: Who Owns a Domain Name? I have a friend (let's say his name is "Fred") who traded some services in exchange for someone (let's say his name is "Sam") to build him a website for his business.

@Nimeshi995

The Registrant of the domain name, that is the party and contact information that the domain registration record corresponds to, is the controlling party.

If Sam used his own personal or business name along with his corresponding contact information during the domain registration, it's under his control. If Sam used Fred's name and contact information, then Fred would be the Registrant and controlling party.

To verify who the domain registration information corresponds to, do a WHOIS lookup on the domain name.

The only recourse for obtaining a domain name registered to another party is filing a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) based on an existing trademark and other criteria, such as registering the domain name in bad faith.

This is not a an easy or inexpensiveness process however, so Fred might want to consider registering another domain name, which given the plethora of new gTLD's, should not be so constraining to do.

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