Who Owns Your Domain Name?

I’ve just been speaking to a prospective client who may end up losing their company’s domain name; this would affect their website and email services. So I thought it would be helpful to explain a number of issues surrounding the registration of domains.

First of all make sure, if you use an agent to register your domain name, be it a web developer, hosting service provider, employee or best mate that they use your details and not their own. Now this may seem obvious, but in so many instances this just doesn’t happen.

Sometimes it’s perfectly innocent; the agent is ignorant of the fact that by registering your domain name in their name they are investing legal ownership in themselves and not you. Consequently, they should be happy to consent to transfer of ownership to you.

Unfortunately, where web developers, and to a lesser extent graphic designers, are concerned I suspect the majority who register your domain name in their name actually know the legal ramifications, but do it to exercise a hold over you. Personally, I feel this is extremely unprofessional to say the least.

My advice would be to put your request for registration of your chosen domain name to your agent in writing; this way you have a record of the fact, which may prove very useful if your agent still registers the domain name using their details and not yours.

Assuming you’ve done this or your domain has already been registered in your name or that of a business you’ve no need to read any further.

Changing legal ownership

OK, so you’ve discovered you don’t own your domain name. What do you do now?

That depends on whether it’s a .uk domain (e.g. .co.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk, .org.uk or .me.uk) or a gTLD (global Top Level Domains) such as .com, .net, .org, .biz to name but a few.

.uk domains and Nominet

Nominet is the organisation that controls and administers .uk domains. You can buy a domain from Nominet direct, but it will cost about £80.00 + VAT for two years whereas agents charge just a fraction of that cost - Nominet want you to use registration agents so that they don’t have to deal with the administration overheads.

In the case of employees or ex-employees, provided you can prove this to be the case Nominet will charge you £10.00 and transfer ownership of the domain - once all the paperwork has been completed.

However, if the legal owner of the domain isn’t an employee, or ex-employee, you will have to go down another route.

First plan of action is to try to come to an amicable arrangement with the present legal owner. Talk to them, point out the mistake and ask them to agree to the transfer. If that works, download the transfer forms from the Nominet website and both parties will need to complete and sign the documentation. Send it off to Nominet with the appropriate fee and it should take about a week for Nominet to effect the change.

If you’re unlucky enough and the present owner disputes your rights to legal ownership then you will need to invoke Nominet’s DRS, Dispute Resolution Service.

The initial stage is free. Nominet speaks to both parties and tries to resolve the dispute. According to Nominet it has a 60% success rate.

Failing that, the next step is to request a Paid Expert Decision, which costs £750.00 + VAT. Once the decision has been given Nominet will either leave ownership as it is (the decision didn’t go in your favour) or change ownership - you won.

If either party wishes, there is the option to appeal against the decision. The appeal is organised by Nominet and the fee is £3000.00 + VAT. Again whether the ownership is changed will depend on the outcome.

gTLD Domains

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has overall responsibility for gTLDs and its Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) defines how disputes over domain name registrations are resolved in the global top-level domains (.biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org as well as .aero, .coop, and .museum). The UDRP includes a mandatory, non-binding, low-cost administrative procedure to resolve a certain set of claims - namely, claims of abusive, bad faith registration. This means a bad faith violation of someone else’s trademark. In situations other than these, the UDRP provides that disputes must be resolved by traditional means such as voluntary negotiation and lawsuits. The UDRP is part of the Registration Agreement that Internet users sign to register domain names in the global top-level domains. A copy of the policy is available at http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm.

However some registrars, like Tucows, allow the person with access to the domain records to change the ownership details in real time without having to obtain anyone’s permission. If you’re lucky/foresighted enough to use such a registrar life will be a lot easier.

I hope this post has been helpful to you either in preventing problems arising in the first place, or as a starting point in assisting you to regain control of your domain name.