AVOID GoDaddy hosting company they will shut down all your sites if even one Trademark claim is made

[xynames]

I am helping a client with this right now. The below is posted publicly with his consent because he wants the world to know what kind of hosting company and registrar GoDaddy is.

• Client has about thirty websites hosted on GoDaddy's "Ultimate" shared server plan, PREPAID FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

• Client has been with GoDaddy FIFTEEN YEARS never had any problems

• About a week ago, client received an email from GoDaddy [email protected] stating that there had been a Trademark Infringement claim made on just ONE website of his, the contents of which had been hosted unchanged for TWO AND HALF YEARS with no prior complaint - and that "we have suspended this hosting account" and that they had "terminate[d] your use of our hosting services for this website."

• Client contacted GoDaddy by phone, everyone he called told him that if he emailed back [email protected] and simply stated that he would disable the content on that ONE website, which he did by changing the nameservers on that one domain to make the website just a parked page with no content, that the hosting would be reinstated.

• The guy at [email protected]
D Preston
Trademark & Copyright Claims Manager
Go Daddy Operating Company, LLC
wrote back to my client and said that not only would he not reinstate the hosting, even if client disabled the content on the one website, but that also he would not allow the client access to any of his data or databases on the hosting account.

GoDaddy claims that client is required by the "hosting agreement to maintain a full backup of your files at all times. You can review the entire agreement here: http://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc.aspx?pageid=HOSTING_SA
"
but this applies to cases to "(1) prevent any loss or damage to your website or server content" --- it does not apply to situations where GoDaddy simply shuts down the hosting! In other words, a GoDaddy client may be responsible for outside issues that result in data damage or loss, but there has been no loss or damage to the website or server content, the data is all there, GoDaddy is simply preventing client from accessing it. Additionally, GoDaddy may not CREATE the data loss and then hold the client responsible for not backing it up!

Client in fact does have backups of most of the html / css / php type data on his websites, but does not have backups of the blogs and forums he had created on some of the websites. Imagine for example losing the namepros forum database, such that all you had left was the bare html content of the website and not the forum itself. Or losing a blog.

Client is not even asking for the data from the one website where the alleged trademark infringement occurred, he is asking for the data from the other thirty some websites that are not the subject of any complaint. The data “lost” is not the data that is the subject of this trademark claim.

• Client, at my direction, then made a Counter Notice pursuant to GoDaddy's policies here
https://www.godaddy.com/agreements/showdoc?pageid=TRADMARK_COPY
which state that
"1. Counter Notification. If you have received a notice of copyright or trademark infringement that you wish to challenge based on a a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled, you may provide Counter Notification by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]

…

“Upon receipt of a Counter Notification as described in Section 1 above, GoDaddy shall promptly provide the Complaining Party with a copy of the Counter Notification, and inform such Party that it will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to it in ten (10) business days. GoDaddy will replace the removed material and cease disabling access to it in not less than ten (10), nor more than fourteen (14), business days following receipt of the Counter Notification, unless GoDaddy first receives notice from the Complaining Party that such Complaining Party has filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the alleged infringer from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on GoDaddy's system or network.”

but GoDaddy refused to pass along the Counter Notice to the party that had made the Trademark Infringement claim.

• Client UNlocked about a dozen of his domains and tried to move them out of GoDaddy, but because the authorization codes are being sent the cPanel email accounts that are suspended, he cannot receive the authorization codes and cannot move the domains out of GoDaddy.

At my direction, client has made an ICANN complaint that GoDaddy is not allowing him to transfer his domains out.

• GoDaddy continues to refuse to allow the client access to any of his data or databases on the websites, refuses to reinstate his hosting, refused to give him access to the cPanel email addresses to receive the authorization codes to move out domains, and so far has even refused to refund him the money that he prepaid for the next five years for the hosting plan.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Perhaps this is an example of why it is useful to have privacy off, and receive all communications as the domain owner.

It's sad to hear that such barriers to communication to a domain registant continue with this company. Thanks for sharing the information.

Note that I still have been unable to have my full contact information listed through GoDaddy, despite having privacy off. My email address information is still blocked.

For those with more extensive web hosting through this company, this may be an even higher concern here about the lack of providing full communications directed to the domain registrants.

Perhaps GoDaddy can weigh in, to comment whether their policy has changed since the original posting, and whether courier communications are being forwarded to the domain registrants?

 

[xynames]

Generally, true, in TM claims the claimant sends first an email to the domain owner, and then later tracks down either the registrar where the domain is being held or the host where the domain website is hosted, for further complaints. That initial email is often sent to whatever email is listed on the website (if there is a website), plus to whatever email is listed on the WhoIs listing for the domain (with an email sent via privacy guardian if the WhoIs is private).

In the 2021 matter, the client did receive an email via the email listed on the website while with the new host (NOT GoDaddy) - you are right, it does appear that the email sent to privacy guardian was never forwarded, or might've ended up in a spam/junk folder.
In 2021 (again this involved the new host, not GoDaddy), the client just ignored the initial email - took action only when the sites were taken down by the host about six months later, with the DMCA counter notice I prepared. And then in 2021, once the claimant did not respond to the counter notice, all sites were reinstated.

My experience with this is that typically, if the claimant is going to bother to pursue the matter further at all, the complaint to the registrar or host is made about six months after the initial email complaint.

Based on the experience here, 2/2 times after making an initial complaint the TM claimant went to the host - which makes sense because in both cases there were live websites involved.


But the over all point of this thread, is that there is a right and a wrong way for a host to deal with any kind of TM claim / take down notice, here, GoDaddy did not follow the law by disabling the content immediately and not even giving the client a chance to respond. GoDaddy did not even contact the client and give him a chance to remove the offending material, simply disabled the hosting and took all sites (not just the one that received the TM claim, but all hosted sites) down immediately, and withheld all hosted site data.