Uh OH I took a Cease and Desist from a big company! what do i do?

Sounds like you know what you are doing. Go for broke. I mean REAL BROKE! Tell them what for and tell them some more after that. Spend some more money promoting your site and then tell them how much you spent on it. That will surely give you leverage in court.

You could also mail them a half eaten piece of burnt toast. That'll tell em'

I agree, keep us all posted on the events that arise form your actions.

Col

 

Surprised at how many of you just give in, would you all really do the same? Working hard on something you genuinely love only to be TOLD by someone who does not understand that you MUST hand it over....

Their key concern is their customers and I see you have a disclaimer. To be safe I would make the main page a disclaimer with the usual I agree / Exit links then go to the main page, how that will affect your visitors I don't know.

You're a simple fan site with no revenue generating and little content. My guess is if you ask the other bodog sites they may have got the same letter when they started.

Don't give up quite quick and as mentioned try and source some proof that you invested time and want compensation, though do not say that first!

Either way careful what you do, no doubt they already know you made this post lol

 

Yeah, the law sucks, just ignore it. Great advice.

 

If that was your trademark I think you would give alternate advise.

 

Really. And are you willing to donate to the OP's legal fund if s/he follows your
so-called "advice", hmm?

Feels good posting something potentially stupid that doesn't cost you a thing,
doesn't it.

 

Dave, that post was sarcasm.

 

-NO! They are not Obligated to sue everybody, or anybody. They can sue who ever they want.
The best legal team will tell you, sue the ones you can beat easily first, and the others will just lay down and succumb after they see his burned out, and mangled remains smoldering on the asphalt
"But what about them?" and "They are doing it too", was not even a defense in nursery school, how is it going to work in Federal Court?
On the street, they call that a narc.

 

Perhaps. But did that person stop to think what s/he said can do more harm
than good, especially if the OP suddenly decided to believe it's true?

I can't begin to tell anyone around here how many people paid the price for
taking "advice" online from strangers who seem to make absolutely accurate
statements that aren't always true in the offline world. I'm sure some people
mean well, but what they go through or believe in doesn't always apply to
everyone else having similar issues.

Especially legal issues.

 

if you want a loophole, turn the site into a parody site. parody's are allowed by trademark law. you get to keep your site, you poke fun at bodog, and nothing they can do. You can also place ads on the site then and actually monetize it.

 

He has already committed a â„¢ violation. Trying to turn it into a parody, at this late date after being notified of the issue, will fool nobody (the court will see it for the sham it is) and will likely cause him more problems.

Secondly, he was not interested in running a parody site, but rather, a MMA site.

 

Why post such a thing if you are not going to expand on it?

Would I? Care to ask me?

I'll save you the hassle, if you look at the actual site I would realise he can't exactly make much from it not compared to my large company. If anything he is adding to it's popularity and only giving me more visitors, the only thing I would aim to force is a disclaimer as the main page first to avoid confusion. I'd rather have a happy fan promoting my company (which is hard to stop when you get more popular anyway) than an unhappy fan cursing my company.

Try not to assume me, thanks

 

I spoke to them. They offered me $50. Here is what I wrote and what they sent back.


Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 2:54 PM
To: LegalDepartment
Subject: Re: Cease and Desist, http://www.bodogfighting.us/

Hi

The domain is not intended for business but only to promote MMA and is a fan site for Bodog for entertainment purposes only.

All I want to do is talk about how cool Bodog is and talk about the fighters and events just like other fan sites do about the UFC such as ufcjunkie.com or ufcmania.com and promote bodog.

The domain was not bought with bad intentions

I hope you let me keep the domain so I can show to everybody that Bodog supports its fans and we support bodog back! I am a big fan of Bodog and want it to take over the UFC! I am very active on all the fight forums with thousands of people and I told them about the fan blog site and they are very excited about it. They will be pretty bummed if they hear you guys shut me down.

K well speak again

Thank you

Eddie
\

THEN THEY WROTE BACK THIS

Hi Eddie,

Thank you for your email.

I am very sorry but we will have to request you to transfer the domain Bodogfighting.us over to us. We can give you a long list of reasons why we do not allow people to operate websites using our trademark term in it. But here are some crucial reasons:

First and foremost the term “Bodog” has been branded as an online entertainment entity by us. We take great care in the way our brand name is portrayed on the internet. Allowing anyone to use our brand name runs in to the risk of compromising our brand image as well as any future plans.

If we allow any one to have URLs with our trademark name in it; it will not be possible for us to track who is managing it to post actual discussions about Bodog Fights and fighters and who is just using it promote our competition or for any other product or service we do not wish to be associated with.

If you ever decide to abandon the site it may create negative feelings within the community towards our brand name and we will have no control over it.

Also please note that ufcjunkie.com or ufcmania.com sites cannot be shut down as the trademark for UFC is not owned by Ultimate Fighting Championship. Therefore it is very difficult for them to take any legal action against these websites.

We are prepared to offer you monies in exchange for the domain "bodogfighting.us"; however a fair and reasonable amount within our budget is $50US. Let me know if this is acceptable to you and we will have our accounting department wire or Paypal you the said amount.

Thank you,
__________________________________________________________________________

 

I can't tell you what to do, but, at this point it appears that they are right, and within the law, and you should take the $50, or at least ask for all of your expenses.
For example if the domain has any PR and you have spent time optimizing it, with links, maybe they could compensate you for that.

Other than that, I really don;t see where you have a case not to comply.
Even consulting with an attorney will cost you more than it's worht.
And...they really don;t seem to be being pricks....YET.
The fact that they offered any money at all is something, they really have no obligation to do so.

Or you could fight it, for our entertainment
OR>>>>ask them if they have any plans to start a webmaster affiliate program?
Products, tickets, etc.

Could be an opening for a career change

 

Well I am an affiliate with them already for my UFC fan site at http://www.ufcmedia.com where I promote Bodog too even though it is a UFC site.

So I wrote my account manager this.

> From: ieddie
> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:49 AM
> To: Mark > Subject: Re: Bodog Fight Event - Eddie Alvarez versus Matt Lee - Free
> Tickets
> Importance: High
>
> Hi Mark
> I was in the process of making a bodog fighting blog bodogfighting.us
> like
> ufcjunkie.com, and ufcmania.com because I think it would really help
> with
> bodog promotions but I am getting shut down. Those sites are huge and
> bodog fight needs more fan site to hype up the fighters and its events!
>
> Fans will be very bummed to hear about this.
> see below
>




> Hi Eddie,
>
> I understand your point of view and because we are not only a Fighting
> company but an Entertainment company these are things that are common
> place. We are actually seeing high conversions through UFC Mania and
> UFC Junkie because they simply blog for us once a week. I will also be
> looking into sending particular writers to live fights to write for us.
> Be reassured that I will do everything in my power to help you with your
> site although you will be unable to create any domains with Bodog in it.
> Can you blog us through your site....what about a special promotion on
> your site? Maybe wager a certain amount to be entered into a draw to
> win a pair of Bodog Fight signature gloves? What do you think?
>
> Mark

HI Mark

Well ufcmedia.com is about to go big because of search engine rankings,
It is not ranking quite yet but it will be in top 5 on google for keywords
such as UFC, Ultimate Fighting etc.. I will be taking the site a lot more
serious when that happens and will be just as big as ufcjunkie.com and
ufcmania.com then and even bigger because I am a search engine
optimization expert and it will be ranking high for many other mma related
keywords.

I am really not that excited about Bodog at the moment. They should be
encouraging fan sites about their events. I was so excited to have a blog
dedicated to Bodog because i think you guys have potential. The UFC likes
those sites cause they know it only helps promote them. A fan site
dedicated mainly to their events.

 

Well, the lines of communication are open. Don't worry, seems like you will still come out smelling like roses.
Not to get philosophical, but my mom used to always say,
"everytime a door closes, look around for an open window"

 

ok I'm the minority here, but I say don't hand it over. But remove your site - get a new domain without using the bodog trademark in the name and continue your site there. But with this domain, don't give it up and don't use it - you can put a MFA (depending on if you're brave enough since google may terminate the account - since no content). The main thing is that you don't put any content/text on there otherwise Bodog can sue you - but if you just hang on to the domain there's nothing they can do (provided you don't intend to write content or pretend to be them with the url). The ads may even be a little too much, but you can still retain the domain.

 

If you ask me I think they are being nice..They're saying give up the domain..transfer it to us..case closed..If you really wanna fight them good luck but I'm sure they have a little bit more money than you (or me..or most of the people on this forum for that matter..lol)

 

What is the point of that? Why keep the domain if you tell him not to use it - how does that benefit him at all?

The whole point was he wanted to use the domain. Keeping ownership ownership of the domain and still not using it is a hollow victory at best. And at worst, it leaves him open to continued liability.

I agree. I am helping a friend now who is being sued in Federal Court for trademark infringment. He wishes he was given an opportunity to just give up the domain. The company just filed for a TRO and then a TM infringement suit. Now he is dealing with just trying to settle for a 'reasonable' sum. He would have gladly given up the name if he had received a C&D. People who advise you to fight this type of battle are nuts. They have no risk and offer you ridiculous reasons why you should fight. This is a simple business and financial decision. Bodog has the â„¢, has the legal team to fight and protect it, and they are already aware of your infringement. Frankly, you are lucky they are offering you money for the name. I would take the money and call that a huge victory!

 

Dave, chillout man. I was joking and the OP knows it.

Col