Corporate squatting on a commercial scale

54and56

Hi guys,

I'm interested in registering a domain name which is consistent with the service offered by my company etc.  When I enter the domain name I am re-directed to http://www.entrepreneursupplies.com/domains.html who quite openly state they have registered the name and anyone interested in acquiring it should contact them.

I didn't think this sort of behaviour was allowed by https://www.iedr.ie so I went to register a complaint with IEDR but their FAQ says pursuing a dispute about a domain requires payment of a minimum of €1,500 and up to €5,000 to WIPO (http://www.wipo.int/portal/en/) which is pretty prohibitive and IMHO actually provides cyber squatters with a fair degree of protection from being challenged rather than facilitating same.

I guess I'm just checking with you guys as to whether my choices are:-

1. Try and buy the domain from the squatters
2. Pursue the WIPO process which could cost up to €5,000 and take a long time no doubt.
3. Just forget about the domain.

Cheers.  

mneylon

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm interested in registering a domain name which is consistent with the service offered by my company etc.  When I enter the domain name I am re-directed to http://www.entrepreneursupplies.com/domains.html who quite openly state they have registered the name and anyone interested in acquiring it should contact them.

I didn't think this sort of behaviour was allowed by https://www.iedr.ie so I went to register a complaint with IEDR but their FAQ says pursuing a dispute about a domain requires payment of a minimum of €1,500 and up to €5,000 to WIPO (http://www.wipo.int/portal/en/) which is pretty prohibitive and IMHO actually provides cyber squatters with a fair degree of protection from being challenged rather than facilitating same.

I guess I'm just checking with you guys as to whether my choices are:-

1. Try and buy the domain from the squatters
2. Pursue the WIPO process which could cost up to €5,000 and take a long time no doubt.
3. Just forget about the domain.

Cheers.  

Is the domain an exact or close match of a trademark your company holds? If it isn't then it's not cybersquatting. See: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

If the domain is a generic term such as "widgets.ie" then you can try approaching the current holder to see if they will release the domain to you (how you reach that arrangement is between you and them and under current .ie policy is a messy area)

In order to pursue a dispute claim via WIPO you would need to show that the domain name was registered in bad faith and infringes upon your intellectual property

Also you might be interested in the new domain name for the global Irish .irish https://www.blacknight.com/register-irish-domains.html

HTH

Michele