The Club of Friends of Bread and Cheese has taken over the domain of the Parliamentary Club of Law and Justice. This is not the first case of someone forgetting to renew their web address and losing access to their website.

Last year, there was much talk about the takeover of Kawa.pl, a service belonging to the Tchibo concern. The address, owned by the company for over 10 years, fell into the hands of Bartłomiej Usydus. How did it happen that the domain was not renewed? No one knows. What is certain, however, is that a domain's validity does not expire immediately.

– The domain owner was certainly informed multiple times that the deadline for renewing the domain was approaching. Even if we forget to pay for the domain on time, we have 30 days to reactivate it. Only after this period does the domain go into the pool of available names and can be registered by any entity – explains Rafał Kuśmider of dhosting.pl, a Polish hosting company that itself recently took over the global address dhosting.com. Unlike the new owners of the kppis.pl domain, however, it had to pay a hefty sum for it – We bought the hosting.com domain from a private owner for about PLN 40,000 (about EUR 9,300). We needed the address to start operations in the American market. This, however, is a completely different situation. When a domain's validity expires – as happened with the kppis.pl address – it can be taken over for next to nothing – adds Rafał Kuśmider of dhosting.pl.

This is not the first such case. Recently, one Polish IT company lost its web address. Just like with kppis.pl, the domain renewal was forgotten. The address was recovered from the new owner, but it had to be paid for. How much? The transaction amount remains a secret.

Battle for the address

Although it is not yet known whether the ruling party will try to recover its web address, the market has seen more than one battle over a domain. Google Mail has fought for its Gmail several times over the past 10 years. Problems with registering the domain arose in Germany, England, Switzerland, and Poland. "Our" Gmail was nothing more than a page of the Group of Young Artists and Writers (GMAIL), where the works of its members were published. According to some, the group's page was merely a cover and an example of cybersquatting, which is registering domain names associated with well-known products or companies. Eventually, after several years of fighting in court, the domain was taken over by another company acting on behalf of Google, although the gmail.pl address still does not function online today.

Sometimes the fight for a domain takes on a more bizarre character. An example? Some time ago, Apple, an international giant in the consumer electronics industry, sued a Polish entrepreneur for the unauthorized exploitation of the reputation of the company's trademarks. There would be nothing unusual about this if not for the fact that the entire dispute was over the domain name Ap.pl, specifically its phonetic similarity to Apple. Absurd? In this case, everything points to it, because the owner of the Ap.pl domain registered it over a dozen years ago, when Apple devices were about as popular in Poland as the Nokia 3310 is today. Besides, can one accuse a Polish entrepreneur of having the native .pl in the domain address and the abbreviation "ap" deriving from his company's name? Apple proved that one can, even after 13 years. The only question remains: who ultimately benefited from the whole conflict? One of the richest corporations in the world or an unknown Polish company that so unexpectedly managed to gain publicity?

- Over the past years, we have witnessed many battles for internet domains. The problem is that a web address is easy to register, and as the example of kppis.pl shows, it is also easy to take over. Even for a mere joke or quick profit – comments Rafał Kuśmider of dhosting.pl.

Microsoft and herbs

One only needs to go back a few years and look at the herbal-computer affair with Microsoft. In this case, one cannot speak of unjustified accusations, because the owner of a herbal shop in Łódź, when registering his domains Microsoft.pl and Microsoft.com.pl, was perfectly aware of whom he was referencing. How is it possible that he managed to register such a domain?

- In the regulations of the Scientific and Academic Computer Network (NASK), we find a provision stating that NASK does not verify whether, by concluding or performing a contract, the subscriber infringes the rights of third parties or any legal provisions. – explains Rafał Kuśmider of dhosting.pl. Of course, the regulations include cases in which NASK may refuse registration. However, these are regulations concerning already registered and functioning domains and domains corresponding to the name of a voivodeship, county, or commune, which must be registered by the appropriate public administration bodies. What does this mean in practice? - All domains that have not been previously registered or whose validity has expired and has not been renewed by the owner are, under the law, up for grabs. In the case of dishonest domain snatching or the use of other companies' proper names, disputes are resolved by the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications – explains Rafał Kuśmider of dhosting.pl.

The subject of proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Internet Domains is to determine whether the defendant, as a result of concluding a registration agreement with NASK for maintaining an internet domain name, infringed the plaintiff's rights, and a request for a declaration of such infringement. It often happens that the injured party does not decide to pursue court proceedings for fear of additional costs, stress, and endless court visits. However, in most cases, SPDI cases are resolved in about 150 days, and if the case is won, the costs of the proceedings (about PLN 4,000, or about EUR 930) fall on the defendant.

- The Court of Arbitration resolves disputes by referring most often to the regulations of the Act on Combating Unfair Competition or the Industrial Property Law. Very often, in about 70 percent of cases, the Court finds the plaintiff's rights to have been infringed. A good example of such a ruling is the case brought by Orange Bright Services Limited, based in Bristol, against the owner of the orangewarsawfestival.pl domain – notes Rafał Kuśmider of dhosting.pl.

Hush, hush...

Companies or organizations that do not want to fight or have no grounds to file a lawsuit generally decide to buy back their domain. There is also another way. One of the larger Polish technology companies showed a certain kind of courage in a similar situation. When it turned out that ZigZag, the previous hosting provider, had declared bankruptcy, the company domain was taken over by NASK. Unfortunately, its owners were not informed either about the bankruptcy or about the fact that for some time ZigZag had not been paying NASK the subscription fee for maintaining its clients' addresses. As a result, the domain was put up for sale and taken over by AfterMarket.pl, one of the companies dealing in buying back web addresses on the secondary market. Proceedings before the Court of Arbitration in this case made no sense, because AfterMarket.pl essentially acted legally. However, this was not the main reason why the company's owners did not report the matter anywhere. They assumed that making noise around the taken-over domain would unnecessarily draw the competition's attention, which would significantly increase its price. So they decided to quietly participate in an ordinary auction. As it turned out, this was the best possible solution, because the domain was recovered for a relatively small amount of money.

What will the Parliamentary Club of Law and Justice do in the current situation? We will see. For now, the PiS website's web address has been changed.