My Domain was Removed or Blocked
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What is the Rights Protection Program (RPP)?
Sedo is dedicated to protecting our users and intellectual property (IP) owners from infringing domain names listed for sale or parked with Sedo. Due to the detail-oriented nature of intellectual property law, Sedo is unable to proactively determine whether a particular domain on Sedo is infringing or not and must require intellectual property rights owners to alert us to potentially infringing domains. The RPP was designed to help intellectual property rights owners easily submit complaints regarding domains and request removal of domains comprising of, or confusingly similar to, terms which they have rights.
Why was my listing removed through the RPP?
Upon receipt of a complaint that a domain infringes intellectual property rights, but before a domain is removed from the domain database or had its parking blocked, Sedo attempts to contact the domain owner and alert them to the complaint and inform them of the party levying the complaint. Domain owners are given three days to send Sedo a response to the complaint and within ten days from receiving the complaint a decision is made on whether to remove the domain or not by a Sedo staff member trained on intellectual property.
What does Sedo do to ensure my listings aren't removed by mistake?
The procedures which Sedo requires rights owners to follow when reporting listings through the RPP were designed to ensure that the person reporting the item is authorized to do so, and to enable Sedo to correctly identify the listing to be removed. After an internal review of the complaint where the domain owner is given an opportunity to respond, both the domain owner and complaining party are sent notification of Sedo’s decision whether to remove the domain or not.
How can I avoid having my listing ended through the RPP?
Sedo encourages our users to stay up-to-date on domain law and provide a variety of resources on domain name law. In addition, Sedo lists our rules for domain sellers and rules for domain parkers in our policy section for review before you list your domains for sale or park them with Sedo.
Does Sedo monitor its site for potentially infringing items?
No. Given the detail-specific nature of intellectual property law, and as a domain marketplace with millions of domains being bought, sold and parked annually, it is impossible for Sedo to monitor our database for potentially infringing domains. However, there are times when our staff comes across domains that clearly in-fringe the rights of famous trademarks and will remove these domains when dis-covered. Regardless of how Sedo learns of an infringing domain, we will always inform domain owners of a decision to remove a domain.
Does Sedo give out my personal information to RPP participants?
It is Sedo’s standard procedure upon receiving a complaint through the RPP to protect our user’s identity and to provide domain owners with the complaining party’s contact information so that they may decide whether or not to settle the dispute with the IP owner directly. However, as stated in our Privacy Policy, “we can, and you authorize us to, disclose to a third party your information, including your name, street address, city, state, zip code, coun-try, phone number, email, and company name, as we in our sole discretion believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity.”
For more information on the Rights Protection Program, please contact us.