We were contacted via email last week by MarkMonitor on behalf of Facebook accusing us of violating Facebook's trademark and threatening legal and other action unless we stopped using the domain immediately and let it expire. The email was a form letter received by other web sites, and the headers contained "markmonitor.com" so we were nearly positive it was authentic. The big problem is that the domain in question, www.customerservicescoreboard.com, in absolutely no way violates Facebook's trademark in any way whatsoever! The site is a place for people to leave ratings of the customer service experience they have had with nearly 700 different companies, of which Facebook is one. The only mention of Facebook on our site is in relation to their listing found at www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Facebook. As you can tell by looking at that link, Facebook fairs very badly as they do not offer customer service of any kind. Due to the threatening nature of the email, we contacted our registrar, NameSilo, who helpfully put us in touch with a lawyer specializing in trademark law. We wanted to ensure that we were not violating any laws and we were assured by our attorney that we were absolutely not in violation. Our lawyer responded to Facebook/MarkMonitor (you can see the entire correspondence at http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/images/CustomerServiceScoreboard_Facebook_Response.pdf) advising them that our use of their name is entirely legal. This is a clearcut case of Facebook's hyper-vigilance protecting their trademark causing strife for innocent people such as ourselves. MarkMonitor, acting on Facebook's behalf, has the power to threaten innocent people and force us, as responsible business owners, to spend money and time defending its position. This is outrageous and should not be permitted to continue. Our guess is that Facebook/MarkMonitor not only troll for trademark infringement (something we strongly believe is the right and responsibility of any trademark holder), but possibly also for content that is simply representing them in a negative light. We can't think of any other reason we were threatened. Last we checked, people have every right to voice their opinions, but maybe Facebook doesn't believe this should be the case - a stance pretty contrary to the purpose of their own business. Facebook had contacted us in the past in relation to a different web site we operate called ContactHelp.com. That site gives away customer service phone numbers, hours of operation and instructions for reaching a live operator for the same 700 companies. The ContactHelp site receives a good deal of traffic, and thousands of unique visitors a day to Facebook's page. Facebook had contacted us asking us to remove all of their contact information to which we replied that we would not. It seems threatening completely unfounded legal action as being their next attempt to silence web sites from shining a light on people's disapproval and dislike for how Facebook operates. We are hoping that anybody else finding themselves the targets of this McCarthy-style witch hunt by Facebook/MarkMonitor can feel free to make use of the response our attorney filed (linked to above). Not sure if other cases are exactly the same, and we're certainly not lawyers, but many domain and web site owners may not have the resources to enlist legal representation so hopefully our experience and response can help.
MarkMonitor is paid to troll the internet and report any possible form of infringement. These letters are boilerplate letters and are not an indication that facebook has decided to litigate a trademark infringement claim. Facebook seems to have become very aggressive in protecting its intellectual property rights so it is something that you wouldn't want to ignore. I have responded to several of these letters from MarkMonitor (not on behalf of facebook) and have never heard from them again. While I do not think they have a good case for infringement against you, I do not completely agree with your attorney's response. While use of trademark can be protected under free speech, the key here is noncommercial usage (as stated in Northland Ins. Cos. v Baylock) Your site is running advertising and would not qualify for noncommercial usage domain name protection in my opinion. I would also suggest putting a disclaimer on the page stating that you are in no way associated with facebook or the other trademarks you use. You probably won't have any further problems, but it is true that those with deep pockets can force you to spend vasts sums of money to keep the domain. Even Google has spent over $100 million in legal costs in its copyright infringement suit with Viacom (which appealed the decision) so the costs will keep mounting.
"that those with deep pockets can force you to spend vasts sums of money to keep the domain" Then the company would need a damn good reason to file some infringement case, otherwise, some fool may think it is just a friv lawsuit so the company can steal the domain, then the company could end up being sued, some people call these counter-suits...sure a company with lots of money can do a good many things as long as they stay legal, but if they cross the line and try to take something just because they have a load of money, then they are just asking for trouble, and it will not look good on the company either.... If you sue me for unjust cause just because you want my domain, then I will counter sue you back for filing a friv lawsuit, and ask for financial damage rewards, may even sue your dumb lawyer too for being stupid.
No one is talking about a frivolous lawsuit. All they need to have is a reasonable argument (merit) and this isn't hard to do when someone is actually using your trademark. Having an argument and a good chance of winning are not the same thing. Are there deep pockets that use their cash to win by forcing the other side into a fight they cannot afford to defend? Absolutely - it happens all the time. Only a small percentage of domain owners have hundreds of thousands of dollars to go through a court lawsuit. Don't expect any IP attorney to take your case on contingency either - it's cash up front. You win, you keep your domain and are likely out your attorney fees. You don't have to like how it works, only realize that it is what it is.
It would be frivolous if the OP is not violating any trademark laws, and from what i see he is not... nothing in his domain suggests any type of infringement., so if facebook decided to sue, then it would be frivolous, and this what i was going from...now if the op is guilty of trademark violation, then that is another story....
It's obvious you do not have a good understanding of how the court system actually works, nor the legal meaning of frivolous. I would venture to say that you have never been involved in any type of litigation - which begs the question, why are guessing about something you have no experience with?
Thanks for the feedback. Wanted to also let you know that Facebook responded to our attorney within a few hours and retracted their threat. You can see a copy of their email to our attorney at the same link above, but changing the name of the PDF file to Facebook_Response.pdf (sorry, this board won't even let me list a URL). Totally ridiculous that they conduct themselves in this manner. We had to come out of pocket to protect our interests, and all they had to do was program a script to threaten us. I know that's the way of our legal system, but seems Facebook/MarkMonitor should conduct themselves with more respect for everyone else.
As mjewel stated, these boilerplate emails are often ridiculous. They search for Facebook and send them to almost any site using the name in an unfavorable light. In the future, I would avoid hiring an attorney to respond to these emails as you can just tell them to "GFT" yourself.
You could have ignored it. And waited for snail mail to show they had any real intent, rather than just letting a flawed script execute.