Amicable Recovery

Domain name recovery

You notice a third party has unlawfully registered a domain name to which you own the rights. SafeBrands offers to negotiate its amicable assignment so that its “transfer” is free of charge or at least at a reasonable price.

WHEN SHOULD YOU HIRE US?

It often happens that a domain name for which you believe you own intellectual property rights has already been registered by a third party that does not have any legal interest or right to it.

Some unlawful registrations are occasionally made by people who have not conducted prior research. The owner does not realize the registration infringes a pre-existing right.

Other fraudulent registrations are carried out by professionals in the field who are aware of the infringement of your rights, but hope to sell the domain name, sometimes at a prohibitive price, by leveraging on the owner’s inaction.

In that kind of situation, due to the variety of available arbitration proceedings, complexity of court submission rules, necessary period for the treatment of your request and associated costs, it is preferable to try and obtain the domain name transfer directly from the owner.

If this is unfortunately not successful, please note that any binding proceedings require, before their initiation, an attempt at amicable resolution. Case analysis experts will take this approach, often a prerequisite, into consideration. Most importantly, it will, in most cases, allow them to gather evidence of the owner’s bad faith.

In order to assert your rights and recover such domain names, SafeBrands offers an “amicable recovery” service detailed below.

1. OUR MANDATE

Mandate fees are non refundable and vary based on domain name. They pay for our team of experts to build the case and for all actions taken to get the owner to transfer the domain name free of charge. In some cases, when the time spent on the case exceeds the standard time (about two hours), the excess time will be subject to additional billing. In such a case, you will be consulted beforehand so you can decide whether to pursue or stop the intervention. If the recovery must be initiated and conducted in an emergency situation, we also offer an option that allows you to benefit from quicker actions.

SafeBrands cannot guarantee that owner of the contentious domain name will give in to your arguments. We may discover, once the process is initiated, that the owner has rights to the domain name (private WHOIS, owner acting in practice for a legitimate third party, etc.). Rest assured that our expertise in the field of domain names enables us to handle every foreseeable course of action.

Step 1.1 : Building a case

Before any action is taken and for us to better plan out our mission, it will be necessary to build a case.

You will be asked to send us copies of any official document certifying your intellectual property rights to the domain name.

Based on these, our legal department will establish an action plan and identify the best steps to take for your situation.

A status report containing the following documents will also be created:

Copy of the website’s homepage
Screenshot of the homepage’s source code
Copy of the domain name’s WHOIS information
The result of in-depth research to identify the type of domain name holder and the different possible contact methods

These steps are taken to prepare for any change in situation, to ensure that we can move forward on a case even if the owner refuses to transfer the name or cannot be identified.

Step 1.2 : Contacting the owner

After the case is built, the contact means identified by our legal department—email addresses, phone number, social media, mailing address, etc.—will be used successively to issue one or several formal demand(s) to the owner based on the rights you are claiming. We will use all available means and send demands by registered mail with notification of delivery.

We will notify you as soon as we have established contact with the domain name holder and will let you know what his/her position is.

The success of these steps depends on the attitude of the owner, who will sometimes prefer not to respond to our requests and wait for a more official process from you. It will also depend on the relevance of your intellectual property rights to the name. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the market in which these people, whether “squatters” or “domainers,” operate will allow us to adapt our tone and actions to maximize our chances of success.

If the owner first refuses the transfer, we will send the request again to remind owner of your rights and the risk incurred by inaction. If, over a six-month period, the owner cannot be reached or refuses to comply with the request, we will inform you and close the case. A report of our research and actions will be sent to you.

Step 1.3 : Domain name drop catching and back ordering

At the start of the process, if the domain extension allows, we will set up a real-time detection probe that will allow us to intervene if the domain name is not renewed, or is deleted, by the holder at the end of its registration contract.

In that case, it will be possible for you to:

Recover the domain name if you are the only applicant (additional fixed fees in the appendix).
Take part in auctions that will take place in the event of multiple requests: additional fixed fees plus the cost of the auction (management of the end of an auction outside French business hours is subject to a charge for the time involved).

However, through various solutions, we multiply the number of strategies implemented to maximize the chances of recovery and reduce opportunities for auctioning.

2. SUCCESS OF THE PROCESS

If the recovery process is successful, the domain name will be transferred to you and its management entrusted to SafeBrands.

As such, you will be required to expend the following fees:

Domain name transfer fees and a minimal one-year subscription at the cost of the domain extension in which it is registered.
Owner change fees corresponding to the domain

3. BUYBACK OF A CONTENTIOUS NAME

The domain name holder may wish to receive a certain amount in exchange for the domain name transfer: if the owner is experienced, he or she might think that transferring the name without going through arbitration proceedings means you are saving money and will thus ask for a slightly

In some cases, the owner may purely and simply refuse to transfer the name by arguing that the claimed rights are weak, or may request a larger sum.

It will therefore be up to you to decide whether you buy the domain name back under new conditions or launch arbitration or judicial proceedings, even though buyback would allow for a faster recovery.

Our experts are available to make specific analyses of possible additional actions which may crop up during the file in light of our discussions and the information collected.

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According to the provisions of the french law « loi informatique et libertés n°78-17 » of January 6, 1978, you have the right to access, correct and delete the personal data that SafeBrands collects from you. You can obtain more information regarding this subject by connecting to the website www.cnil.fr. our personal data are collected by us for the sole purpose of contacting you as part of your free consultation request. You can contact us to exercise this right, with a copy of your ID attached, by writing to the following address : Safebrands, Correspondent Informatique et Libertés, Pole Media of the Belle de Mai, 37 rue Guibal, 13356 MARSEILLE Cedex 03, or via email to cil@safebrands.com.