Advice needed - Domain theft!

SkintBint

Absolutely livid - I went to send an email this morning to my address and got an error: :mad: :mad: :mad:

'The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.'

I contacted my provider and got an email:

'Nominet have recently taken this domain name out of our control, following a claim from 'Perfect Systems Limited' that the domain belonged to them. If you wish to contact them to enquire then you can do so via their website https://www.nominet.org.uk '

Just checked the domain and some company has stolen my site??? https://www.perfectsystems.co.uk

How can this happen? I have paid for and owned this domain for several years. I used to run perfectsystems as a sole trader IT support business and still use it for my all email addresses and some of my family.

Surely this isnt legal?

How can I get this domain back?

amcluesent

Maybe they claimed you were cybersquatting but it's odd you weren't notified

Domain name:
perfectsystems.co.uk

Registrant:
Perfect Systems Ltd

Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 4067344)

Registrant's address:
51 Wych Elm
Hornchurch
Essex
RM11 3AJ
United Kingdom

Registrant's agent:
Mr Matthew Bryant t/a IdealHosting [Tag = IDEALHOSTING]
URL: http://idealhosting.co.uk

Relevant dates:
Registered on: 24-Jun-2003
Renewal date: 24-Jun-2007
Last updated: 01-Dec-2006

Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.

Phil_L_2

Go through to the nominet site as they suggest and there is a disputes procedure. I would suggest that you may be able to tell the company to change their name if you still own any rights to it.

Under these circumstances I would think that you have the right to the website and nominet should support you.

SkintBint

I have printed out all the invoices from the webcentre as proof that I owned the domain and hosting since 23.06.03.

However now I'm slightly worried that the domain had run out and that I wasnt contacted? I had an account renewal on 16.02.06 but I'm not sure if that included the domain?

Maybe they sent the renewal reminder to an email address which I dont check anymore due to large amounts of spam?

If this is so then I guess I dont have a leg to stand on - in which case I will be utterly sickened....

superscaper

Nominet don't take someone's domain away without notifying them first, then they usually hold the proceedings in domain owner's absence if they can't get hold of them. If your contact details weren't up to date then that in itself is a breach of nominet's t&cs and is enough on its own to allow them to take your domain away.

spurs1234

To change the owner of an expired domain it usually takes 3 -4 months before the new owner can can it there own, in this time the current owner gets mutiple emails asking to renew , i would email them and see what they are playing at

SkintBint

Just got another email from my provider: I will probably wait until Monday to see what happens.

Damn that other company.


"It definitely hadn't expired - the whois shows its been registered since 2003.

I think the biggest problem is that you registered the domain name to 'Perfect Systems Limited' - I presume with the intention of setting up the company to match at a later date. You should have received a registration certificate from Nominet which is your best bet - this is sent to the address entered when registering the domain name. "

superscaper

Did you register it to "Perfect Systems Limited"?

Astaroth

You will probably need to speak to an intellectual property rights solicitor...

Having looked at companies house, Perfect Systems Ltd was incorporated on the 7/9/2000.

When did you start trading as Perfect Systems? Did you trademark or in any way register the name (not the domain name)?

There is a question here of how much noise you want to be making over the issue as, if the Ltd company predates your t/a name then they could also potentially sue you (and as a sole trader it is of cause you that they sue) for passing off or other IP breaches

If you do not know any IP sols then I would recommend http://www.crossguard.info/ - their site has a fair amount of free info and one of their senior partners are a frequent poster on https://www.ukbusinessforums.com

superscaper

Astaroth wrote:

You will probably need to speak to an intellectual property rights solicitor...

Having looked at companies house, Perfect Systems Ltd was incorporated on the 7/9/2000.

When did you start trading as Perfect Systems? Did you trademark or in any way register the name (not the domain name)?

There is a question here of how much noise you want to be making over the issue as, if the Ltd company predates your t/a name then they could also potentially sue you (and as a sole trader it is of cause you that they sue) for passing off or other IP breaches

If you do not know any IP sols then I would recommend http://www.crossguard.info/ - their site has a fair amount of free info and one of their senior partners are a frequent poster on https://www.ukbusinessforums.com

That's partially why I was asking if he'd used the "perfect systems limited" name, if he had then he would have been using the "limited" illegally. As you don't register business names I don't think this other company necessarily did anything wrong incorporating that name. "Perfect Systems" doesn't sound like a name that could be easily trademarked especially just for a sole trader.

newfoundglory

I work for a hosting company, and this to me sounds like a Trademark issue. If Perfect Systems Ltd have a trademark.... i think you are going to find it extremely difficult to keep the name as yours.

However, you should have been compensated by an agreed amount in order to hand it over (if you were actively using this name, i would expect this amount to run into several thousand pounds - esp if you use it for business). I am surprised that they did not contact you directly (however if your address was hidden your IPS tag holder might have got legal letters to the effect of "You own domain X but we have trademark Y". I would consider speaking to a lawer who has experience with Internet law in order to obtain payment/compensation for this name.

You get a grace period of 90 days with .uk names ... however they would have first been deleted from the registry and thus have a more recent registered-on-date if they were re-registered by someone else.

.uk names are strange in that control over any given name can be passed instantly to another party simply by changing the tag on the name. This is in contrast to .com/.net/.org names, where you can lock a name at a given registrar and it cannot be stolen from someone unless you can obtain the long and complicated key need to started the transfer process. This would usually force a company to go down the legal route, however in the case of UK names it appears Nominet is using its power and acting a bit like judge and jury itself