on the subject of domain names, in the course of settling a trade mark dispute recently, a client was required to transfer various domain names to the other party to the dispute. Imagine the client's surprise when it found a domain name on the list that it had not registered but which was listed as owned by it. A company in the US, Sipence, Inc has apparently been busily registering domain names in the .info space but in the name of the correct owner. Its reasons for doing so are unclear. Dealing with the issue has proved quite difficult. There is not much to be done about this issue apart from being aware that it is happening. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances CIRCUMSTANCES, evidence. The particulars which accompany a fact. 2. The facts proved are either possible or impossible, ordinary and probable, or extraordinary and improbable, recent or ancient; they may have happened near us, or afar off; they are public or . Mr Chris Bevitt Shelston IP Level 21 60 Margaret Street Sydney NSW NSW New South Wales Noun 1. NSW - the agency that provides units to conduct unconventional and counter-guerilla warfare Naval Special Warfare 2000 AUSTRALIA Fax: 0292414666 E-mail: mondaq@shelstonip.com URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.shelstonip.com Click Here for related articles (c) Mondaq Ltd, 2006 - Tel. +44 (0)20 8544 8300 - http://www.mondaq.com |
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