Hi Ive recently bought an old domain in good faith, and now the old owner wants it back. I offered to sell it to them even though it was a hassle to me and they didnt want to pay me for it, not even what it cost!! Now they have filed a complaint with domainsbyproxy and they state in the complaint it is a trademark. It is not listed under the USPTO website as a trademark however. The domain is named after a chamber of commerce, i had no idea they would want it back and they are accusing me of cybersquatting which i had never heard of until they mentioned it. So my questions are: As its not listed is the name still classed as either a trademark or service mark? If the trademark is not actually listed as such am i right in thinking this means a federal case cannot be issued? Sorry for the long winded text but idone nothing wrong and im being accused of all sorts thanks
I think you should be fine. If no copyright/trademark exists they cannot really do much about it. Just make sure you have all (if any) correspondence saved in the case that the problem escalates.
So you bought the domain from X. X is now saying your infringing their trademarks and want to recover it? Do you have the contract of sale? Does it stipulate anything about your future use of the domain and are you in breach of any of these? How close is the site's content/ logo/ look and feel to the original site?
Unfortunately no. The U.S. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or ACPA and the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy or UDRP both apply to both registered and unregistered trademarks. Question, though: did you acquire that domain via the registrar's expired domain auction? Or did it completely go through its life cycle from expired to redemption period to so on? I ask that because if you got it via the 1st method, there's a great chance the auction provider can actually rescind that auction, return the domain to its original owner if it'll be renewed with its original partner registrar, but at least refund your money. Those are ifs, of course. If the latter, it's that old owner's burden to demonstrate trademark rights using either of the dispute resolution systems I mentioned above. UDRP is cheaper than ACPA. A lot will depend on whatever facts apply in your case, especially if you're really going to fight this. Good luck.
Where did you purchase the domain? At an aftermarket or you newly registered it? I am sick of big companies who does not want to confess to their own mistakes of not taking note of their own domain renewal date but when things gets out of hands will use whatever legal possible way to get it back. If I am to be the OP I will just develop the domain and just let them do whatever they want either to UDRP etc. Hopefully you get to keep the domain, shame though you offered to sell the domain to them.