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Ask HN: Recourse for a Stolen Domain by Registrar?

6 points by ccvannorman ↗ HN
I tried to register a domain, which my registrar said was available. Upon checkout, the domain became unavailable. Whois returns this message: The registration of this domain is restricted, as it is protected by the Identity Digital DPML Brand Protection policy. Additional information can be found at https://www.identity.digital/what-we-do/brand-protection. >>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2023-05-22T19:48:10Z <<<

So, I am blocked from seeing when this domain was registered, but the update to this whois happened at the exact timestamp I tried to purchase the domain.

Do I have any recourse?

6 comments

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detaro
It is not registered, your registrar hasn't "stolen" anything. It's a block on registry level.
ccvannorman
I don't understand this statement. I'm unable to register the domain from any registrar, though it showed "available/unregistered" before I attempted to register it. Only after I attempted to register it did it show "unavailable."
detaro
when you tried to register it, as part of the registration flow the registry ran their check against their block database, noticed that it fits a registered pattern, blocked the transaction and marked it as such.
ccvannorman
thanks, I understand now that the company that owns/controls domain registrations (identity.digital, formerly Donuts and Afilias, allows brands to place pre-holds on any domains that fit a trademark that they own according to some trademark ownership rules.

In other words if you own CoolToy trademark, you can use IdentityDigital to prevent anyone from ever registering a domain with cooltoy in the name.

cpach
Out of curiosity, which TLD was this?