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Reverse Domain Name Hijacking attempt against a domain I own

sapo

Member
Hi all,

I just received an email from Synergy Wholesale with regards to a domain name I have registered (see below).

The domain name in question is a 4 letter domain. I have owned this domain name for about a year, and registered it in good faith as it's an acronym of the four first letters of myself, my wife and two children.

I have received several inquiries and offers for this domain in the past 6 months, however I have not seen any of these as serious offers and as such want to hold on to this domain for personal and future business use. Apart from responding to the email I received, is there anything I can do to prevent losing the domain name?

Kind regards,
Ed

Registrant Warranty Check for LLLL.com.au

We have received an eligibility complaint relating to the Registrant that is currently associated to LLLL.com.au is not eligible to hold the domain name. auDA are unable to determine the registrant's eligibility from the information in the .au database or via any information on the registrant's website.

auDA policy 2012-04 - Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for the Open 2LDs (2012-04), Paragraph 2 of Schedule C of the policy requests we provide you with 7 days notice to provide us with updated registrant eligibility details otherwise the domain will be placed into policy delete.

An extract from the auDA policy is included below for your reference;

5. Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules

Paragraph 2 of Schedule C of the Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for the Open 2LDs (2012-04) at http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2012-04/ states that a com.au domain name must be:

a) an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant's name or trademark; or b) otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, in accordance with the categories of "close and substantial connection" set out in the Guidelines on the Interpretation of Policy Rules for the open 2LDs.

Under auDA policy a close and substantial connection is established where, for example, the domain name refers to a product or service that the registrant provides.

Please provide the response to auDA (via Synergy Wholesale Pty Ltd) by no later than 5pm 7 days after this email.

Please note that if we do not receive a response before the deadline, we will instruct Synergy Wholesale Pty Ltd to delete the domain name for breach of policy.

If you wish to maintain the registration of this domain name please ensure you respond to us as soon as possible or risk the domain name being deleted.

Synergy Wholesale acts as the preferred registrar for Sapo Blue.

Kind regards,

Synergy Wholesale
 

Bacon Farmer

Top Contributor
I hope someone has replied to you privately otherwise it's a pretty sad state of affairs on here.

I can only suggest looking at the responses of other successful defences.
 

Data Glasses

Top Contributor
Hi all,

I just received an email from Synergy Wholesale with regards to a domain name I have registered (see below).

The domain name in question is a 4 letter domain. I have owned this domain name for about a year, and registered it in good faith as it's an acronym of the four first letters of myself, my wife and two children.

I have received several inquiries and offers for this domain in the past 6 months, however I have not seen any of these as serious offers and as such want to hold on to this domain for personal and future business use. Apart from responding to the email I received, is there anything I can do to prevent losing the domain name?

Kind regards,
Ed
Did you check I.P Australia for trademarks? Are you using the domain?
 

sapo

Member
I'm not currently using the domain (apart for email purposes).
The domain is a generic female name, 4 letters. So not sure how a trademark could become an issue. But I would not call myself a legal expert, so possibly I'm wrong. I'd just hate to lose the domain, just because auDA has decided that I don't meet the eligibility requirements.
 

sapo

Member
I just also received the following message regarding the delete.

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your reply.

A complaint or review would have been issued to/by auDA, and they have requested us to process the delete due to the domain not meeting registration requirements.
Unfortunately there are no avenues to object against the delete, as the domain does violate their policy.

Please let us know if you have any additional comments or questions.

Regards,

Patrick Wells
Technical Support Representative

So there's no way to object? That's almost unbelievable.
 

angelogiuffrida

Regular Member
FYI we're chasing this up internally because the information Patrick has given you isn't 100% correct - because there are certainly methods to defend the claims and our team should be able to assist with that. The best course of action is to respond to customercare@synergywholesale.com (the email does say, "Please provide the response to auDA (via Synergy Wholesale Pty Ltd) by no later than 5pm 7 days after this email.") as that goes through to our escalation points directly.
 

chris

Top Contributor
FYI we're chasing this up internally because the information Patrick has given you isn't 100% correct - because there are certainly methods to defend the claims and our team should be able to assist with that. The best course of action is to respond to customercare@synergywholesale.com (the email does say, "Please provide the response to auDA (via Synergy Wholesale Pty Ltd) by no later than 5pm 7 days after this email.") as that goes through to our escalation points directly.

Thanks @angelogiuffrida, we appreciate the update.
 

helloworld

Top Contributor
I am curious to know if Synergy was of any help? I would hope that they are on their customers side. Australian domain rules exist however they are not obviously clear to everyone, all the time. I recognise not being aware is no excuse but their should be recourse available and allow OP to fix any issue
 

sapo

Member
I am curious to know if Synergy was of any help? I would hope that they are on their customers side. Australian domain rules exist however they are not obviously clear to everyone, all the time. I recognise not being aware is no excuse but their should be recourse available and allow OP to fix any issue
Synergy has escalated this with auDA, however I don't yet have a definite answer. So will have to wait until the final outcome, will post when I hear back.
 

sapo

Member
I've received an update from Synergy/auDA:

Internal Review - DELETE DOMAIN

Thank you for your detailed response dated 27 May 2019. auDA has considered the information provided by the yourself and determined that your registration of xxxxx.com.au breaches the Domain Name Eligibility and Allocation Policy Rules for the open 2LD's (2014-04) at http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2012-04/.

We do not accept that there is a close and substantial connection between SAPO BLUE PTY. LTD. and xxxxx.com.au, because at the time of registration the registrant did not meet the eligibility criteria. Based on the registrant's own response they did not meet any of these criteria when the domain name was registered on May 2018, nor do they meet any of the criteria, 11 months later, as at 26 April 2019 (date of complaint). The policy clearly states that the registrant has to meet the eligibility criteria at the time of registration and even when renewing the licence, the eligibility criteria needs to be maintained.

Accordingly, auDA will be instructing the Registrar of record to place this domain name into policy delete.

Regards
xxxxx xxxxxx
.au Domain Administration​


I must say it's very disappointing to see that auDA ignored what to me is clear evidence that we met the eligibility criteria both when we registered the domain as well as today*. It is also very disappointing that although I repeatedly requested a copy of the complaint, that this has not been made available, nor has the issue of a RDNH been address by auDA.

I would have expected a more transparent and fair process from auDA.

* we were working on a product/app/website when registering this domain and this product is still in development
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Avoid .com.au

Ding ding ding! That is the key takeaway from this.

Whether is bringing in another almost identical extensions, threatening to ban domaining or throwing policy delete, there is always some auDA inflicted drama risking people's assets - AVOID.
 

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