URS vs. UDRP: which route actually gets your squatted domain back

Someone registered your game’s name as a domain. Maybe it loads a parking page stuffed with ads. Maybe it is a fake storefront selling knockoff merch to your players.

You went looking for how to get it back and hit an alphabet soup: URS, UDRP, ACPA. These are not interchangeable processes.

One freezes the domain fast. One hands the name to you. One is a federal lawsuit that can win you money. Pick the wrong one and you are out the filing fee and get handed a denial.

The choice between URS vs UDRP comes down to two questions: what the domain ends in, and what you actually want back. Answer both and the route picks itself. Here is how to do that in about five minutes.

Start here: the two questions that pick your route

Everything downstream runs off two answers. Get these right and you have already chosen your forum.

Question 1: what does the domain end in?

The ending decides which processes are even available to you.

• A new gTLD (.games, .shop, .xyz, .store, .app, .online). URS is on the table, and so is UDRP.
• A legacy .com or .net. UDRP only. These two never adopted URS. (Note: .org is different. It opted into URS back in 2019, so a .org squat can actually use either route, and a batch of other legacy endings like .info and .biz adopted it too.)
• A country-code ending like .io, .gg, .ai, or .us. Neither standard URS nor UDRP applies. Each has its own separate policy, covered in the edge-cases section below.

Question 2: what do you actually want?

• Freeze it fast and cheap. URS, where applicable. It takes the site dark in about two weeks (assuming you win).
• Own the domain. UDRP. For a standard gTLD, it is the administrative route that transfers the domain to you.
• Get paid, or reach a squatter you cannot identify. That is a federal ACPA lawsuit, a much larger undertaking than either administrative option, and the route to money damages or to reaching an anonymous or overseas holder through in rem jurisdiction. This post stays focused on the two administrative routes.

One more decision point worth discussing here. If the domain was yours and it simply lapsed, or it was transferred out of your account without permission, that is usually a registrar problem, and the fix looks completely different.

Here is the head-to-head on the two main routes:

Attorney fees are separate from provider fees in both columns, and neither route awards money damages. Both also require the same core showing: the domain was registered and used in bad faith, not one or the other.

Plus, you need to prove you have the trademark rights in the domain name/brand that’s being infringed.

1. URS: the fast freeze for a clear-cut domain squatter

A URS can freeze a squatted domain in about two weeks for a few hundred dollars. But you will never own the name at the end of it.

That is the trade at the center of the Uniform Rapid Suspension system. It is a rapid, papers-only proceeding decided by a single examiner, administered by a provider such as Forum (WIPO does not handle URS). It was built for one job: taking down the clearest cases of trademark abuse quickly.

To win, you prove three things, all required:

1. The domain is identical or confusingly similar to a word mark that is in current use (a valid registration, a court-validated mark, or one protected by statute or treaty).
2. The registrant has no legitimate right or interest in it.
3. The registrant registered and used the domain in bad faith.

The catch on burden matters. URS uses a clear-and-convincing standard, which is higher than UDRP’s preponderance. A close case loses.

The timeline is the selling point. Forum runs a compliance review within two business days, the registry locks the domain within 24 hours, the registrant gets 14 calendar days to respond, and the examiner issues a determination within a few business days after that. Start to finish, roughly two to three weeks.

The cost is low too. Forum’s filing fee starts around $375 for one to fourteen domains, and a response fee only kicks in once a complaint covers fifteen or more domains.

Now the part that trips people up. The remedy is suspension, not transfer. The registry redirects the domain to an informational page for the balance of the registration term. WHOIS still shows the original registrant, and nothing moves to you. Your only ownership-adjacent option is paying to extend the suspended registration by one year at commercial rates (and then trying to register it yourself when it drops, if you still want it).

The tight format cuts both ways. Your complaint is capped at 500 words with no supplemental filings, so any genuine gray area works against you. Parked pages with pay-per-click ads are not automatically bad faith under URS, and a descriptive or non-fanciful mark makes the case meaningfully harder to prove.

Best for: a slam-dunk squatter case on an eligible ending when you just need the site dark, ASAP.

Skip if: you want to own the name, or the facts are arguable.

2. UDRP: the transfer that makes the name yours

If the squatter took your brand name as a .com, URS is off the table entirely. And buying the name back just rewards them and teaches them to do it again.

That is the case UDRP is built for. The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy is baked into every gTLD registration, it runs on written submissions with no hearing, and a panel can actually transfer the name to you.

The three elements mirror URS: a confusingly similar mark, no legitimate interest, and a domain registered and used in bad faith.

But two things make UDRP the more forgiving route.

First, the burden drops to “preponderance of the evidence,” which leaves room for a case with some gray area. Second, UDRP accepts common-law and unregistered rights, so the studio that shipped under a name for years without a federal registration can still carry element one by proving acquired distinctiveness.

Scope is the other reason it can be the better choice. UDRP applies to every gTLD, including .com, .net, and .org, where most squats actually live. WIPO alone has administered tens of thousands of these cases.

The price of that reach is time and money.

A UDRP runs about two months end to end: 20 days for the registrant to respond, 14 days for the panel to decide after appointment, then a 10-business-day wait before the registrar implements a transfer. That last window is deliberate, giving a losing registrant a chance to file a court challenge that pauses the transfer.

On fees, expect WIPO’s filing fees to run from around $1,500 for a single-panelist case covering one to five domains, and roughly $4,000 for a three-member panel. If you elect a single panelist and the registrant demands three, the two of you split the cost, landing you around $2,000. Confirm the current figure against WIPO’s live fee schedule before you budget, and remember there are no money damages here even when you win.

The verdict: if you want to recapture the domain name and not just do a takedown, UDRP is almost always the route. It is the workhorse of domain recovery for a reason.

3. The endings that don’t fit the mold: .us, .io, .gg, .ai

Here is the mistake that can waste you a filing fee. The .io and .ai endings look like trendy new domains, but they are actually country-code TLDs, and a URS or UDRP complaint against them goes nowhere.

Some of the most popular game and app endings sit in this bucket. Each runs its own separate procedure, and the exact ending decides your forum.

.us has two of its own processes, both administered by Forum. The usRS mirrors URS: suspension only, clear-and-convincing burden, with a de novo appeal for either party. The usDRP mirrors UDRP with a transfer remedy, but on an easier standard, registered or used in bad faith rather than the “and” both URS and UDRP demand. Unlike the usRS, the usDRP gives no administrative appeal. In practice the usRS is rarely used.

.io disputes run under the ioDRP, WIPO-administered since June 2020. Transfer remedy, and the same lower-threshold “or” bad-faith standard as usDRP. Despite its adoption by game and app studios, .io is the British Indian Ocean Territory’s country code, not a new gTLD.

.gg disputes run under the Channel Islands Dispute Resolution Service, administered by Island Networks and modeled on Nominet’s UK system. Not ICANN, not Forum, not WIPO’s standard track. The ending is Guernsey’s country code, and the same service covers .je.

.ai is Anguilla’s country code, and its disputes fall under that registry’s own rules, separate again from everything above.

Direct recommendation: if your squat sits on one of these endings, do not file a URS or UDRP. Identify the exact ending first, then check that registry’s specific policy or ask counsel before you spend a dollar on the wrong forum.

The bottom line

Two questions decide the route you take here:

• What does the domain end in?
• What do you actually want?

For most brand owners who want the name, that is UDRP. It transfers ownership and reaches the .com where most squats live. But for a fast, cheap takedown of a clear-cut squatter on an eligible new-gTLD ending, URS freezes it in weeks for a fraction of the cost.

You are not locked into one. Filing a URS does not burn your UDRP option, and Forum credits half the URS filing fee toward a Forum-administered UDRP filed for the same domain and parties within 30 days. Freeze now, transfer later.

When both succeed, the site goes dark in weeks and the name can land in your account a couple of months after that.

The real first move comes before any filing though. The URS vs UDRP question only matters if you have the trademark rights and the clear-cut facts to win in the first place. A weak or descriptive mark that reads great to you can still lose under either standard, and URS punishes a close case harder than UDRP does.

That read takes an hour and saves you a wasted fee. If you are staring at a WHOIS record with someone else’s name on it, that is the conversation to have first, before you pick a forum.

FAQ

Can I use URS to get the domain transferred to me?

No. A URS only suspends the domain for the balance of its registration term. It never transfers ownership. The one ownership-adjacent option is paying to extend the suspended registration by a year at commercial rates. If your goal is to own the name, file a UDRP instead, which is the route that can actually transfer it to you.

Someone squatted my brand on a .com. Can I file URS?

No. URS covers new gTLDs plus a batch of legacy endings that opted in by contract, including .org, .info, and .biz. But .com and .net never adopted it, so a .com squat goes to UDRP, or to an ACPA lawsuit if money or an anonymous squatter is the problem.

Does URS cover .io or .gg domains?

No. Despite looking like new gTLDs, .io and .gg are country-code TLDs, and neither URS nor standard UDRP reaches them. Each has its own separate policy. A .io dispute runs under the WIPO-administered ioDRP, and a .gg dispute runs under the Channel Islands Dispute Resolution Service. File under that ending’s specific policy, not URS or UDRP.

Can I file both URS and UDRP on the same domain?

Not at the same time. You cannot file against a domain that already sits in an open URS or UDRP case. But sequencing is allowed and even rewarded. File a URS first for a fast freeze, then file a Forum UDRP for the same domain and parties within 30 days, and Forum credits half your URS filing fee toward the UDRP.

What if the squatter is anonymous or overseas?

A privacy or proxy registration does not block a URS or UDRP. The provider gets the underlying registrant’s details from the registrar and the case proceeds against them. It is only when the holder genuinely cannot be identified or reached that ACPA’s in rem provision lets you sue the domain name itself, in the district where the registrar or registry sits, where recovery is limited to transfer or forfeiture with no money damages.