Reverse Domain Name Hijacking can have long lasting and possible career ending consequences and should not be taken lightly. Just ask the 2012 "Poster Boy" for RDNH if his life has changed? Ask the folks at P&G if this is a stain any of their great products can remove? Just please ask the questions. Then ask yourself is this worth changing your life and possibly destroying your career and more if you, your company and your attorney are found guilty of abusing the process? It may follow you forever because you all knew better! You took what you thought was a small gamble and it blew up in your faces. Are you ready for your new moniker?
As I posted on August 19th, 2013, Jaguar/Landrover (a Tata company) is the most recent Fortune 500 Company found Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. They Join Procter & Gamble as the 2nd fortune 500 to risk tarnishing their respective brands this year. Will there be a company wide shake up? Time will tell. (Read below for the outcome)
The attempt was so blatant, that the panel found for the respondent without the respondent even answering the complaint. A huge victory for all!! The panel still found Jaguar/LandRover guilty of RDNH. Jennifer M. Hetu ofHonigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA got defeated by a ghost! How does a debacle like this unfold?
I will repost the following post each and every time there is a Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Decision. The best thing domain owners can do is Tweet, Like, Post and/or Share. So just don't sit there! You can do something to circulate these offenders. So do it! That's real SEO! I need your help. I can't do this alone. Charity starts at home and that means protecting what is yours so you can help others.
Want to stop RDNH and get the $$$ instead of a NAF or WIPO action? Hall of Shame is the way to start. Someday there will be a legal and criminal penalty but until then there is a social penalty if you choose. And believe me, the social penalty at Hall of Shame is much more severe than a fine that can be easily absorbed and forgotten about. This is permanent and priceless! They have to live with the social consequences of their actions. The best thing you can do is Tweet, Like and/or Share instead of throwing your hands up in the air and doing nothing! Doing nothing is what these little pricks count on! Let them know! I can only do so much and I need your help to defeatthis practice.
There really is a penalty for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and it is far more severe than anything monetary. I have been defending my domains from predators and would-be Domain Name Hijackers for over 16 of my 18 years doing this online. When the Saveme.com case (start at bottom of link page) came to me as a gift about 16 months ago I relished my opportunity to change things. It was such a slam dunk that I was going to make this case an example for others and a warning of the severe consequences that come with it. I may lose a domain, but a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker loses their entire reputation, tarnishes their brand and much more and it can't be repaired.
When I was a kid my parents and my teachers would scare me to be good as they would tell me if I was bad it would be on my "Permanent Record". Well when you commit a crime, it is on your permanent record. Misbehaving in school? Not so much.
So I have used the SaveMe.com case as well as others like Procter and Gamble to illustrate just how bad a decision trying to steal somebody else's domain really is. And so I did. I promised to make Márcio Mello Chaves Famous!! Promise kept baby!!
Go to Google or go to Bing and search for Márcio Mello Chaves or Marcio Mello Chaves.
This is how SEO REALLY works!!!
Relevancy!! Be relevant and you will have no problem being searched. Marcio Mello Chavez is relevant to Ricksblog.com and now Hall of Shame. More importantly to Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. How does he everfix it?? It's a permanent record of fact! Maybe start here and make a statement. I will publish it. He must have learned something.
Search Procter and Gamble domains. You no longer get a list of domains they own.
Search Jaguar or LandRover. Because of this, they too are subject to being reminded that what they did was so over the top it is permanent.
Tell me how much it is worth to undo what can't be undone and they are responsible for?
And reputation management software?? Hate it! And thankfully it won't work well with Reverse Domain Name Hijacking! Most folks I know don't need to repair their reputations. They just do things the right way to begin with. Not so much with large companies.
So I believe the Social Penalty far outweighs anything else. A $100k fine is nothing when you talk of a 7 or 8 figure domain and a multi-billion dollar company. A win could be viewed as a "Discount". But when you have to deal with the Social Fallout, it is much more severe and I am proving it!
The Scarlett Letter of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking will follow those throughout their entire lifetimes and beyond. Here are my posts about Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and those involved. The next guy deserveswhat he gets because he has been warned and I am going to change their futures more than they can change their futures.
So I feel like 2013 has been the turning point in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). And yes, I like to write out in full, "Reverse Domain Name Hijacking" as many times as I can to associate a name with the deed! My only obligation to a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker is to make them Famous! They try to destroy my business or your business?? Then they must live with the permanent consequences. Did they show you mercy? Well they are warned and they own their decisions.
Did the biggest Company Shake up in 100 YEARS at Procter and Gamble have something to do with Reverse Domain Name Hijacking? Don't discount the possibility! Somebody made the decision to soil their companies stellar name. In government it may be overlooked or you get promoted. In business, you get your butt kicked to the curb with all involved! And deservedly so!
I have 18 years and many millions of dollars invested in my online business as do many of my readers. So if someidiot thinks he can just steal our hard work by hiring some hotshot.....and found guilty......then they have to live with the fallout and that fallout can be severe and life changing. That's what both the attorney and the client get from now on because attorneys know better at this point in time.
So the job of the attorney is not to be part of a hijacking and actually Aid and Abet. It is to educate their client or fire their client. Explain the self inflicted damage that can be done to them, their company, their brand, you as an attorney and the firm you work for.
So All I am suggesting is you better be on solid ground when you hit somebody with a WIPO or NAF action. Your choice and just remember that Your Name will be included in the fallout. It's not up to you and it is not in your control once you are found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.
Aid and Abet? Make no mistake, the panels today are not ignorant. The attorney is the mastermind of the hijacking as well as the driver of the car the way I see it given what we know now. You have been hired as a contract hit man so to speak but the hit is not on a person, it is on property. Your client is in the back seat directing you and paying you to help him hijack a domain name when your real job is to protect him. The moment you go along with that scheme, you are just as guilty because you know what you are doing. It is premeditated. You are just as guilty aren't you Mr. Attorney?? If not, why not? I have read the decisons and the panels have been brutal when they get lied to. When lawyers and their clients fabricate accusations and get caught doing it!
Wrong minded? Outrageous? Over the top? ok fine. I may be guilty of bad taste. How does that measure up against being found guilty of Reverse Hijacking a domain name by the govering panel? Worth the gamble of ending up here at HallofShame.com and then what? Blame me? Threaten ME!?
But that is exactly the way I see things and that is the passion I will write with every single time. Remember we are not talking about an honest difference of opinion where you need a ruling by the appointed panel. We are talking when that ruling comes in and that appointed panel states in their findings that you have abused the process and then list all the crap you tried to pull. For that Mr. Attorney, you will be held accountable.Your Firm will be accountable. And you will have damaged whoever you are paid to protect.
Tell your client the facts or fire your client. Have some courage. It may be the most important decision you ever make in life. And I get to write about you and mention names whenever I feel like if you don't and you lose because you abused the system. If I misstated anything that is not factual please let me know!
Molly Megee Hankins and Heitor Chavez are examples of what I am talking about as they represented Reverse Domain Name Hijackers and knew better! Just read what the presiding panel states in their decision. I will add more to the list as I look through the decisions to see which lawyers abused the process.
Then you have the king of all. Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL who represented Procter and Gamble. Have theybeen fired? Let me give them a second mention Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL. I would assume these are top notch folks. How could they allow their client to walk into this? I guess it would take real balls to fire P&G. They might lose the account? Wonder if they were fired for not protecting them?
I am going to stop this practice in it's tracks! If you are a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker or are found guilty of abusing the process, then you and your attorney will be known far and wide and throughout the world and it will follow you folks like a shadow on sunny days and cloudy days and even in the dark!
So if you are being unfairly threatened about your domain name, just point them here. It is free and effective because it is all based on fact and passion! Give them a little window into how things may unfold because when you win and they get found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, I am going to write about them right here and make them famous too!
What can you do as a domain owner especially if you own one domain and that is where you make your living? Circulate this post. Retweet it. Like it. Comment on Linkedin. Circulate it. That is a very small effort to help protect your livelihood and your assets that costs nothing and helps put these folks on notice. This is how we can help stop Reverse Domain Name Hijacking from predators and educate the Law Firms.
Here is the current list I have of RDNH cases with our newest inductee. This list that the Next Schmuck gets to join and live with!
So from now on we must Roast these Reverse Domain Name Hijackers (RDNH). Ah you say but Rick what have you been doing if you are not already roasting them? Well there are some innovative ways we will begin to get the attention of these companies. But we will leave that for another day because this content is right here and not going away anytime soon.
Harsh? You bet!! These folks join Procter and Gamble and Jaguar/Landrover (Tata) and many others. But P&Gbought the domain name later on. In almost every case they knew what they were doing and their intent was to steal using a governing body as their pawns!
The public now owns the reputation of each of these companies and individuals as well as the attorney's that knowingly aid and abet because they knew better. They are all now branded in the most despicable way and so all the $$$ they spent to familiarize us with their products just got a mighty damaging, self inflicted, blow.
There have been more findings of Reverse Domain Hijacking in the last 12 months that any preceding 12 month period. So the cat is out of the bag and they can no longer fool panels into being their unknowing accomplices.
So when I get threats, THIS IS WHAT THEY CAN LOOK FORWARD TO
I have over 45 such cases so far of RDNH and this resource has 155 or more. Each win will discourage the next would-be hijacker. A tip of the hat to all owners below that fought and a big congrats to the attorney that represented them!
And a special tip of the hat to John Berryhill and Ari Goldberger, who are the leading RDNH attorneys in the world. I would guess those two are responsible for about 1/3 of all decisions. So if you are up against Berryhill or Goldberger or Neu or Keating or a few others, good luck! You'll need it. Save yourself a great loss and embarrassment and withdraw your case and send the other party their expense money and then get down to this thing we call "Capitalism" and negotiate or just walk away!! Cattle Rustling is no way to be seen by the public is it?
And with each conviction I will be a more intense gadfly than the post before until this crap stops and we begin the tedious job of making Reverse Domain Name Hijacking a criminal offense as we move forward.
If you are on thin ice, found out to be guilty, you and your company will be listed right here and in all future blog posts and interviews relating to this and I reserve my right to use your attempted theft at every chance I get. Let the public decide who is the thief! Who is the party found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking! Just stop and think before you have to explain why you are featured in the Hall of Shame!