Fucking lying bastards of Oakley Inc., how cheaters win the game...

I would hereby like to tell my story regarding my relationship with Oakley Inc., a producer of sunglasses and apparel from the United States.

As a (former) big fan of the brand, and maybe one of their biggest fans here in The Netherlands, I wanted to do something for them. To make them more popular, boost their sales and above all, enable me to order products more easily since their service quality here in The Netherlands was below standards. If you wanted to order a product that wasn’t in stock in any of their Dutch shops, you would have to wait months for it. Just to know if it could be delivered would take 3-4 weeks as that was their response time to dealer questions.

So I wanted to make it better, for me and for anyone else that wanted to buy an Oakley product. And I started to develop a concept for an Oakley product web shop in cooperation with my local Oakley dealer who was very interested to deliver the products while I would provide the customers via the internet. It was a perfect concept and then I noticed that Oakley.nl wasn’t used yet. I investigated it further and noticed that almost all European oakley domains weren’t in use for/owned by Oakley Inc. so I expected that they weren’t interested in local European domains. And on top of that Oakley.be was in use for a web shop by a Belgian optometrist who sold Oakley products, so that ensured me that I would not get into trade mark trouble by buying Oakley.nl. Of course I knew/expected there was a certain risk, but I believed that Oakley was a “good” company. Friendlier than just any company, I thought. A brand of athletics and “fair” players, who care about people instead of making more money only.

So I purchased the domain Oakley.nl and wrote Oakley Inc. to request for authorization to use the domain for a web shop to sell Oakley products together with my Dutch Oakley dealer. I told them I was willing to invest 100.000 euro to develop one of the most state of the art web shops and to promote their products here in The Netherlands. However, if they would rather use the domain themselves, I would be willing to sell the domain to them for a low price.

They did not reply, so I asked my dealer to contact them and he did. But again, no reply.

As I wanted to do something with the domain, I first started a website for Annie Oakley. Oakley was my favorite brand, it was kind of my hobby so that is why I invested some time to develop a site for the domain that could be used until I reached some sort of agreement with Oakley Inc. After that I decided to setup a genealogy website for people with the surname Oakley, that provided background information about their name.

As of then, approximately 2 months after my first email to Oakley Inc. I thought they were simply slow to respond and didn’t suspect that Oakley was already monitoring the website and aware of my emails and faxes, and those of my dealer. After some while, I placed some Google ads on the genealogy website to see if it would work out. At first they showed genealogy ads so it seemed ok. After one day however, I noticed at some page loads it also included Oakley sunglasses ads so I removed the ads again. They have been on the site for a few days at most. Oakley made a screenshot of it and used it against me in their trail to claim the domain. They told the judge that those ads were on the site the whole time before I used the domain as company domain.

More months pass by since Oakley took the screenshot, and after several more emails and faxes from me I receive an email from an anonymous person that asked me if the domain Oakley.nl was for sale. I told them that I was planning to develop the domain but that I would be willing to sell it for a low price. I told him that I offered the domain to Oakley Inc. aswell for 50.000 euro but that the price I would be willing to sell for was really 25.000 euro. I did this because I wanted to provide Oakley Inc. with 50% off in case they would rather use the domain themselfs, so that they would win something by talking to me and get the domain for a low price. This person was secretly contacting my for Oakley Inc. and did not reply anymore after. They were simply seeking confirmation that I wanted to sell the domain, and they used this against me to make me look bad.

Some more months pass by and as Oakley did not seem to respond at all, I thought they simply were not interested in the domain so I decided to use the domain as company domain. The word Oakley means “area with a lot of Oak trees” and this is the environment in which I work, so it fitted perfectly. I changed my company name into Oakley Publishing and developed a website for it.

Then all of the sudden, a month later and after 8 months of not responding to me they started a attempt to claim the domain from me.

I felt it as a knife in the back. An attempt to steal from a loyal fan that only wanted to help them. Of course I did consider it a possibility that they had all the rights to do so, and that I made a mistake by buying a trademarked domain. So I sought advice from trade mark experts but they ensured me that Oakley would not likely win. They could only win if I would have used the domain in bad faith, or if I would use the domain for a service or company that is similar to the one that the trademark is registered for. In this case “sunglasses and apparel”. So I had nothing to worry about, according to them.

My friend, a trade mark owner himself, also told me I would likely win.

They did not know however, about the evil tricks Oakley was going to use to make me look bad so that they were able to obtain the domain from me. Oakley Inc. tried to make me look like a smart domain trader that only wanted to make a fast buck on behalf of their brand name. It felt so evil from them, because they really knew that they were not telling the truth. But not only that, they even suggested that I would have messed with documents that the I provided as proof of my attempts to contact them. They told the judge that they believed I changed the dates of the documents and suggested they never received those emails and faxes from me or my dealer. As if I committed fraud.

Oakley cheated, and that may have been the major reason they have won this case.

I would have never expected Oakley to do such a thing. I also don’t understand why they did this to me. I am really a good guy and have worked on several major non-profit projects in the past. That proofs I’m not in this for the money alone.

Cheating is bad, everybody knows this but Oakley provides lifestyle products and has fans so it is even worse to do these kind of things. They should know that some of those fans will be interested in local domains if Oakley wouldn’t do anything with them. And these kind of practices do hurt people. Why would you want this as a lifestyle company?

I wanted to share this story with you, so that you may be able to learn from it and if you happen to own a local Oakley domain. Beware of Oakley’s evil tricks to take it away from you. They cannot do so otherwise.

 

im never wearing my oakleys again

 

Man thats sad

They just lost an amazing person like you who was their well-wisher !

 

More like a well-doer

And their products are great, otherwise it wouldn't have been my favorite brand.

I am not a trade mark expert, so I really don't know much about how things work in these cases. But I didn't really mind losing the domain to them, I actually purchased it for them. It could have been a honor to me, also if it would cost some money.

They made me look bad however, and it seems they could not have won this case otherwise. That is what dissapointed me.

 

Wow, they sound like a horrible company to ever deal business with. Sorry to hear about that, and I guess it's expected from corporations with powerful legal teams.

 

Wow, that is harsh, what a horrible company!

What about the other person with the oakley domain? How can he get away with it.

You could always apeal against this and use your local Rep to act as a witness as he contacted them aswell!

 

Oh my god, I'm bet it did hurt you very much...

Hopefully, you will recover from the sorrow as soon as possible...

 

The story was quite long but i actually read it and must say thats such a ill practice instead they should have allowed u to handle it and indirectly they were still having profits

 

Thank you for reading my story and your replies!

I hope this information will be helpful to you.

 

You registered the domain knowing it was a trademark, with the intent to use it in the same manner as the trademark holder. You contacted the trademark owner and told them of the intended use. You were also willing to sell the domain to them.

"Of course I knew/expected there was a certain risk" - You made an assumption that the trademark holder wouldn't object (big mistake) and then tried to change the use of the domain to get around cybersquatting laws. You didn't register the domain to use it for something non-related to the trademark holder and were even willing to sell it.

Oakley could have sued you for damages and attorney fees. You've learned a lesson about trying to ride the goodwill of someone elses trademark. Always get proper legal advice - not from some friend who tells you what he thinks should be ok.

 

The WIPO decision:
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2008/dnl2008-0010.html

Translated to English:
http://translate.google.com/transla...8/dnl2008-0010.html&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=nl&tl=en

 

Well, as I mentioned in my message I did seek legal advice from professionals. From 2 seperate trade mark companies. And they told me that there was a very little chance that I could lose the domain.

And again, it would not really matter to me if they are right in this case. They lied, and tried to make me look bad and even accused me of committing fraud. That is what really matters to me.

If they would have told me: "sorry sir, but we have a trade mark and you are not allowed to have that domain" and that would be true, I would have decided to provide the domain to them (for free) to save trouble and legal costs for them. Don't forget I was a fan. It was a risk investment, the loss does not matter to me at all.

I bought the domain for them.

 

Am I the only one who thinks you were completely wrong?

A loyal fan trying to sell them the domain? And what Oakley did was brilliant, I do some sort of variation to see if I am being scammed a lot. (Not saying your scamming)

And how does it make you look bad, if you wanted to sell it?

Now I am not familiar with euros, I know the conversion but the perios through me off.

Is 25.000 equivalent to saying $25,000. If so, thats a lot of money to ask for.

 

I understand how you must be feeling. *empathy*

 

so who is this?

obeyon.nl

 

Sorry to read what happened, Jan. But various mistakes were indeed made.

First, you assumed there wouldn't be problems just because others have done
it and haven't experienced problems, coupled with never having gotten their
permission. It's always a risk when using someone else's intellectual property
for your commercial benefit without their consent.

Second, you put Google ads which later showed sunglasses ads or so. While it
is good you took it off, unfortunately it seems they took a shot that was later
used against you.

Third, you seemingly tried to sell the domain name to them. As you're maybe
aware, doing that can be a sign of "bad faith" and used against you as well.

Fourth, you probably assumed your friend is right just because he also holds a
trademark. Although I'm sure he meant well, licensed professionals with real-
world experience (namely lawyers) are really the best ones to say if you'll get
problems or so on potential legal issues like this one.

Overall, you gave them lots of grounds to use against you. While you believe
you're in the right, the trademark holder likely believes you're intending to use
their mark against their will for your own gain.

It's a hard lesson learned the hard way. Just don't do it unless you really got
explicit, in-writing permission from the intellectual property holder.

You live and learn.

Edit: just saw mjewel's right-on-the-mark response. One other thing I'll add is
to never assume what you'll do can also benefit them, especially if they might
see things differently and are in a stronger position to make that known.

 

Well, don't you understand that was not my intention? And I paid for this domain. Domains hold value.

I could make several millions per year with the domain if they would have granted permission. 25.000 euro on such a value isn't much in my opinion, and I wouldn't have made a lot of profit with that price.

My main and true concern was that I could get my Oakley products when I wanted it. No matter if I would build a shop for it, or if Oakley would finally do so themselfs.

 

Btw, did I tell you my official Oakley dealer told me about Oakley.be being used by a Belgian optometrist, and that he expected Oakley would grant permission?

I wouldn't want to have the blame on him or anything, but its true.

 

Sure, I took this risk. As I noted before, I wouldn't mind losing the domain if I wasn't allowed to have it because of this.

True, but I did not expect this from Oakley Inc. They are not being fair in doing so. They also lied about the period the ads were supposedly showed.

Yes, but I only want to be honest and true. If Oakley wanted the domain: OK. What else should I have told them? No sorry, I want to build a webshop for you or I will be a pain in the ass if you want to have the domain yourself.

I contacted 2 independant trade mark lawyers from 2 companies before I talked to my friend. They told me that Oakley would not likely be able to win.

Again: this isn't about the domain or money I lost. I do not really care about that. Just the way they took it from me, using lies and making me look bad and even suggesting that I committed fraud.

That did hurt me. After all, they were my favorite brand.

 

Never buy trademark domains as it only causes trouble.