10 US Laws Every Domainer Needs to Know

After the overwhelming popularity of our first ecommerce law article, ‘12 US Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know‘ it became clear that there is a lot of demand for concise, plain talk, tech related legal information. In this, our second installment, we cover ‘10 US Laws Every DOMAINER Needs to Know.’

With top-level domains appreciating at as much as 94% per year by some estimates, it is little wonder that domaining is the new ‘hot’ industry in the internet world. But despite the rapid growth of domaining, there is surprisingly little consensus as to what industry best practices are, or even what laws apply to domaining. In this article we try to sort through the legal and accounting mumbo-jumbo to explain ten of the most important US laws when it comes to domaining and provide some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them.
1. Domain Sniffing

“I had a really great domain name idea, which was available when I searched through the registrar, but then five minutes later when I went to buy the name it was gone.” Anyone who has been in domaining for more than a month has heard dozens of versions of that same story. Although not everyone buys that domain sniffing actually exists, there is mounting evidence that domain sniffing exists in some form or another. The real question is, what legal recourse do you have against these sniffers?

What is the Law?

Unfortunately, simply having the idea to register a domain name first gives you no legal claim to the name over the person who actually registered it. So in this case, your best bet is to argue that your privacy was infringed upon or that your proprietary information was taken. The US laws governing electronic privacy and trade secret rights are a patchwork of various laws which often overlap.

Like almost every electronic claim, your first step should probably be to write a cease and desist letter. If you want to write your own (they’re really easy) just use this form. Anything beyond a C&D letter and you’re probably going to need an attorney, which may make the decision to fight economically inefficient.

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