Long domain name battle has a happy ending.
Chicago restaurant guru David M. Lissner of Dining Chicago used ChicagoRestaurant.com for ten years. Then one day in 2009 – poof! – it was gone. It was suddenly registered to someone in Turkey.
Lissner’s technical service provider (i.e. web designer/hosting firm) was listed as the administrative contact for the domain name. The company disappeared and the email address it used for the administrative contact expired. That allowed the thief to register the corresponding email address domain name and transfer the ChicagoRestaurant.com domain name away.
Lissner filed a UDRP last year but lost. The panel noted that it would be very hard to get trademark rights to “Chicago Restaurant”.
So in August Lissner filed an in rem case against the domain name. He got a default judgment and the judge ordered the domain name transferred back to Lissner.
It now forwards to his DiningChicago.com web site.
Elephants are People Too says
Mistake number two : Forwarding ChicagoRestaurant.com to DiningChicago.com.
Hopefully, he plans on fixing this.
Funny how it is easier to file a UDRP than it is to get a stolen domain back. There should be a mechanism like UDRP for stolen domains.
Damn thieves!
David J Castello says
Lesson #1
If possible, always put all WHOIS contact info in your name. I’ve lost count of how many domain names were held hostage after a falling out between webmaster and client.
steve says
Godaddy, I am sure others, will lock the domains. So only the account executive can transfer the domain.
This guy needs this kind of protection.
So even if this happens again his domains will be flagged on any transfer attempt.
And Godaddy would get the domain back for you even if somehow it was lost.
David Lissner says
How did make a mistake forwarding to http://www.diningchicago.com ?