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Ask HN: Recourse for a Stolen Domain by Registrar?
I tried to register a domain, which my registrar said was available. Upon checkout, the domain became unavailable. Whois returns this message:
The registration of this domain is restricted, as it is protected by the Identity Digital DPML Brand Protection policy. Additional information can be found at https://www.identity.digital/what-we-do/brand-protection.
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-05-22T19:48:10Z <<<
So, I am blocked from seeing when this domain was registered, but the update to this whois happened at the exact timestamp I tried to purchase the domain.
Do I have any recourse?
- detaro 3y agoIt is not registered, your registrar hasn't "stolen" anything. It's a block on registry level.
- ccvannorman 3y agoI don't understand this statement. I'm unable to register the domain from any registrar, though it showed "available/unregistered" before I attempted to register it. Only after I attempted to register it did it show "unavailable."
- detaro 3y agowhen you tried to register it, as part of the registration flow the registry ran their check against their block database, noticed that it fits a registered pattern, blocked the transaction and marked it as such.
- ccvannorman 3y agothanks, I understand now that the company that owns/controls domain registrations (identity.digital, formerly Donuts and Afilias, allows brands to place pre-holds on any domains that fit a trademark that they own according to some trademark ownership rules. In other words if you own CoolToy trademark, you can use IdentityDigital to prevent anyone from ever registering a domain with cooltoy in the name.
- cpach 3y agoOut of curiosity, which TLD was this?
- KomoD 3y agoNo