Frequently asked domain name questions

Put your email on your business cards, stationary and promotional material. Domain specific email addresses are much more professional than the standard personal email accounts such as @hotmail.com, @telus.net, @shaw.ca, @sympatico.ca, etc.

The Domain Parking emails are a webmail format to be accessed from any computer, or you can have them download directly to your personal computer through an Outlook or Netscape email client program.

The URL forwarding service is perfect for pointing an additional domain name to an existing web site. That way, you can register both the .ca and .com extensions for your domain name and have both of the domains point to the same web site. Now, you get the added security that no one will register your business, brand, or product name in additional extensions, but you still get your money's worth, because they will all point to your web site.

When will these services lapse? Once you have built a web site and have found a web hosting company to launch your site, you will need to replace the DNS Servers with your web hosting company's. Therefore, once you replace the DNS Servers, the Domain Parking or URL forwarding services will no longer be tied to your domain name.

You can activate your Domain Parking services within your domain record. These services must be updated for each domain name individually.

The "Sunrise" pre-registration period for Trademark owners is now over, and the .EU Extension is now available publicly. The .EU extension is reserved ONLY for:

i) Companies or undertakings that have their Registered Office Address, or central place of administration within the European Community (EU).

The new .EU extension can be registered for 1 - 10 years as with many other extensions. The renewals for this extension need to be completed prior to the 20th of the renewal month in order to be successfully transacted.

For Example: if your domain name is registered for 1 year on April 7, 2006, then you must renew before April 7, 2007. However, if your domain name is registered for 1 year on April 30, 2006, then you must have your renewal completed before April 20th 2007 to be valid.

Please contact our staff personally to initiate your .EU registration for $35.00 + GST a year. Our contact information is listed at the bottom of every page of this web site.

.Ca domain name registrations now have the most private WHOIS of all domain name extensions. Without having to pay for a Privacy service fee all domain owners that are Individuals no longer need to have their personal information publicly displayed in the WHOIS database. No names, no telephone numbers, no addresses, no email addresses�. No personal information at all.

Corporations can also apply to have their public WHOIS information be made private if they can prove that having their information online will be detrimental to their safety. A good example would be for the growing number of home-based businesses being started everyday in Canada.

You can use the above WHOIS search link to see if this new Policy change has affected your domain name(s).

For a number of years, the Domain Registry of Canada has been sending out Phishing direct mail letters to current domain name owners in an effort to mislead busy, unsuspecting owners to Register or Renew with them instead of the current Registrar.

We get numerous complaints from our clients about these letters and therefore, we have attached an example of the Phishing letter.

The main issue behind the domain Registry of Canada letter is that many domain owners and administrators mistakenly believe that Domain Registry of Canada is their current Registrar, and that they are paying the renewal fee for their domain name. Instead, paying Domain Registry of Canada would initiate a Transfer on your domain name(s), and in most cases, the Transfers are never completed in time, and the domain names are not renewed and websites go down.

Our clients have found it very difficult to receive their money back from Domain Registry of Canada after-the-fact. Please note that we do not send physical renewal reminders in the mail for your Renewal. We will send a 30 Day, 14 Day, 7 Day, Last day and give you a phone call to remind you of your domain name(s) renewal date.

First Canadian Reverse Domain Hijacking Finding � domainbits.com April 20 2009

Globe Media International Corporation tried to grab the generic domain ForSale.ca from Bonfire Development, Inc., through a CDRP proceeding (the Canadian equivalent of the UDRP) and failed. Not only did it fail, but it resulted in Canada�s first ever finding of Reverse Domain Hijacking.

Background

In January of this year, the domain ForSale.ca dropped. After it was caught, it was purchased by Bonfire Development for $29,000 CDN.

Trademark

The plaintiff had a trademark on the domain For-Sale.ca. Although one might ask how they managed to trademark that term, the CDRP does not allow the panel to go behind the trademark. In the circumstances, the panel found that the domain was confusingly similar to the trademark.

Bad Faith

Next, the panel analysed whether the domain was registered in bad faith. They found that it was not, and made some statements that I consider very positive. They state: �the disputed domain is a generic term over which the Complainant in this particular case cannot claim exclusivity. This is so despite being the owner of a trade-mark that is confusing with the domain name. The term �for sale� is clearly and obviously a commonly used term by businesses and members of the public to say the least, and is one over which the Complainant would be hard pressed to assert a monopoly.�

It�s clear that the Panel understands what a generic domain is and the importance of a generic name being avaialable to all members of the public. Kudos to them for this.

The Panel further stated: �There is no question that the Respondent, or related parties, have been found in the past to have engaged in the practice of cyber-squatting. In particular, Shaun Pilford, who appears to be related to the Respondent, is known to domain name panels. However, this is not relevant to this particular case� While the Panel does not endorse the Respondent�s unauthorized domain name registrations, it needs to be proven that the Respondent was cyber-squatting in this case.�

That�s good news too. Too often in UDRP decisions, if you lose one, you�re at high risk of losing all future cases because you�ve been branded a cybersquatter. The Panel is correct just to look at the case before it, not the reputation of the parties.

Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

The Complainant had previously tried to get this domain before it dropped via the CDRP and failed. Now it failed a second time and the Respondent asked for a finding of reverse domain name hijacking.

The Panel found that the Complainant has a history of registering trademarks for .ca domains of well known brands. The Complainant had registered Versace.ca, Mentos.ca, Zantac.ca, Smirnoff.ca and also filed trademark applications for Versace.ca, Mentos.ca, Zantac.ca and Smirnoff.ca. The Panel found that the Complainant had an extensive history of abusing trademarks to try to give it rights to domains it should not have, including in this case.

Adding all of this to the fact that the domain is generic, the Panel found that this was Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and in fact stated that the Complainant appears to have engaged in filching.

Costs have yet to be decided, but the CDRP allows cost awards of up to $5,000.

Congrats to lawyer for the respondent Zak Muscovitch for obtaining this finding!

Written by admin � Filed Under Canadian Domains