According to Fasthosts a webhosting firm located in the UK, disputes over domain name ownership increased by 30 per cent in the past 12 months.
Companies typically found their claims of ownership were harder to prove or defend if they had registered a domain in an employee or advisor’s name.
Fasthost’s report illustrates an issue that has effected domainers and non-domainers as well.
Corporations usually have an employees contact information on the whois record.
If the employee is fired, quits or dies the corporation has a problem.
Fasthosts said” if these people then leave the organisation, the business owners may endure a lengthy process of trying to prove their right to own and control the domain because the former employees have become the legal ‘registrant’ of the name.
“While we investigate domain disputes in-house and support businesses as much as we can, the process inevitably takes some time and there is always the possibility that business activity can be disrupted,” said Fasthosts chief marketing officer Steve Holford.
“Rather than domains being overseen by an IT colleague or agent, businesses should audit them like a business asset and keep an eye on their status”.
The same with a partnership. If one partner controls the whois info record they control the domain to the possible jeopardy of the other partners. Besides disagreements with partners, which is not uncommon, if the partner on the whois record dies the remaining partners may not be in a good position.
Finally even if you own your domains in your own name, you need to cover your domains in your will, understand what effect a divorce may have on your domains.
The 30% increase in domain ownership disputes that fasthosts is reporting is certainly not limited to the .Uk or fasthosts
Mike,
Yep we see this all the time in our hosting business. Many times the domain registration is done in the name of a web hosting company or web developer and not the owner’s of the domain.
We always advise clients who switch their hosting to us to get the registration information changed to their own name or company name asap and cite the some reasons you mention in your post.
Unfortunately, we have seen too many domains be held by a former web hosting company, web developers or employees. Lots of shady people out there I guess.
– Richard.
Richard
Excellent point, I have seen many domains lost when the hosting or web developer put it in their name and then went out of business
Personally I’m rather curious how their team created for that purpose resolves those disputes despite its inherent risks. It’s tough enough dealing with this every other day in my past registrar life, and we had been sued (which none fortunately prospered) a few times when we refused to intervene.
But…I guess they can manage them.
Thankyou so much for this information. I would never would have thouht that it would come to this.
Domain names in a Will, this is really something.