UDRP vs. Lawsuit: Recovering an Infringing Domain
By Casey Scott McKay ·
Someone has your brand in a domain name and you want it back, which means choosing between a contract-based administrative proceeding that ends in about two months for the price of a good laptop and a federal lawsuit that can take two years and produce a money judgment. This article explains both instruments from the ground up - what the UDRP actually is (a term in the registrant's own registration agreement, not a law), the three elements a complainant must prove, and why the conjunctive "registered and used in bad faith" requirement is the single most common reason good complaints fail. It then sets out the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. section 1125(d): the disjunctive registration-trafficking-use trigger, the nine statutory bad-faith factors and the safe harbor that swallows some of them, statutory damages of $1,000 to $100,000 per domain under section 1117(d), and the in rem action that lets you sue the domain itself when the registrant is a privacy shield in another hemisphere. It covers the counterattack most brand owners never see coming - the losing registrant's federal cause of action under section 1114(2)(D)(v) and a reverse domain name hijacking finding - and explains why filing a UDRP complaint means consenting in advance to a court the registrant gets to pick. Along the way it works through the timing trap in the word "registers," the gripe-site cases that make noncommercial criticism nearly untouchable, the Uniform Rapid Suspension system for new gTLDs, and the country-code policies that quietly change the test. It closes with a decision framework, a cost model, and an honest account of what is still unsettled.
IP and Technology > Internet | Article | Published 15 January 2026 - Updated 4 June 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. You want a domain name back. There are two main ways to get it, and they are not variations on a theme — they are different legal systems with different proofs, different clocks, and different prices. The UDRP is a contract remedy that runs on paper in about sixty days and ends with the domain moved into your registrar account, nothing more. An ACPA lawsuit under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) is a federal case that can take two years and end with the domain, an injunction, statutory damages of up to $100,000 per name, and a fee award. This article explains what each instrument actually requires, where each one breaks, the in rem action for defendants you cannot find, the reverse-hijacking counterclaim that punishes overreach, and how to decide in an afternoon rather than a quarter.
Keywords: udrp · acpa · cybersquatting · domain name dispute · reverse domain name hijacking · in rem jurisdiction · statutory damages · wipo arbitration and mediation center · uniform rapid suspension · bad faith intent to profit · typosquatting · domain transfer · registrar lock · mutual jurisdiction · passive holding · oki data test · domain recovery · lanham act section 43(d) · gripe site · privacy shield
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