Copyright and Trademark Disputes

If you believe your intellectual property has been infringed by a Porkbun customer, several remedies exist. Porkbun does not arbitrate intellectual property disputes. However, there exist routes for arbitration. In general, we recommend directly contacting the party you believe is infringing upon your intellectual property and asking them to cease the alleged infringement before taking additional steps.

You can contact any Porkbun registrant by clicking the link listed under “Registrant Email:” when you search for a Porkbun-registered domain at: https://porkbun.com/whois

Trademark disputes

If you believe that the name of a domain registered at Porkbun is infringing on your trademark, our regulator, ICANN, has created two routes of arbitration, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP)  and the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) . If you decide to initiate a UDRP or URS proceeding, please contact legal@porkbun.com  and we will take the necessary steps to accommodate the proceeding.

Copyright disputes

Generally, allegations of copyright infringement on a website are processed by the web hosting company, not the registrar or DNS host. Porkbun does offer web hosting products to its customers, so it is possible we’re the host for the allegedly infringing content.

To determine the web host, we recommend utilizing a service such as https://www.whoishostingthis.com/  (not affiliated with Porkbun and Porkbun cannot guarantee the accuracy of any such service.) Often, if a site is hosted on Amazon (AWS) servers and has Porkbun nameservers assigned, it’s hosted by us, but not always. If you’re unsure, please email legal@porkbun.com and we will verify whether a website is hosted on our servers.

Content hosted elsewhere

In situations where Porkbun is the registrar and/or DNS host but not the web host for the site you allege is infringing on your copyrighted material, we don't have the ability to remove specific content from the site. In order to have any content removed, you should contact the registrant, or the domain's web hosting company and request to have the allegedly infringing content removed.

Content hosted at Porkbun

If Porkbun does host a site you believe contains material that infringes on your copyrighted material, you can notify us by submitting a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice.

After we receive a valid and complete DMCA notice and determine its legitimacy, we'll remove the material from public view and try to contact the site owner.

Once we have removed the content, our customers are permitted to submit a counter-notice. If we receive a counter-notice, we’ll forward it on to you. 10 business days after we receive a valid counter-notice, we’ll re-enable their content unless you let us know that you’ve initiated a lawsuit against the site owner. If you initiate your lawsuit within 14 business days of us sending us out the counter-notice, let us know and we’ll remove the content again as required by the DMCA.

Porkbun reserves the right to challenge abuses of this process. You are required to swear to the truthfulness of your DMCA takedown notice under threat of perjury. Additionally, if you materially misrepresent that content hosted on our servers infringes upon your copyright, we may publicize your attempt to abuse the takedown process and and seek to collect damages as permitted under
§ 512(f) of the DMCA:

(f) Misrepresentations.—Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section—

(1) that material or activity is infringing, or

(2) that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner’s authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it.

Please note that the same goes for counter-notices, you must swear to your counter-notice under threat of perjury and we may seek damages if we determine you’ve lied to us in a counter-notice.

Please submit any DMCA takedown notices or counter-notices via email to legal@porkbun.com or via post at the address listed later in this document. Please note that we’ll process notices as soon as they’re received by a Porkbun employee.

Every DMCA takedown notice must contain the following before we can begin processing it:

1. Identification of the original work or works you believe are infringed
2. Identification of the infringing material. Specifically, the URL or URLs that you allege infringe upon the work or works identified
3. Your contact info: the name of the person who is submitting the report, your email address and/or physical address (preferably both) and a valid telephone number at which you can be reached
4. The following statement: “I have 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.”
5. The following statement: “I swear under penalty of perjury that the information in this notification is accurate, and that I am the owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”
6. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed

Likewise, every counter-notice must contain the following:

1. Identification of the content that was disabled or removed which you allege was disabled or removed by mistake or misidentification
2. Your contact info: the name of the person who is submitting the report, your email address and/or physical address (preferably both) and a valid telephone number at which you can be reached
3. The following statement: “I swear under penalty of perjury that the information in this notification is accurate. I have a good-faith belief that the material that was disabled or removed was done so by mistake or misidentification.”
4. Your physical or electronic signature

Contact info for Porkbun’s Agent to Receive Notifications of Claimed Infringement:

legal@porkbun.com

Mailing address: