Why It’s Bad Not to Respond to UDRP

A few days ago, Mike Berkens reported on the UDRP decision for 7Days.com, a decision that went in favor of the complainant. The owner of the domain name did not file a response to the UDRP, so he couldn’t present his case for ownership. I think not responding to a UDRP is bad for a couple of reasons (unless you are advised by a legal professional that not responding would be in your best interest).

First, you don’t have an opportunity to defend your ownership of the domain name. You’re letting the complainant make its case and aren’t able to rebut its complaint. If the submitted evidence is enough for a panelist to make a decision in favor of the complainant, you could lose the case pretty easily.

The second reason may be less obvious but could pose a future threat to your business. Not even considering that a UDRP loss can be used by a future complainant to show bad faith on other domain names, it could also show others that you are a sitting duck. A non-response could encourage other companies to file UDRP cases for other names you own, believing you may not defend your rights to own other domain names, possibly making their chance better.

Whether you decide to hire a lawyer or not is your decision to make based on the strength of your case, value of your domain names, and/or financial situation, but I don’t think not responding is for the best (unless under the advice of an attorney, which I’ve heard about). If you don’t care enough about your domain name to defend it, perhaps you can just give the name to the company to get them to withdraw the UDRP.

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

7 COMMENTS

  1. Elliot, we all know why certain people choose not to respond, we also know anyone who wouldn’t factors value into it and the name is likely worthless and doesnt care even if not tm infringing. If there are actually people who do not respond to valuable names please provide some names. I have yet to see a true generic and valuable name not be defended by a domainer.

  2. Oh and before I go to bed lol if you are concerned that your past loses via udrp will be used against you in future cases and make you appear a squatter, odds are you are any way, the truth hurts. How many 100% legit investors deal with multiple udrps in a year? And no having a large portfolio doesnt explain buying new tm names.. over and over again, some new regs. I swear these guys hire people to find stuff daily.

  3. @ How many 100% legit investors deal with multiple udrps in a year?

    That may change soon if ICANN allows a Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS)

  4. 7days.com, I agree, generic, valuable? Well it does show ovt/w and gets some XX traffic a day, maybe a $XXXX+ name. So I looked, the owner was no stranger to udrp/wipo, likely wasnt worth the fight for him, jmo.

  5. Elliot did you look at the owner of the name, it isnt his first..second…third errr get my drift, rodeo with a udrp or wipo. This is your mother who owns a generic who didnt respond.

  6. Do you really, really think the bad guys would use their correct name or a legitimate company name?

    I doubt many of them still operate out of the U.S., Canada and some european countries.

    It is easy enough to set up a gmail email acct to use for the authorized email address.

    What difference does it make regarding the personal or company name and address?

    The most important thing for the cybersquatters are –
    1. the admin. email address
    2. access to change dns
    3. multiple ppc accts or a hosting acct.

    Cybersquatters are like weeds. You can temporarily kill or injure them but they will keep coming back somewhere near by.

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