Someone has registered a domain name using your brand: you can negotiate, you can buy it, or you can take it back through a dispute resolution procedure—which path to choose depends on who is on the other side.
When a brand's domain name has been taken, there are usually three routes: negotiate and buy it back (fastest, but it may embolden the other side), a dispute resolution procedure (rules-based, but you need evidence), or litigation (the heaviest option, usually brought together with other infringement claims).
The choice is not about which route feels most satisfying, but about who the other side is and what they want: a professional cybersquatter, or a former distributor, contract manufacturer or ex-employee? The latter usually involves a contractual relationship, and is handled quite differently.
Domain disputes often go hand in hand with trademark squatting—if someone has also registered your brand as a trademark in China, start with Brand squatted in China: the path to getting it back.
Generic top-level domains (.com, .net and so on) go through the UDRP. A complaint succeeds only if three elements are all met: the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which you have rights; the holder has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith. Cases are administered by providers such as the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center; the procedure is entirely online, the timeline is measured in months, and it is far lighter than litigation.
.cn and Chinese-character domain names go through CNNIC's National Top-Level Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (CNDRP). The elements are similar, but there is one hard time limit: once a domain name has been registered for three years, the dispute resolution provider will not accept the case, and the courts are the only route left—the sooner you act after discovering the squatting, the more options you have.
Under both procedures, the strongest basis of rights is a registered trademark. With a trademark in hand, a domain dispute has a footing; if your trademark is not yet registered, start with trademark registration.
