Hey guys, I have a site that has a trademark in the domain. I haven't heard anything official yet but, I think in the coming days I may be asked by the company to hand the domain over as has happened recently with one of my "competitor" sites. Obviously I don't want this to happen and be prepared. Like I said, I've not heard anything yet so I dont have any specific time restrictions. What is the best way to keep my content (and revenue) without losing too many visitors. A new site and move the content over and 301 the old site? And do I do that straight away or keep going for now and have it ready for when I need to move it? I'm actually doing some work with the UK division of the company at the moment so I don't know if that will affect anything either or buy me some time :s.
If the TM holder takes the domain, there is no 301 to do. They can also sue you for damages as well as all income the site has ever generated - it just depends on how aggressive they want to be. I would get a non-infringing domain, and either do a 301 redirect while I still had the domain, or just start over. Doing a 301 can still get you sued for TM infringement, but it might reduce the chances of them coming after you.
I dont think they're being aggresive the way theyve done it. My understanding is, they just want the domain from my competitor and to stop using it/the site/etc. I'm now left with 3 or 4 options and I'm not sure which would be the best way to go. I have a site in a similar niche but, not as specific. I can either add the content from siteA to siteB which means more content for siteB, or have a subdomain on the site, so its still seperate but without infringing trademarks, or a folder for the same reason. Or just get a new domain so its still seperate/specalist but, with a different/non infriging TM domain.