If a domain name in which a company or individual owns the rights has been registered by an unauthorised third party, it may make commercial sense to recover that domain name.

A domain name is valuable intellectual property.  It may reflect a registered trade mark.  Or it may be a name in which you own the trading goodwill because it is the name of a company, a brand, a famous individual, or even a fictitious character such as Scooby-Doo or Harry Potter.  

Domain names disputes are not restricted just to “cybersquatters”. They may involve a variety of unauthorised registrants including legitimate business competitors, individuals seeking to piggyback on the goodwill in a name or brand for their own financial gain, and those who register a domain name in order to set up a website to criticise the rights owner in question (so-called "sucks sites").

Partners at Addleshaw Goddard recently contributed knowledge to a guide about protecting Corporate Reputation that was published by the CBI. Click here to see more information on Corporate Reputation or to read the guide "The power of reputation - Protecting your company's biggest asset".

Clients and experience
We have recovered more than 325 domain names from unauthorised third party registrants.  We have acted for companies and individuals protecting their own names and brands, and also for the record and film majors protecting the names of their artists and properties.

We have extensive experience and expertise in the domain name dispute resolution procedures provided by WIPO through ICANN and by Nominet (including the first successful appeal under that system).   If the claimant has a registered trade mark which has been infringed by a third party’s registration and/or use of a domain name, an application for an injunction may be appropriate.  Even if the name is not a registered trade mark, there may be an alternative claim in passing off.  

Domain names successfully recovered for our clients include:

• Arrypotter.co.uk
• Batman5.co.uk
• Billyconnolly.com
• BritishLandCompany.com
• CentralPerk.co.uk
• Coolchain.co.uk
• Dymo.co.uk
• Easyjets.com
• ElvisCostello.com
• HarryPotterBooks.co.uk
• Hogwarts.co.uk
• JKRowling.org
• NationalGeographic.tv
• OrderofthePhoenix.net
• Quidditch.org.uk
• Sade.com
• Speedo.co.uk
• Scoobydoo.co.uk