DONA.com – First Domain Registrar to Offer “UDRP Insurance”

Most of the time when I receive special offers, I read right through them as quickly as possible or simply delete them. An email from Francois Carrillo this morning announcing the launch of DONA.com has me interested. His new domain registrar at DONA.com is offering free “UDRP insurance” on domain names registered there.

Here’s the deal:

“If you are hit by an UDRP:
– You will get free legal assistance to estimate your winning chances.
– A list of attorneys offering special rates to our members.
– And if you won the UDRP, we’ll reimburse you the legal fees spent to defend you!
This way you no longer have to be afraid about this plague. If you register your domain in good faith, you should no longer spend money defending against domain hijackers.”

In addition to this, Carrillo pledged that 30% of the profit from DONA.com will be given to the Internet Commerce Association, an organization that lobbies and fights for the rights of domain investors.

This seems like quite an offer. The UDRP insurance payout is only given if you win the UDRP, but with the cost of a defense around $5,000 (give or take depending on who you use), it seems like a pretty good deal if you. Although the price per registration is moderately higher than other registrars (assuming domain investors have better than rack rate), it’s still a good deal if you are hit with a UDRP and win.

Congratulations to Carrillo who always seems to be coming up with creative ideas to grow his business.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

17 COMMENTS

  1. Hats off to Francois on this one, great idea, great marketing and a first in the domain space. I’ve only ever rec’d one c&d email in 10 yrs of buying and selling domains and that issue was settled without legal recourse. As I’ve never had a UDRP never mind lose one I was of the impression that if you defended a UDRP sucessfully the other party was obliged to pay your legal fees regardless?
    Maybe I’m wrong but if it is the case this doesn’t seem that appealing an offer. If I’m wrong then it’s a great offer assuming you win the case. The thing is so many cases are so inconsistent the same issue remains to I defend and risk losinga lot of cash.

    • “As Iā€™ve never had a UDRP never mind lose one I was of the impression that if you defended a UDRP sucessfully the other party was obliged to pay your legal fees regardless?”

      @ Andy

      That would make things more fair, but that isn’t correct. The respondent is required to pay for the defense of the domain name (if he chooses). He/she must also pay for a 3 person panel if desired, instead of a standard one person panel.

  2. @ Elliot

    Thanos for the info, that’s outrageous.
    Seems Francois is offering a very good deal.
    Would be good if there was some kind of voluntary opt in scheme to pay say a monthly amount to cover all costs in the event of losing one.

  3. @ Andy

    The problem with that is someone could conceivably transfer hundreds of trademark names to Dona, and the UDRP defense costs could be huge.

  4. They only pay if you win, and does he have some sort of bond setup for this payout?

    He got hit with a udrp on a generic term, and he probably did this, as we are all in shock and awe, as we see UDRP on a daily basis going against generic names, as these corporate cheapskates were not keen enough to secure them earlier, and now with name prices rising, some simply ignore purchasing them the legal way. I know in Canada if you lose, your legal fees are paid, TUCOWS has something in place with this regard, as they have a huge portfolio, and many first/last name generics.

  5. Can I transfer my 900 Verizon Wireless typos to them? Just kidding. šŸ™‚

    It seems like this would be worth it for very high quality generics, especially one word domains.

    The second question would be what kind of security measures has he taken to stop domain theft from Dona.com?

    I really like his concept overall. I’d love to see it in action and become adopted.

  6. @ Leo

    You could, but they only seem willing to reimburse you if you win a UDRP šŸ™‚

    Regarding theft, someone earlier mentioned it’s an Enom re-seller, so I would imagine it has the same security protocols as Enom although you’d have to confirm with Francois.

  7. Its worse. I’ve seen registries confiscating domains or not allowing them to be registered b/c a TM exists on those words, even though they are 100% generic. Is there anywhere in ICANN’s rules where it says that TM owners do not have first rights to a domain which is generic?

    In addition, if the owner of the TM did not even ask for the domain, can a registry say that the domain is unavailable for registration b/c there is a TM owner somewhere out there for that generic term?

    It’s really out of hand.

    In any event, this is a great initiative! Francois did it again!

  8. Hi,

    And thanks to all for the comments. I see Elliot responded to most of them.

    Our registration service is powered by the popular ENom.com registrar. So you get the same high level of security, we simply added an extra layer with this “UDRP insurance”.

    Pay legal fees on lost case has no sense, just think about yourself.

    Yes, when you win a case the other party has absolutely no obligation to pay you the legal fees you spent to defend you. And this is the interest of our proposal.

    The main idea is really find a way to protect us against this growing plague. And there is no need to own thousands names or premium domains to get hit by an UDRP, having bad chance is enough!

  9. Not to mention that Francois (btw – he is like the French Bhavin Turakhia ) will get some publicity for every case he pays out (I think he said $5000 is the upper limit of what he will reimburse).

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