URL theft by a partner or co-owner: We get calls every week from companies essentially telling us that a former partner or owner of the company has taken control of their domain registrations and that the now former partner is refusing to turn over the stolen name to the company. Perhaps the name was initially registered in the name of a partner. In some cases, the business owner redirects the domain to another website, essentially putting the online business out of business. More often, the business owner demands some kind of money or other consideration in exchange for the domain name. Essentially, they use the URL as leverage to get something they couldn’t achieve in the context of the partnership. This is perhaps the most common example of domain name theft. Domain names stolen in this way account for about 25% of the calls and emails we receive in the area of ​​domain theft.

URL theft by employees: Unfortunately, corporate management is rarely involved in the registration process for your domain names. Domain registration is often handled by the IT department and is even delegated to lower level website employees. Due to the high turnover rate at that level, the employee with access to the domain registrant’s login information ends up leaving the company and taking that information with them. Again, if there is a dispute with the employee, it often escalates into a domain name dispute after termination. Once domain registrant information is stolen, it can be difficult to get it back.

URL theft by providers: Sometimes a technology provider or website developer uses your own information to register your company’s domain name, even going so far as to list your company as the registrant of their trademarks. If a billing dispute arises in the future, the web developer uses the URL as leverage to get paid. Even more common, the web provider goes out of business and the company doesn’t realize that it has no way to gain control of the domain name or even renew the domain name at the end of the registration period. If the web developer or provider steals a domain name, you could be in big trouble if the provider’s company goes out of business, the web developer moves, or you become the target of cyber extortion.

The words “someone stole my domain name” are words that are thrown around all too often in our business. Businesses need to take their intellectual property rights more seriously and protect their intangible assets as they do any other tangible property. An ounce of prevention is really worth a pound of cure. Control your registrant login and control the theft of your domain name.