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Domain law is mainly concerned with claims that may arise from the registration or use of a domain. The relevant legal bases are composed of standards of civil law, in particular the law relating to the use of name according to § 12 of the German Civil Code (BGB), the German Trademark Act (MarkenG) and the German Unfair Competition Act (UWG), which contain different claims for damages and removal or omission.
Usually, domain law becomes relevant from two perspectives:
- Right holders intend to dispute a domain name or have it “switched off” if the domain name or content or services accessible under it infringe their rights.
- Domain owners must defend themselves against claims pointed at the domain name. This includes claims for transfer or omission of the use of a domain name for certain contents.
Furthermore, domain law is multifaceted beyond that. Claims are not only directed against domain holders, but also against parties involved in the registration, such as the admin-c, the registrar (domain provider) or the registry (the central registry).
For disputes concerning “.de” domains, there is no extrajudicial dispute resolution procedure offered by the registry DENIC. For other country code top-level domains, such procedures are offered with different rules, such as for “.it” or “.fr”.
So-called generic domain names, such as “.com” or “.net”, but also all newly introduced endings such as “.bayern” or “.shop” must, according to ICANN’s specifications, provide the procedures UDRP (Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy) and URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension System) for domain disputes. In some cases, however, the operators also go beyond these procedures to sanction the misuse of domains.
Successful legal representation in domain law requires knowledge of all these topics. This expertise has been built up in the law firm over many years and through legal support in a large number of cases. In addition, it is often strategically preferable to take the path of negotiation rather than legal action in order to reach the desired goal faster and more cost-effectively. That is where can also benefit from the experience and industry knowledge of our lawyers.
If you want to register, transfer or buy a domain, please make sure that you select the appropriate domain and that you do not interfere with the rights of others. In order to facilitate the establishment or expansion of your domain as far as possible, our lawyers are available to you for advice, contract drafting or review, as well as in case of dispute:
- Consulting: We help you to find the right domain for you among many top-level domains and support you during the registration process. If you have a registered trademark, we will help you to protect it through an entry at the Trademark Clearinghouse.
- In the event of a dispute: We are also happy to support you when a third party misuses your trademark as a domain or your domain in any other way. Thanks to our excellent networking in the domain industry and our many years of experience in domain law, we can resolve many disputes at short notice and without escalation. If necessary, we will assert the given claims for damages, claims for cancellation or injunctive reliefs on your behalf or conduct relevant extrajudicial proceedings such as the URS or UDRP for you. The URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension System) and UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) are extrajudicial dispute resolution procedures that promise a relatively short duration of three weeks to approximately three months.
- Drafting or reviewing contracts: If you are a registrar or reseller, we support you in drafting and reviewing your contracts, general terms and conditions and registration terms. We help you to implement the constantly changing regulations and policies in a legally compliant manner.
GDPR stands for: General Data Protection Regulation and refers to the basic data protection regulation which has been directly applicable in all EU member states since 25.05.2018. We would like to briefly highlight the essential aspects of the new regulations for you and present our consulting approach.