Q: What counts as bad faith?

Registering or using a domain to exploit someone else’s trademark rather than for a legitimate purpose, and it is the element the whole case usually turns on. Typical indicators include registering the domain mainly to sell it to the trademark owner or a competitor for a profit, to block the owner from using their own mark, to disrupt their business, or to attract their customers by creating confusion, often for commercial gain. A registrant with a genuine, legitimate reason for the name (their own name, a descriptive use, a bona fide business) is not acting in bad faith, and the case will fail. Distinguishing abuse from legitimate use is where these cases are won or lost. We assess it honestly before filing, because a weak bad-faith case is not worth running.

Question 1

Someone registered a domain with my brand — what can I do?

Accepted Answer

Where someone has registered a domain that uses your trademark in bad faith (to sell it back to you, divert your customers, run a scam, or trade on your reputation) you can usually recover or cancel it without going to court. For generic top-level domains such as .com, the UDRP procedure lets a trademark owner recover an abusively registered domain through a relatively fast, paper-based proceeding. For .ch and .li domains there is a separate dispute procedure run through WIPO. Both are quicker and cheaper than litigation where bad faith is clear. The first step is to confirm your right and assess whether the registration is genuinely abusive. We make that assessment and run the recovery.

Question 2

What is the UDRP and when does it apply?

Accepted Answer

The UDRP (the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) is the standard procedure for recovering abusively registered domains in the generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and .org, and many others. To win, a complainant generally has to show three things: that the domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark they hold; that the registrant has no legitimate interest in it; and that it was registered and is being used in bad faith. The proceeding is decided on documents by a panel, without a court hearing, and a successful complaint results in the domain being transferred or cancelled. It is the efficient route where the three elements are met. We assess them and prepare the complaint.

Question 3

How do .ch and .li domain disputes work?

Accepted Answer

Through a separate dispute resolution procedure for .ch (Switzerland) and .li (Liechtenstein) domains, administered by WIPO rather than under the UDRP. The procedure is designed for clear cases of rights infringement and includes a conciliation stage; where it does not resolve, an expert can decide that the domain be transferred to the rights holder. It is tailored to the .ch/.li registry rather than the gTLD system, with its own rules and thresholds. For a Swiss brand, abusive .ch registrations are a common problem, and this procedure is the targeted way to deal with them. We handle the .ch/.li procedure, just as we handle the UDRP for the generic domains, choosing the right route for each domain.

Question 4

What counts as bad faith?

Accepted Answer

Registering or using a domain to exploit someone else&rsquo;s trademark rather than for a legitimate purpose, and it is the element the whole case usually turns on. Typical indicators include registering the domain mainly to sell it to the trademark owner or a competitor for a profit, to block the owner from using their own mark, to disrupt their business, or to attract their customers by creating confusion, often for commercial gain. A registrant with a genuine, legitimate reason for the name (their own name, a descriptive use, a bona fide business) is not acting in bad faith, and the case will fail. Distinguishing abuse from legitimate use is where these cases are won or lost. We assess it honestly before filing, because a weak bad-faith case is not worth running.

Question 5

Is this faster and cheaper than going to court?

Accepted Answer

Usually, yes: that is the point of these procedures. The UDRP and the .ch/.li procedure are designed to resolve clear cases of domain abuse quickly and on documents, without the cost, delay and procedural weight of court litigation, and they deliver the practical outcome a brand owner wants: the domain transferred or cancelled. For straightforward cases of cybersquatting they are the obvious route. Court action remains available and is sometimes necessary (for damages, for complex cases, or where the procedures do not fit) but it is the exception. We use the efficient procedure where it fits and reserve litigation for the cases that genuinely need it, so recovery is as fast and proportionate as the situation allows.

Question 6

Can I always recover a domain that uses my name?

Accepted Answer

No. Assuming you can is a common and costly mistake. These procedures recover domains that are abusively registered, not every domain that happens to include your brand. If the registrant has a legitimate interest (their own name or trademark, a genuine descriptive or non-commercial use, a bona fide business predating your rights) or if your own trademark right is weak, the complaint can fail, and a failed UDRP is money spent for nothing. Some &ldquo;infringements&rdquo; are actually legitimate uses, and some disputes are better resolved by negotiation or purchase than by a complaint that will lose. We assess the merits honestly first and tell you when a case is not worth running, rather than filing regardless.

Question 7

Should I just buy the domain instead?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes that is the sensible answer: part of our job is telling you when. Where the registration is not clearly abusive, where the registrant has a legitimate interest, or where a recovery proceeding would be slow, uncertain or disproportionate to the value of the domain, negotiating to buy it can be faster and cheaper than a fight you might lose. Equally, where the registration is plainly abusive, paying a cybersquatter rewards the behaviour and a UDRP is the better answer. The decision turns on the strength of the case and the commercial value of the domain. We give you that assessment (recover, negotiate, or leave it) rather than defaulting to a complaint, so you spend on the route that actually serves you.

Question 8

How do I protect my domains in the first place?

Accepted Answer

By registering the domains that matter before someone else does, and watching for abusive ones. The cheapest domain dispute is the one avoided: registering your brand across the key top-level domains and relevant country domains, including obvious variations, denies the cybersquatter the target. A watch service then flags new registrations that trade on your brand, so you act while the problem is small. Recovery procedures are the cure; sensible defensive registration and monitoring are the prevention, and far cheaper. We advise on a proportionate domain portfolio (what to hold defensively and what to monitor) alongside recovering the abusive registrations that slip through.

Question 9

What does a recovery cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the route and the complexity, but the procedures are designed to be far cheaper than litigation. A UDRP or .ch/.li complaint has a defined administrative fee plus the cost of preparing the case, and for a clear case of abuse the cost is modest against the value of recovering a domain that trades on your brand. A negotiated purchase has a different cost (the price of the domain) and court action, where genuinely needed, costs more. The point of assessing the case first is to choose the route that recovers the domain at proportionate cost. We scope and quote the recovery, and recommend the proportionate route rather than the most aggressive one.

Question 10

Does this connect to trademark enforcement generally?

Accepted Answer

Yes: an abusive domain is one form of trademark infringement, and recovering it sits within the broader enforcement of the mark. A cybersquatter trading on your brand online is doing in the domain system what an infringer does in the market, and the response should be coordinated: recover the domain, address any related infringing use, and watch for the next one. The domain procedures are specialised tools within the wider enforcement toolkit. We handle domain recovery as part of protecting the brand as a whole (alongside cease-and-desist, opposition and, where needed, proceedings) rather than as an isolated exercise, so the brand is defended consistently across the market and online.

Question 11

Can Goldblum recover an abusive domain?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We assess whether the registration is genuinely abusive, confirm your trademark right, and run the recovery (a UDRP complaint for generic domains, or the dispute procedure for .ch and .li domains through WIPO) or, where buying or negotiating is the sensible answer, we advise that instead. We connect the domain recovery to the wider enforcement of the brand and advise on defensive registration and monitoring to prevent the next problem. And we tell you honestly when a case is not worth running, because a failed complaint is money spent for nothing. The aim is to recover the domains worth recovering, by the proportionate route.

Route	Where it applies
UDRP	.com, .net, .org and other gTLDs
.ch / .li procedure	Swiss and Liechtenstein domains, via WIPO
Negotiation / purchase	Where recovery is uncertain or disproportionate
Court	Damages or complex cases the procedures don’t fit

Domain name
disputes

Recover abusive domains.

Recovering a domain

Who this is for

Where it fits

The recovery routes

How we run it

Confirm the right

Assess the abuse

Choose the route

Run the recovery

Prevent the next

What it costs

What a winnable case requires

Not every domain using your name is recoverable

Recover, or don’t

Assessed before filing

UDRP, .ch/.li or buy

Part of enforcement

Around the dispute

Trademark enforcement

Swiss trademark registration

IP holding company