Rapidshare is proceeding against me

For the site Whatsrapidshare.com , they have launched a UDRP complaint and I have 20 days to respond. I am making them alot of money and I think its extremely selfish of them to try to take my site away.

Any suggestions would be appriciated.. my lawyer wants 4000$ up front to fight it.. there is no way i can afford that, whatsrapidshare doesnt even make any money.

Voro

 

even if you could pay it, you'd likely end up losing. they own the rights to that domain, the only way you'd stand a chance is if your site had nothing to do with their service at all.

save yourself the headache and get a domain without "rapidshare" in it. "whatisrs" etc. you could probably get away with "whatisrpdshare" or something along those lines too

 

Yeah... forget prevoius domain and buy a new similar one... redirect for a few days and done...

Put your face in legal troubles should be last movements.

 

But the site is extremly well SEOed I would lose all my ranking would i not.. Its on first page for keyword `rapidshare`and how to use rapidshare and whats rapidshare.. what kind of redirect should it be..

 

well they want you to take off site or domain name?and from where the domain is registered.think i can help you in this regard.depend on legal issue from rapidshare.i mean the letter which rapidshare have sent you

 

Selfish or not, you trod all over their trademark when should have known better. Now they've caught up with you. Hand it over or fight it, it's your choice, but either way you won't own the domain for much longer. And for goodness sake, don't sell the domain on to someone else or you'll just compound the problem.

 

How is this an infringement on their trademark?

 

Do you own the site in your signature?

-BlastFree

 

Rapidshare (company trademark) / whatsRapidshare.com (domain in question) - making money from Rapidshare. That's the trademark infringement.

 

if it's not even making money, just let it go. because it's clearly a trademark infringement. just like you cannot own a whatsgoogle.com site.

 

Your lawyer isn't very good if he's willing to pursue it. Any chump off the street would tell you that the domain is trademark infringement. What on earth does your lawyer think he's going to do about it in court?

 

cant you see they are just being greedy assholes.. my site makes them money.. they are obviously going to turn it into their own information hub.

 

Maybe so, but that doesn't change the fact that you are infringing on their TM. You have gotten some good advice from others here and the fact that it makes you no money should also allow you to step away from it without any financial losses so I think it's time to give up on this one.

 

Rapidshare is right in doing so. What do you think Microsoft would do with a site called Whatismicrosoft.com? Same difference...

 

You're using their name to make money. If you weren't making money I doubt they'd care.
I do however have a suggestion why not become a Rapidshare Account Reseller? Maybe they'd let you keep the domain if you became a reseller.

 

You can't just say OMG I OWN A WORD THATS MINE, or no one would be allowed to make sites like howtoforipods because apple would be all like OMFG thats mine. The things you can't do are make it sound like you are affiliated to them or use their logo or make a site that is like theirs, or confusingly similar.

You also cannot take a TM and put common words to make it yours (that is why you can not have your site if anything) like theipod.com for example.

All I can suggest is that you defend yourself.

Also after looking at your site it kinda looks like it might belong to them...

good luck though!

 

Yes, you can, at least within a class of goods or services. That's exactly what a trademark is.

 

His lawyer doesn't sound that dumb. Asking for $4000 upfront sounds like a winner to me....for the lawyer. Is it ethical and does he really think there is a chance? That's another question that I wouldn't want to speculate on.

I still say you have no chance in this fight. You're not helping yourself with these comments. There's another post in this forum about libel and this is a situation where you're digging a hole for yourself and leaving yourself open. You'd be well advised to take a deep breath and moderate what you say before they come after you for more than the domain. You're already in their sights, don't become a bigger target.

 

What is the point of this site?

Are you making any money from it? Hobby project?

Seems worthless to me. Just move on. Give them the domain and don't waste their time having to take it from you (because there is a 100% chance they will win).

 

man, i wanted to do the exact same kinda website, i bought rapidshare101.info awhile back..

lucky i was lazy enough to sit on my ass and do nothing for that damn long.