Domain Name Issues

[patricktt]

Hi everyone,

Bit of an issue which I wouldn't mind getting some advice on.

I have a client, EzeFeeder, who make grain feeders and are based in Brookton, WA. Their website was started some time ago, however there was a halt in development for approximately 6 months, and the domain name wasn't purchased at that time.

Today I have gone to register their domain name (www.ezefeeder.com.au) and I see it is taken.

Doing a whois lookup on it reveals that the person who has registered it has a postcode of 3146, Victoria - but there is no website uploaded to the address.

I have also done a quick search on the ABN for their main competitor, Advantage Feeders, and the registration info also points to a person of postcode 3146, Victoria.

This competitor has also used the keyword ezefeeder in their adwords campaigns, so that they appear at the top of any page where ezefeeder is searched.

My question is, if their business name is not EzeFeeder, and they have no reason to hold the domain other than to stop my client from using it, isn't that illegal? I'm sure when I register a .com.au domain I have to specify why I have the rights to it.

If this is the case, what can be done to get this domain registered for my client? (in the mean time I have registered ezefeeders.com.au but obviously not ideal)

[Franki]

If your client's name is trademarked, they can lodge a dispute with auDA and would like get a ruling in their favour, INAL so seek proper advice.

Also if they're TM'd, lodge the TM with Google and no one will be able to bid for that name in Adwords.

[patricktt]

Thanks for the advice, checking with the client now.

[adrianlynch]

***IANAL***

You do not have to have a registered trademark to successfully make a compaint. AuDA recognise registered business or trading names as being valid reasons for making a complaint.

Read through the AuDRP (http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2002-22/) - it's actually interesting reading.

In this case your complaint would be valid under section 4(a)(i):

your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a name [Note 1], trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; and


And also 4(b)(ii):

you have registered the domain name in order to prevent the owner of a name, trademark or service mark from reflecting that name or mark in a corresponding domain name; or


Possibly 4(b)(iii) as well:

you have registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business or activities of another person; or

[patricktt]

or all of the above :D have made the complaint, waiting to hear from them to see what happens..

[WorldFamousWebdeveloper]

And if dispute is succesfull, do the following.
1/ Ensure the name is registered in the clients NAME.
2/ Advise client to register as a trademark, the url.
i.e. ezefeeder.com.au ® as extra protection.
This will protect the client against someone using the URL in any promotional material, including Meta Tags and Anchor text on websites.
3/ In future register any name when any project is first started, even if project gets stalled later. This will prevent a repeat of this important lesson. Cost is only a mere fraction of any project cost, but saves a lot of heart-ache.

[patricktt]

absolutely, normally do that now anyway, but this project initially started some time ago and for some reason i didnt...