Please advise: Someone is blatantly copying my startup, on the .org of my domain

Here's some advice I learned the hard way.

Every time you register a dotcom you intend to use for business, register it as a trademark. Its cheap and easy. Just consider it part of the cost of domain registry.

This is helpful in two ways. First, it will prevent you from accidentally registering a domain that is too close to someone else's trademark (and losing your domain later in a nasty surprise kind of way). Second, it will give you a nearly bullet-proof automatic way to file a complaint with ICANN that will almost always result in you being given the offending domain.

In any case, head on over to http://www.icann.org/en/udrp to see what your options are. Just filing the complaint may be enough to cause your shadow to move on to less proactive victims.

Not saying its the route I would take but you could share your story and the site name here and at other social sites like digg, reddit, etc and internet vigilantes might just do their thing to drive them away.

I have seen it happen before with design / logo theft etc.

Why do you care? It is unlikely he will ever succeed if you are executing well and he just copies you. Also, you have the .com (i.e. the domain people will actually type in and go to by default). He has the .org (i.e. the domain that no one will ever think to go to).

Brush your shoulders off and focus on the important stuff.

Have your lawyer write a good, detailed DMCA complaint to Google and, possibly, cloner's hosting provider -- and make it quick, before they change the copy. If they modify the page later, use archive.org (hopefully it will pick up the current page) or google cache as a proof.

We once DMCAed a Romanian cloner who blatantly copied our top-selling shareware app and refused to take the clone down when I emailed him. His reply was along the lines of "suing is too expensive, you won't sue me".

We sent the DMCA complaint, and a result, he got kicked out of Google and all payment processing services (ShareIt, Regnow etc.) He later emailed me with peace offerings, but I just hit Del.

I am not a lawyer, so I strongly suggest contacting a lawyer and telling him exactly what you're telling us.

I also suggest contacting the 'squatter' and seeing if he chooses to tell you a story.

Some routes to take:

- Found a company with the same name, then send cease & desist

- File a notice with WIPO, nab the domain when/if you can prove that the person registered it in bad faith?

Do you hav any kind of legal registrations, trademark, business filings. If so send the cease and desist but also send a copy to their domain registrar maybe they will shut down the site.