Received a takedown notice? Most are weaker than they look.
Counsel-led response for affiliates, publishers and domain holders: DMCA counter-notices, cease-and-desist replies, UDRP defence, ad-platform appeals and host reinstatement. We take the lawful positions, and we say so when there is none.
Request a notice reviewSigned by Ihor Makushinsky. Conflict check before anything else. No call required to start.
A notice is an allegation, not a ruling.
Most takedown notices are sent at volume by people who never read your site. They are templated, filed under whichever statute the sender's tool defaults to, and they work because recipients do not answer. The intermediary, your host, registrar or ad platform, is not deciding who is right. It is deciding which side is cheaper to ignore.
That is where the defects live. Copyright notices sent over a trademark grievance. Trademark demands over a name the sender never registered in your market, or registered after your domain. Exact-match domains with legitimate comparative or informational use. Notices with no identified work, no signature, no good-faith statement. Each one is answerable, in writing, on the record, inside the intermediary's own procedure.
We file takedowns for brand owners every week, so we know precisely what a notice must contain to stand and what happens when it does not. The same knowledge, applied for the recipient, is this practice. It is not a loophole service: where a site is a phishing clone or a counterfeit shop we will say so, and decline.
Three rules, applied to every notice.
Lawful ground or no engagement.
Nominative use, comparative information, prior registration, wrong statute, defective notice. If none applies, we tell you that before you pay for a reply.
Answered inside the procedure's clock.
§512(g) counter-notice windows, the 20-day UDRP response, ad-platform appeal deadlines. The clock drives the work. A late reply is a lost site.
Never against our own clients.
We run a conflict check on the brand before we look at your notice. If the brand is a client, we decline and say so, without reading your file.
Six responses, each built for the desk that reads it.
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DMCA counter-notice
Drafted to 17 U.S.C. §512(g), sent to the host or platform in the form its abuse desk accepts, restoration tracked through the 10 to 14 business-day window.
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Cease-and-desist reply
Rights check in the relevant trademark registers, fair-use and prior-use analysis, and a response that either closes the matter or sets up a position you can hold.
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UDRP and URS defence
Response on rights or legitimate interests and on bad faith, with the timing evidence that decides most panels. Where a panel is unwinnable, a negotiated exit before the decision is published.
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Ad-platform trademark strikes
Google Ads and Meta appeals with the authorisation or policy argument that fits, plus the account-level clean-up that stops the same restriction returning next month.
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Host and registrar reinstatement
Reply to abuse-desk suspensions on the provider's own terms, and migration advice when a provider will not engage on the merits at all.
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Portfolio pre-audit
Before any notice arrives: which domains, landing pages and ad copy would survive a challenge, which would not, and what to change without losing traffic that is lawfully yours.
Some notices are right. We say so.
Phishing pages, deposit-stealing clones, counterfeit goods, malware distribution, use of a brand's logo or checkout to pass off as the brand, and content that is plainly defamatory get one answer from us: comply. We do not help anyone evade a court order or a regulator's blocking decision, and we do not take a notice against a brand we already represent.
Every response reviewed and signed by counsel.
Eight years as in-house IP specialist at Plarium, then founded Lawyerd in 2021 to run enforcement at volume. Has drafted, sent and answered thousands of notices across hosts, registrars, ad platforms and dispute panels, on both sides of the table.
→ Full counsel profileThree shapes the work takes.
One notice, one response.
Fixed fee, quoted after a short review of what you received. Counter-notice, cease-and-desist reply or platform appeal, followed through until the intermediary acts.
Before the notice arrives.
Domains, landing pages and ad copy reviewed against the brands they reference. A written risk map and the changes that cut exposure while keeping the traffic that is lawfully yours.
Someone to call when it lands.
Monthly retainer for networks and publishers with recurring notices. Same-day triage, response drafting, and a log you can show a host or a platform.
Asked before a reply goes out.
- Can a casino or brand sue an affiliate for using its name in a domain or page title?
- Yes, and some do. Whether the claim succeeds depends on where the brand holds trademark rights, when your domain was registered, what the page actually says, and whether the use is nominative or informational rather than trading on confusion. An exact-match domain that pre-dates the trademark and hosts genuine comparative content is a defensible position. One that copies the brand’s logo and checkout is not.
- What is a DMCA counter-notice and when should I file one?
- A counter-notice under 17 U.S.C. §512(g) is a sworn statement to the host or platform that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification. The provider must restore the content within 10 to 14 business days unless the sender files a lawsuit. It is the right tool when the notice is about copyright and you have a genuine defence. It is the wrong tool when the real dispute is trademark, or when the material is in fact copied: a counter-notice is made under penalty of perjury.
- My host suspended the site after one complaint. What now?
- First, read the host’s terms: most act on their acceptable-use policy, not on the statute, so the reply goes to their abuse desk in their own format. A structured response identifying the defects in the complaint, with an undertaking on any point that is actually fair, gets most accounts reinstated. Where the host will not engage at all, the fastest route is a move to a provider whose process you can rely on, with the content unchanged.
- Do I have to comply with a DMCA notice if my host is outside the United States?
- The DMCA itself binds US providers, but most international hosts and every major platform run a notice-and-takedown process of their own, and in the EU the Digital Services Act imposes one by law. Ignoring a notice because “DMCA does not apply here” is how sites get suspended on terms-of-service grounds without a hearing. The answer is to respond within the provider’s process, on the merits.
- The brand just got a licence in my market. Does that end my exact-match domain?
- A gambling licence is not a trademark. It changes the brand’s ability to sue locally and its standing with local regulators and blocking lists, but a domain dispute still turns on trademark rights, registration dates, legitimate interest and bad faith. A domain registered and used before the brand had any rights in that market is a materially different case from one registered the week the licence was announced. Timing evidence is the whole case, so preserve it now.
- Will you act against my site later if that brand becomes your client?
- No. We run a conflict check on the brand before we read your notice, and if the brand is already a client we decline. Once we have acted for you on a matter, we will not act against you on that matter for anyone. This is a professional obligation, not a policy we can waive.
- How much does a consultation cost?
- A single-notice response is a fixed fee quoted after a short review of what you received. Portfolio reviews and standing counsel are priced on the number of domains and the notice volume, under NDA. Send the notice through the form and you will have the quote and an honest view of your position within one business day.
Send the notice. Get a position in one business day.
Paste what you received and the URLs it names. Counsel runs the conflict check, reads the notice, and replies with a view and a fixed quote.