UDRP was denied.
When you hire a developer for your business web site, make sure that you register the domain yourself first.
In numerous cases, the task of domain registration was incorporated into the web development services, which might seem convenient at first.
Then, the relationship might go sour, and in the case of KimmelScrap.com, the domain remained in the possession of the developer, after the Complainant terminated the contract.
Kimmel Scrap Iron & Metal Co. of Detroit, Michigan, filed a UDRP at the WIPO, to regain control of the domain, but the sole panelist, W. Scott Blackmer, delivered some very bad news.
“The Panel is sympathetic to the Complainant’s plight; it is not the first company to realize that its agent has kept control of a domain name when their relationship ended.
These problems can be avoided with appropriate contract provisions and supervision, and they may be amenable to legal remedies, but often not in a UDRP proceeding. […]
The Respondent in this case registered the Domain Name at the Complainant’s request and built an associated website that the Complainant used in its business. The Respondent later provided allegedly unsatisfactory service and failed to turn over control of the Domain Name. That may be grounds for a contract claim or another legal complaint.
But unless it can be shown that the Respondent likely planned this course of action from the outset, to wrest more money from the Complainant, for example (and the Respondent here has made no such demands), it does not appear to be evidence of bad faith in the original registration of the Domain Name.”
Oddly, there was no response by the Respondent either.
The panelist ordered KimmelScrap.com to remain with them, and the matter might now head to court.
For the full text of this UDRP decision, click here.
