By Steve Levy
So, you’ve discovered an online violation—someone’s snagged a domain name that’s confusingly similar to your brand, or they’re using it in a way that just screams “bad faith.” Your first thought might be to jump straight into submitting a takedown request or filing a formal dispute under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). But hold your horses! Before you even think about hitting that submit button, there’s a crucial step you absolutely must take: capture comprehensive screenshot evidence.
Think of it like this: a prosecutor wouldn’t go to court without photos of a crime scene, right? The online world is no different. The content on a website can change in a flash. Once a domain owner gets wind that a dispute is brewing against them, they might quickly alter or remove the infringing content, leaving you with a much weaker case. It’s a classic “now you see it, now you don’t” scenario, and it can seriously derail your efforts to reclaim the disputed domain.
This exact issue came into play in a recent UDRP case filed against the domain name mit.mortgage by FairWinds’ own Jeanette Eriksson. What’s particularly interesting about this case, and highly relevant to our discussion, is how the panel addressed the evidence. Although the Respondent had changed the website after receiving a demand letter from the Complainant, the panel reviewed the provided screenshots of the website associated with the disputed domain, noting its content at specific points in time. It noted that “[e]vidence of Respondent’s bad faith registration and use can be seen from the incorporation of the term ‘MIT’ in the disputed domain name, the prominent and liberal use of a logo that was almost identical to Complainant’s Logo, and the use of the Complainant’s full name alongside the look-alike logo on Respondent’s website.” This evidence helped demonstrate the respondent’s bad faith use of the disputed domain name.
The takeaway? If screenshots hadn’t been captured immediately, and the website’s content had been altered, the Complainant’s ability to prove its case would have been significantly hampered.
So, before you formally notify anyone of your intent to dispute a domain or take down a website, grab those screenshots! Use tools that capture full-page scrolls, include timestamps, and always show the URL address bar in the image itself. The more thorough you are in documenting the violation before the other party is alerted, the stronger your UDRP complaint will be. It’s a small effort that can make a massive difference in the outcome of your dispute. Don’t let a missing screenshot be the reason you lose a legitimate and winnable claim!