Early last year I purchased a domain name; for the sake of this post and keeping the domain name unknown in the confines of this post i'll call it BlueCar.net. When I went to register the domain name, BlueCar.com was already taken. As such, I went ahead and purchased the .net version. About a month or two later, I finally got around to putting up a website for this particular domain name. Besides during registration, I had never heard nor had I seen the other website (the .com version; apparently its not a big site/company). The website has been up for some time now, and we are conducting a commercial business through it. It would seem that the other website is a foreign publication, or news syndication website of some sort and our website is completely unrelated to theirs. However, today I received an email (not a cease and desist, mind you) that basically stated: "you're using this domain name illegally. Take down your website". (Literally, that's about all it said) I don't believe we are using this domain name illegally, but am not entirely sure. According to ICANN the complaintant needs to prove that we are violating his rights to the name, that we have no interest in the domain (we obviously do as we setup a website prior to complaint), and that we registered it in bad faith. Has anyone else had this type of situation? How did you handle it, and how would you recommend me going from here? Also as a side note I own other similar domains (again for the sake of this post): redcar.com, greencar.net, orangecar.com . . . etc. So this domain was registered in coordination with the pattern I have going on with my other domain names.
Based on what you are saying I would ignore it. (I tend to make people work a little. I would respond with a simple letter that says, "We have received your letter. If you believe I am using the domain name BlueCar.net improperly please provide me with an explanation as to how specifically you believe it is being used improperly and what laws you think support your contention. We are happy to evaluate any additional materials you may provide.) That will probably be the end of it.
While I would doubt it, best to see if they have trademarked it. If not then really nothing to answer for, just some confused person angry you got the .net version of the domain without them thinking of that
Yea i'll probably ignore it. I went ahead and checked if there were any rights associated with the name, and there aren't. It was my understanding that we weren't in violation of any sort, but as I am no lawyer and have only a minimal understanding of law I figured I would ask around. Thanks for the advice