Recovering a .it domain: how the Registro .it reassignment procedure works

You own a trademark, a company name, or simply your own surname, and you discover the matching .it domain is already in someone else's hands. Perhaps it has pointed to an "under construction" page for years. Perhaps it hosts a site that mimics yours. Perhaps you have just received an offer to sell it to you at an absurd price. Before you call a lawyer and brace for litigation, know that .it domains come with a faster, cheaper route: the reassignment procedure (procedura di riassegnazione) run under the rules of the Registro .it. This guide walks through how it works, what you have to prove, how long it takes and when it is actually worth it. It is general information, not legal advice: every dispute has its own facts.

Who handles .it domain disputes

The .it country-code TLD is administered by the Registro .it, part of the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of Italy's National Research Council (IIT-CNR) in Pisa. Disputes are governed by the Regolamento per la risoluzione delle dispute nel ccTLD .it (the dispute resolution rules) and its accompanying legal guidelines, both published on nic.it.

The Registro does not decide disputes itself. Reassignment cases are handled by accredited external bodies, the Prestatori del Servizio di Risoluzione delle Dispute (PSRD): arbitration chambers, associations and professional organisations that appoint the "saggi", the experts who review the complaint and rule on it. Each PSRD publishes its own list of experts, fee schedule and filing instructions.

The model mirrors the international UDRP used for .com domains, but with its own rulebook. The key limitation is that a PSRD can decide only whether the domain is transferred. It cannot award damages or order anything else.

Two stages: opposition, then reassignment

The route has two distinct steps, and the first is a precondition for the second.

1. The opposition

The opposition (opposizione) is a formal notice to the Registro .it stating that a domain registration infringes a right of yours. It is sent as a signed request, including by email to the Registro's dedicated challenge address, and has two immediate effects:

• the domain is placed in "challenged" status: it stays live and the registrant can keep using it, but it cannot be transferred to anyone else;
• the window opens for lodging a complaint with a PSRD.

An opposition does not last forever. It must be renewed every 180 days, and renewal between the same parties over the same domain cannot happen more than twice. Miss the deadline and the Registro treats the challenge as resolved; the domain becomes freely transferable again. This is the first mistake to avoid: a surprising number of oppositions simply lapse.

2. The complaint to the PSRD

With an opposition open, you pick an accredited PSRD and file your complaint, attaching evidence of your rights and of the registrant's bad faith, plus proof of payment. You can request a single expert or a three-member panel; the latter costs more and makes sense for complex or high-value cases.

From there the procedure runs on tight deadlines set by the Registro's guidelines:

Step	Deadline
PSRD acknowledges receipt of the complaint	within 4 days
Registrant (respondent) may file a reply	within 25 days of receipt
Expert or panel issues a decision	within 15 days of being constituted, unless extended under the rules
PSRD notifies the parties and the Registro	within 4 days

Late replies are disregarded. If the respondent stays silent, the expert decides on the complaint alone, but silence is not an automatic win: you still have to meet your burden of proof.

What you have to prove

The procedure turns on the complainant's burden of proof. In short, you must persuade the expert that:

1. You hold a right in the name. A registered trademark is the strongest evidence, but the guidelines also recognise copyright, company names, trade names, shop signs and personal names. The disputed domain must be identical or confusingly similar to the sign you hold rights in.
2. The registrant has no right or title to the domain: no trademark of their own, no reputation under that name, no legitimate non-commercial use.
3. The domain was registered and is maintained in bad faith. Note the conjunction. In .it practice both the moment of registration and the registrant's subsequent conduct are examined.

The respondent, for their part, can defend by showing a right or title of their own, good faith in registering and keeping the domain, or the complainant's lack of rights.

Typical signs of bad faith

Without claiming to be exhaustive, the patterns that recur most often in published decisions include:

• registering the domain in order to sell it to the trademark owner for far more than out-of-pocket costs;
• registering it to block the rights holder from using its sign online;
• passive holding, i.e. parking the domain for years on an empty or "coming soon" page, especially where the mark is well known;
• a site designed to make visitors believe it is the rights holder's official site, or to divert traffic to competitors;
• suddenly putting a site live only after receiving the challenge;
• bulk registration of domains matching other people's trademarks.

When the respondent is in the right

Reassignment is not a tool for grabbing any domain you happen to like. If the registrant has been running a genuine business under that name, bears it as a family name, runs a non-commercial criticism site, or simply registered a generic word before your trademark existed, the complaint will very likely fail. Before spending money, make an honest assessment. NameSapiens' free UDRP Pre-Check lets you test in a few minutes whether the three elements hold up, and the reasoning carries over directly to .it cases.

Who is eligible

A detail that is easy to miss: the complainant must be based in a state of the European Economic Area, the Vatican City, San Marino or Switzerland. Parties established elsewhere can still file, but must document their standing.

What it costs

The Registro .it does not set a single fee. Each PSRD sets and publishes its own tariff, usually distinguishing between single expert and panel and scaling with the number of disputed domains. Compare the current fee schedules of the accredited providers listed on nic.it before choosing. Fees are borne entirely by the complainant and are not refunded if you win.

On top of that come any professional fees for drafting the complaint. If you want support, NameSapiens has the file prepared by our partner law firm, but nothing stops you from proceeding on your own: the procedure is written to be accessible.

For comparison, the WIPO-administered UDRP for gTLDs starts at USD 1,500 for a single panelist over 1-5 domains, per the WIPO schedule of fees.

After the decision

If the expert upholds the complaint, the Registro notifies the parties of the implementation date. The losing registrant has 15 days from notification to inform the Registro that court (or arbitration) proceedings have been started, then 10 days to file a copy of the claim (30 days if service abroad is required). If they do not, the domain is removed from the database and placed in "inactive/toBeReassigned" status; you then have 30 days to register it through a registrar.

If the complaint is rejected, the Registro lifts the "challenged" status within 4 days and the registrant regains full control. You can still go to court, but with an adverse decision on record.

One last warning: starting court proceedings interrupts the reassignment at any stage. If the registrant sues you mid-procedure, the PSRD stops and the matter passes to the judge.

Reassignment or negotiation?

The procedure is not always the most efficient path. If the registrant acted in good faith, if bad faith is hard to prove, or if you need the domain quickly, an anonymous negotiated acquisition can cost less than a lost complaint followed by litigation. The decision tree is simple:

• Clear bad faith, solid trademark, inactive domain: reassignment is the natural choice.
• Registrant with a real business or a name predating your mark: consider negotiating, or walk away and pick a more defensible name.
• Domain on sale at a reasonable price: sometimes paying is more rational than fighting.

Whatever you decide, file the opposition straight away. It costs little, freezes transfers and buys you time to think without pressure.