Respecting Intellectual Property

Hostsprite (“Hostsprite”) supports the protection of intellectual property. Whether you are the holder of a trademark, service mark, or copyright, Hostsprite is committed to helping you protect your legal rights. Therefore, we have established the following policies for considering trademark and/or copyright infringement claims.

Domain Name Dispute Claims

Please refer to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “UDRP”) if you have a concern or dispute about a registered domain name. Any dispute regarding the registration of domain names will need to be sent either to the registrant, to an ICANN-approved arbitration provider, or the court system. Please review our Attorney Tips for more information about submitting copies of court and legal documents to Hostsprite.

This Trademark/Copyright Infringement policy specifically excludes domain name disputes and has been established to allow reporting of possible violations involving other Hostsprite products and services.

Copyright and Trademark Claims

1. To notify Hostsprite that there has been a copyright or trademark violation, please follow the specific instructions in (A) for filing a trademark claim, or (B) filing a copyright complaint.

2. If you are responding to a complaint of infringement, you will need to follow our Counter Notification policy in (C).

A. Trademark Claims

1. If you (the “Complaining Party”) would like to submit a trademark claim for violation of a mark on which you hold a valid, registered trademark or service mark (registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the Principal Register or, for foreign marks, registered with the appropriate intellectual property organization of your country; state registrations and registrations on the Supplemental Register are not considered valid for these purposes), Hostsprite requests that the Complaining Party substantiate such claim by either: (i) filling out the form available ipclaims.secureserver.net, or (ii) providing the following information via email to [email protected]. The words “Trademark Claim” should appear in the subject line of the email. **PLEASE NOTE: Filling out the online form is the quickest way to get your claim addressed.** To be considered effective, a notification of a claimed trademark violation must include the following information:
   • The trademark, service mark, trade dress, name, or other indicia of origin (“mark”) that is claimed to be infringed, including registration number.
   • The jurisdiction or geographical area to which the mark applies.
   • The name, post office address and telephone number of the owner of the mark identified above.
   • The goods and/or services covered by or offered under the mark identified above.
   • The date of first use of the mark identified above.
   • The date of first use in interstate commerce of the mark identified above.
   • A description of the manner in which the Complaining Party believes its mark is being infringed upon.
   • Sufficient evidence that the owner of the website that is claimed to be infringing is a Hostsprite customer.
   • The precise location of the infringing mark, including electronic mail address, etc.
   • A good faith certification, signed under penalty of perjury, stating:
     1. The content of the website [identify website] infringes the rights of another party,
     2. The name of such said party,
     3. The mark [identify mark] being infringed, and
     4. That use of the content of the website claimed to be infringing at issue is not defensible.

2. Upon receipt of the appropriate information identified in Section 1 above, for trademark claims, Hostsprite will initiate an investigation and forward the Complaining Party’s written notification to the alleged infringer. While Hostsprite is investigating the claim, Hostsprite, at its sole discretion and without any legal obligation to do so, may notify the alleged infringer it will lock down the domain name(s), redirect the DNS,and/or if it is solely stored on a Hostsprite server, temporarily remove or deny access to the allegedly infringing material.
3. If Hostsprite concludes that the Complaining Party has raised a legitimate trademark claim, it may, at its sole discretion and without any legal obligation to do so, continue to suspend the alleged infringer’s Hostsprite account and/or if it is solely stored on a Hostsprite server, deny access to the allegedly infringing material. If Hostsprite concludes that the Complaining Party has not raised a legitimate claim, Hostsprite will restore access to the allegedly infringing material.
4. The Complaining Party should understand that Hostsprite, an ICANN accredited registrar, and its customers are bound by the UDRP. Nothing in this Policy should be construed to supersede the UDRP, nor the obligation of Hostsprite and its customers to abide by it in the context of domain name disputes.

B. Copyright Claims

1. If the Complaining Party would like to submit a copyright claim for material on which you hold a bona fide copyright, Hostsprite requests that the Complaining Party substantiate such claim by either: (i) filling out the form available ipclaims.secureserver.net, or (ii) providing the following information via email to [email protected]. The words “Copyright Claim” should appear in the subject line of the email. A copyright claim can also be submitted by mail to: Copyright Agent, Hostsprite, 2150 E. Warner Rd., Tempe, AZ 85284 USA. **PLEASE NOTE: Filling out the online form is the quickest way to get your claim addressed.**
   
   To be considered effective, a notification of a claimed copyright infringement must be provided to Hostsprite and must include the following information:
   1. An electronic signature of the copyright owner, or a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive copyright that has allegedly been infringed.
   2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works on that site.
   3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Hostsprite to locate the material.
   4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Hostsprite to contact the Complaining Party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the Complaining Party may be contacted.
   5. A statement that the Complaining Party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
   6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the Complaining Party is the owner, or is authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. For Copyright Claims, upon receipt of appropriate notification from the Complaining Party, pursuant to Section 1 of Copyright Claims above, Hostsprite will initiate an investigation and forward the Complaining Party’s written notification to the alleged infringer. While Hostsprite is investigating the claim, Hostsprite, at its sole discretion and without any legal obligation to do so, may notify the alleged infringer it will lock down the domain name(s), redirect the DNS, and/or if it is solely stored on a Hostsprite server, temporarily remove or deny access to the allegedly infringing material.
3. If Hostsprite concludes that the Complaining Party has raised a legitimate copyright claim, it will continue to suspend the alleged infringer’s Hostsprite account and/or if it is solely stored on a Hostsprite server, deny access to the allegedly infringing material. If Hostsprite concludes that the Complaining Party has not raised a legitimate claim, Hostsprite will restore access to the allegedly infringing material.

C. Counter Notification Policy

1. Counter Notification. If you have received a notice of copyright or trademark infringement that you wish to challenge based on 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] and including the following:
   1. An electronic signature of the alleged infringer.
   2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
   3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the alleged infringer has 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.
   4. The alleged infringer’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the Infringer consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district of Arizona, or if the alleged infringer’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Hostsprite may be found, and that the alleged infringer will accept service of process from the Complaining Party or an agent of such Party.

2. Upon receipt of a Counter Notification as described in Section 1 above, Hostsprite 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. Hostsprite 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 Hostsprite 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 Hostsprite’s system or network.

D. Repeat Infringers

It is Hostsprite’s policy to provide for the termination, in appropriate circumstances, of Hostsprite customers and account holders who repeatedly violate this policy or are repeat infringers of copyrighted works, trademarks or any other intellectual property.