I received a cease and desist letter from well-known .com

If I buy a gun from one of the members here before you do, do I get to shoot
you with it?

While the big guys don't always get to have things their way, neither do we.

 

i'm not a lawyer or anything, but I don't see how this is even possible, it sounds like they are just mad you stole the domain before them, especially if your not even doing anything with it.

definitely don't give it up for free, you paid $40 for it, and your not an ATM, so you get your money back at least if you want to be that nice.

And you really think a website would spend ALL that money to sue you in court just for a crappy .me domain? I sure wouldnt, id send a C&D and hope for the best lol.

And I dont know how its really infringement, if it is an online company, wouldnt that company be "something.com" not "something.me"? ive seen plenty of popular websites with crappy domain offshoots, who would really type in myspace.me instead of .com? its obviously a different site.

id just try to find a lawyer who knows about laws like this and see what they say

 

Here's a test: if you see a domain called trendmicrosoftdotme, what company
or so is the first one that comes to your mind?

And there are various legal and administrative decisions where the extension
of the domain name doesn't matter as long as: a) the domain name bears the
trademark, and b) likelihood of confusion, which trademarks aim to stop, has
either happened or likely to happen. While you may not sue for something like
this, that doesn't mean others can't or won't.

Why wait for that to happen?

 

As a side note If I had myspace.me I would totally use it as its MEGA-MEGA publicity to say out loud "check out myspace.me" What I would do is redirect the myspace.me to a myspace hosted page. Myspace would prpbably appreciate the business as they are getting their ads viewed. Myspace now allows businesses to have a webpage whereas there was a time when the did not allowed it.

But whatever the site, I would say it depends. If it was google.me that is obviously a trademark. But if the term "wellknown.com" is a trademark and that site sells Widget A I am pretty sure you can use "wellknown.me" for a site on celebrity gossip.

Just my .02.

 

Also I'd like to say that I did register googleseo.me and later regretted it so I contacted godaddy. I did get my money refunded but that was because of another special circumstance.

 

Well here is the perfect reason why you should always use a UK Ltd company that is dormant to hold your domains. Company cost less then 100 USD and for 200 USD you even get directors and secreteries + uk adress, your Identety is 100% protected.. they can sue all they want, register a new company and move your domains except for the one they are chasing, or move that one too and they will have to use UDRP to stop you moving the domain. If they dont, you can move the domain around for ever. A UK company would not have to apear in court in USA, that would have to be in the UK.. you could run them mad!

 

this seems like premature instructions without knowing the actual name.

just pointing out that although you may be 100% right at the end of the day- there is still a possibility of reverse-hijacking if the name is generic enough.

of course, over and over we see ignorance used as an excuse for infringement, but you never know without the full info.

 

Hardly accurate at all. A subpoena will reveal your identity - but that is not even necessary.

A trademark holder will simply get a TRO directed toward the registrar holding the domain. If you think you are smarter than the trademark holder by pulling amateurish stunts you will be in for a world of financial hurt. The suggestion you make might work on some unsophisticated party - but will just increase your liability with everyone else.

Further, UK companies can certainly be sued in US court if they have subjected themselves to US jurisdiction by their actions.

And just to add, I have dealt with this exact situation and by the time the domain holder was aware he was being sued, the domain name was already frozen with the registrar due to a temporary restraining order.

Good luck.

 

wow
i realize this thread is dead but if yall read great.

1st-- without the domain your all spinning your wheels. Its like me holding my car key up and asking you what color my car is.

WHAT IS THE NAME?? You dont goto jail by telling us or if it shows up in a forum.

It all depends on the intent you have with the name and if you are infringing on there TM. Without the domain name all the info in this thread is pretty much useless until the domain is known.

Obviously you knew that the name was TM and that you would try with a .me and see what happens. Truem they should have reg it in sunrise but they just want to take it from you.

It costs them lots of money to try and take the name so there letters are used to scare those who dont know anything. You have 40 invested in and and will cost them 2k min to take the name. Depending on the domain determines your course of action.

1. sell it -- prob be hard since you say is bigtime TM
2. collect all the letters and save them
3. let them come after it and spend all there money for the trouble they caused you.
4 transfer the name to them and waste 40

Oh you are not getting sued in any court for this name.

 

And you know that for a fact, considering you yourself said this?

Whether the mark holder in question won't sue or not isn't for you to decide.

 

w ell in order to sue there would need to be damages. the site was never active.

sueing is used in very few domain cases and more when you have used a domain to redirect to say porn

wipo and udrp are much faster and easier for a TM holder to use and courts would take forever and cost a fortune

 

In other jurisdictions, perhaps. But it's little to no problem in the U.S. under the
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), which allows mark holders
to sue up to $100K per domain name.

Other parties in other jurisdictions might find that a problem. But that didn't stop
Dell from blocking out 3 offshore registrars from their registrations, anyway.

It does cost time and money. But one would have to wonder why they register
a domain name of a famous mark held by a party with deep pockets.

 

Because of that very reason I ended up just contacting the company and replying with the least amount of text possible stating that I'd give up the domain name. This was the advice I got from a couple of co workers that have dealt with something similar.

The company can sue regardless if there was any money made. A 10 inch thick stack of legal papers is not exactly what I am in the mood for at this moment in time. I'm supposed to be making money, not losing it .

I'm a bit distraught about this, but I'm giving up the domain and moving onto more original properties. Hopefully they will work out much better for me in the long run anyway.

Of course because of the Client transfer prohibited period, I have another 30 days of it being mine so I can always change my mind.

 

Are you at least getting Reg. fee back from it?

 

If you think there is a chance they might actually drag you to court its not worth it because .me domains are junk imo anyways. No use fighting over a .me. .me is just a fad at the moment.

 

Is it really worth getting sued? You admit you knew it was Trademarked.

 

Why are you guys thinking these people have "armies of lawyers"??? I can draft up a letter of C&D in 5 minutes by googling it...

In my opinion? TALK TO THEM, let them know your intentions are not to harm them. STOP assuming things and get to the bottom of it. Legally, they might hold the trademark but you still own the domain. If they really wanted to avoid this they should have registered the domain before the landrush period! They had the chance ( as any other company ) to register their TM names. It's silly for them to try to just take it from you.

Call them and tell them you can and will get legal advice on the matter. You are not afraid and do not intend to use the domain to harm their "precious brand".

If you really want to get rid of it... simply sell it to someone that has the nuts to deal with a company who is lazy enough to try to take your perfectly legally registered domain. I'm sure there are people out there who would kill for it...

Dan

 

Offer to sell it back to the owner of the .com for the fee you paid. You can tell them if you drop it, someone else would just register it again, so see if they will at least pay you back the $ 40 you spent.

 

Too late, Dan. The OP did what he said he did, and backing out at this point
can potentially do more harm for him than good.

While some can argue the trademark holder should've registered the domain in
the landrush period, they're not required or forced to do so. Neither is the OP
required or forced to register that domain name, especially when he intended
to ride on that other party's hard work without their consent.