Legal advice needed, threat of being taken to court

I have been running a couple of sites for a few years now and on my forum I have had mention of the name Auto Trader Spain.

Im based in Spain and not the UK where the solicitors making these threats are based and the company concerened is located.



Yesterday I received the following contact

Then today after killing the two offending websites

Im not a company, just a private individual.



Am I in the proverbial or what advice would you guys give

 

Ok, I a not a lawyer but if I were you - and since you already took the sites offline
I will NOT give these domains to anyone - unless they are willing to pay and pay well -

You can keep the domains until they are willing to send you a check or wire.
You could also tell them to go @#$%^& themselves and that you are just trying
to earn a few bucks online as a private individual and not a company.

good luck

 

I would not worry, seems like a scam to me. What email were they sent from? ask them to send you a letter or talk to you on the phone about it, seek some proof that they are who they say they are, it is easy to get scammed and i have seen it been done several times.

Auto trader spain seems like general comonly used words to me, they can't take them from you, especially if you started or registered the domains or sites before they got their copyright done or whatever. Plus you are in spain, they are in the UK. I think its a 100% scam!

Best regards,
Markus

Edit: ask to speak to dominic collins in person

Edit2: how did i get a bad rep for this post? i basically said the same thing as trafficrider below? I have seen this before and it is usually a scam. and dominic collins is the guy who manages autotrader.co.uk???

 

If I were you I would be very wary about the information they are asking. It might just be another breed of '419 scam' (Just wiki it). If they're legit they could ask it easily from your registrar. Ask who there clients are specifically, research about them and if possible get a hold of them and talk to them. Did you do some digging about the company involved and this Law Firm per se? Check the headers of the email (IP) and see if its really coming from where it says it is.

If they have problems with you I think they would coordinate first with your registrar and ask to seize the domains from you. Registrar will ignore this of course until they will see it well-founded. They need a court order to do that.

I remember similar situation back in 2007. Bodog.com was sued for some trademark issue regarding their domain. There's these series of announcement which I can't remember to that extent. But one thing I remember noted there was... that there's this group of people in the internet who does this for a living. They exploit company's and individuals for trademark (domain) issues. I don't know exactly what happened after that but a year later they got their domain back.

I'm no lawyer or anything of that sort. I was thinking that if I were in your shoe I would not just give up what I worked for without a fight. I think you should consult a lawyer for more legit advice. You're in Spain, they're in UK and your just an individual. So if they want that from you they should go into your dominion (Spain) and do there fighting there. The jurisdiction of the case seems vague could be in your country or could be the country where your server/registrar is located.

I also agree with what dugu56 said. Since you have take the sites offline. You must be compensated.

Good luck!

I like it! Ahaha. That's the spirit!

P.S: I really have a good feeling that there's this '419 scam' or something of that sort written all over it.

 

You should find a good IP attorney if you don't want to turn over the domains.

You should ignore the advice of the morons posting here that are telling you to ignore the email or demand payment for the domains. I wouldn't advise responding to the email unless you are going to turn over the domains.

If you can edit your post, I would remove the reprint of the letter you received.

 

Unless they provide you something in writing (other than an e-mail) I wouldn't do anything further. Don't contact them - don't respond to them. It's very easy to send e-mails, but unless you receive a FedEx or registered letter and can see it comes from a legitimate business or law firm, I wouldn't give them any information. With the amount of scams going on out there I'm sure they would understand that. If you've taken the sites down that's enough - I wouldn't do another thing unless they pursue it further. If they want the domains bad enough - they'll find you and won't waste money suing you if they send you an actual legitimate letter and you comply. So don't get too worked up over it.

Also DO NOT demand money for the domains unless you bought them prior to November of 1997 (I believe that was the date). That was when the government put forth a bill that entitles companies to domains with their trademarked terms in it, which was done to stop cybersquatting. So definitely don't demand $$ if you registered them after that date - you'll lose.

 

i get threats like these all the time, anyone coulda written them if they did some research.
Don't let them scare you!

 

Why do people think they can just ignore legal letters sent via email? I have represented clients who were sued over an infringing domain without ever receiving any notice. Even the service of the lawsuit was via email.

Telling people to ignore a valid email just shows your ignorance of the law and is horrible advice.

 

I think you missed the point. I didn't tell him to completely ignore the e-mail and continue the course he was on. He's already taken the sites down, which is in compliance with the cease & desist request he received via that e-mail. I'm also under the assumption this individual has thier actual address in the registrar information - which to me would warrant a physical written document to be sent to them (every person I've EVER encountered that had a copyright or trademark issue has always gotten a FedEx or Registered letter in addition to an e-mail - usually they are actually identical). If not, that's a different issue. But they want information from him in writing, and unfortunately in this day and age with fraud and identity theft, I would never handle any legal incident completely via the internet since it's very difficult to find out if an e-mail is actually valid. I believe any legal mind would probably agree - and I'm assuming if you're a lawyer you also would much prefer to be able to physically interact with a client either by phone or physical mail instead of by e-mail.

So that being said my advice to Lee G would be that if that isn't the case with your mailing address, then my advice would be to request an actual phone number and physical address from the people claiming to be contacting you. After receiving the information I would take the time to verify that it's coming from who they say they are, and then at that point would I contact them. If they want the domains, don't argue or ask for $$ becuase as I said you'll lose. Just ask them to send you a letter in writing outlining exactly what you need to do to resolve this. That way there won't be any question, and you'll have something in the event of any further dispute. Then bring it to an attorney to confirm that everything looks o.k. before you sign and complete it.

 

My only point is that people should take emails seriously. That is especially true when you are operating an infringing domain or website.

 

Their marks are valid... you can check here

http://oami.europa.eu/CTMOnline/RequestManager/en_SearchAdvanced_NoReg

Although they noted the wrong registration no.

You should transfer the domains to them immediately.

 

sorry but i agree, also someone mentioned a phone call from them with full details. emails just are not good enough proof to me. good luck on this as its bullshit you have to go through this

 

That's a good link - and the results are interesting.

They seem to have 3 registered trademarks.

1. the word(s) "Auto Trader"
2. 2 Figurative (image?) trademarks.

Interestingly, their attempt to register the word "autotrader" was rejected according to that link - do a search on "autotrader" and "auto trader" and you will see their trademarks.

I'm only an amateur who doesn't understand trademark law but my thinking is that there must be a significant difference between using the word "auto trader" and "autotrader" in terms of trademarking where one was allowed to be registered and the other wasn't.

You should still consult a solicitor, but maybe things aren't quite that bad.

 

Be careful when reviewing information... they haVe abandoned some.

Best to search by owner.

...and a "space" (word separator or not) won't make any difference... it isn't distinctive.

 

Lee G please update us....

Btw, is there a site where we could check if we're infringing any trademark? Check if a particular name has been trademarked already? This is just an honest mistake to some but as they say "ignorance of the law excuses no one".

 

Start with a google search to see if anyone else is already using the term with a similar usage, check the USPTO.gov webiste, if you don't find anything then pay a few hundred dollars for a good trademark search. It isn't a guarantee that you won't have problems, but it will prevent most problems. Trademarks do not need to be registered to acquire rights.

 

Found this great site! Could be useful for everyone. Spent the last 20 minutes there and I have learned so many things already!

http://www.chillingeffects.org/

Lee G go to that site and especially read this - http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/faq.cgi

Good luck!

 

I am pretty sure that a trademark doesn't have to be registered for privileged rights