Comments on: How to Get Ownership of a Cybersquatted Youtube Account

By: Pixelrage

Pixelrage — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:02:54 +0000

Hi Bianca, thanks for visiting! If the Youtube channel is freed up, then you certainly do have a better chance at obtaining it…UNLESS…the account has a line of text that says “This account has been terminated due to repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines and/or claims of copyright infringement.” If you see this, I can assure you, Youtube will never allow you to own it. I know this, only because I wanted to obtain Youtube.com/pixelrage – go and visit that page, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s unfortunate when some jerk out there ruins things for you like this!

As for getting a trademark – if you don’t want to use a lawyer or a service (like Legalzoom), you’ll have to go to your state’s website and find their “small business” section, and download the State form for trademark applications. I do have to warn you – it is filled with legal-talk which can be a little hard to decipher. If you do go this route, make sure that your trademark drawing is exactly what you want, and that your description of the drawing is laser perfect!

By: Bianca Santos

Bianca Santos — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:12:38 +0000

Hello Pixelrage.

This article has been very helpful, thank you.

I just wanted to clarify a few points before moving forward.

If the user account squatting my YouTube name is now closed and the channel no longer available, does this make the case for trademark easier?

I own the website name, Facebook, Linded In and Twitter accounts for my name, is this enough to prove my case without a trademark?

The company you recommended LegalZoom is quite pricey, would you be willing to give a breakdown of the steps to do it on my own?

Thank you.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:32:24 +0000

I just took ownership of a cybersquatted account; the dispute was successful in part because of the advice in this article and comments, so THANK YOU!

Here’s the message I sent:

“Intentional cybersquatting. User obtained acct on 10/23/2007; no visits in
2yrs, no activity, uploads or subscribers. Attempted to contact user, but received no response. CompanyName was incorporated in 1994; the US trademark (Registration #XXXXXXX) was filed in 2004 and approved in 2006. Thank you.”

Of course, actually having the trademarks makes a big difference. The whole process took about a month before I heard anything from them, just FYI.

By: Pixelrage

Pixelrage — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:57:51 +0000

The best way would be to contact Youtube and let them know that you are unable to contact the cybersquatter – the complaint would basically have to be filed directly toward Youtube itself. Hopefully their department will take action. In these cases, they would theoretically attempt to contact this person. If THEY are unsuccessful in doing so, then the next step could be you getting a hold of that account.

By: Jules

Jules — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:52:17 +0000

I have just received the same standard message from YouTube, finding no grounds for the trademark infringement. My problem is that I cannot find the cybersquatter on YouTube, since they have not uploaded any videos, just set up an account. Any ideas on how I can find them via YouTube?

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:13:00 +0000

Thanks for this article! Based on your advice and links here, I submitted my claim on December 15 and re-acquired the account in question on December 24. Merry Christmas to me!

The company I represent had a trademark registered in both Canada and the USA, and since their form only allowed for one, I included the Canadian one in the info.

Here’s my 300-character description, anonymized, if it helps anyone else going forward.

Intentional cybersquatting. User obtained acct on xx/xx/xx; no visits in 3yrs, no activity or uploads. Attempted contact 11/2/10; no response. COMPANY NAME was incorporated in YEAR. US trademark reg’d since YEAR. Also hold reg’d trademark in Canada since YEAR: Registration #XXXXXX.

By: Nikitafullmoon

Nikitafullmoon — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:40:31 +0000

Thank you for this article. I just filed a trademark infringement claim on an account name for my organization. My 300-character description (rendered generic) was:

Intentional cybersquatting. User obtained acct on MM/DD/YY; no visits in 3yrs, no activity or uploads. Attempted contact MM/DD/YY; no response. COMPANY NAME. was incorporated in YYYY. US trademark reg’d since YYYY. Also hold reg’d trademark in Canada since YYYY: Registration ########.

It seems they have a new, trademark-specific form (or maybe my desperate search of their labyrinthian help site just wasn’t able to find it without your link.

I’ll let you know if my claim works. Thanks again.

By: RandomUser

RandomUser — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:30:12 +0000

YES! It worked! THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP MAN! =] !!

By: RandomUser

RandomUser — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:23:57 +0000

I’ll try it once more soon :(

By: Pixelrage

Pixelrage — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:56:25 +0000

Hmm…1 year is certainly a LONG time of dormancy and Youtube is giving you an unusually hard time over what should be considered a dead account :( The one I fought was a 1 year old account as well.