What can I do to get my domain name back?

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What can I do to get my domain name back?

I am the registered owner of the corporation “FIXEDMORTGAGE.COM INC” . About 2 years ago, the people that I hired to manage my domain “fixedmortgage.com” did not renew the domain, and Ilost my name. If you go on fixedmortgage.com now, you will see is a splash page with a bunch of links to mortgage related topics. On the bottom it reads “Copyright c 2011 fixedmortgage.com. all rights reserved”. I ran a copyright search through https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First and could not find anything registered to that name. The current site owner is operating under my name, not only impeading me from doing business, but potentially lying about the copyright. How can I get my domain back?

Asked on January 12, 2011 under Business Law, New York

Answers:

M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 13 years ago | Contributor

You have all sorts of issues going on here and I think that you need to sit down with an attorney to iron them out and figure out a course of action.  First, you have an action for mis-management against the management company.  That contract needs to be reviewed for the breach and you need to start proceedings against them.  Now, if the domain site was lost (i.e., not renewed) and someone else did gobble it up, you may be out of luck.  However, if they are operating on the reputation of your company in any way you should discuss bringing an action to force them to put a disclaimer indicating that this site is not related to your corporation and directing those looking for your business to a new domain.  I do not think that this is copyright infringement here and it all needs to be legally pulled apart to see where all the pieces fit.  Good luck.


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