Hi all DP members and Admin. I own the domain name www.meow.fm from 20th june 2007, today i recieved a notice from www.meowfm.com saying that its cyber squatting and transfer the domain to us otherwise we will take a legal action. Meowfm.com owns a radio station from may 2007. I have one confusion .fm stands for Federated states of Mecronesia - how they can file a dispute. .fm doesnt stands for frequency meter of Radia station. Meow and Meow fm are their trademark,does it means no body can register a domain with any extension like meow.it, meow.ws, meow.us - how is it possible ???? plz reply fast....
You should have posted this under "Legal Issues". I doubt very much they will success in sueing you for this. Personally, I would try and sell it to them and if they don't want to buy they may be bluffing and never take you to court. If they do take you to court I would say you would win anyway.
Try and sell it to them. If they don't take it, they will sue (might sue) and will lose. Ask to see their papers saying they have a trademark on the name.
You are promoting your meow.fm site as an online radio station. If they can show that your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to their trademark , then yes, they could win at a UDRP hearing. If you search trademarks at http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm you will find their trademark for "meow fm" as an internet radio station. They would only have a case against other extensions (ie meow.us, meow.it) if those domains were related to radio. BTW: IANAL.
And you know this for a fact because, not even considering what tobycoke's posted earlier? Some have sued, some have lost, some have won, but who is really able to predict the outcome? Generally speaking, making changes after the fact can give the impression to the complaining party one is trying to avoid liability.
Now check my site - it is showing Meow.fm Information on Cats and Kittens - site under construction - coming soon. Their Trademark is registered under Broadcasting and Media whereas am making site on Animals. Now this will make the nature of the business different. Am i right ?
simply sell it t0 them,if they didnt buy in c0urt y0u say you spend money ,time,.. on domain And if it was a Trade mark the registrar should take action before u be able to register domain..by the way dont give them Anything FREE..As taking lowyer cost m0ney t00 they will pay you. :-H
Sellling and asking for what price is upto you. "it is showing Meow.fm Information on Cats and Kittens" - Now you wont have a problem. Regards, GAUHAR K.
he is right you are not cybersquatting since you are not competing with them directly since your product or service would not cause confusion
i called them , they said earlier ur website indicated that u r launching a online radio site on 15th aug, we have taken screen shot of it. now ?
ok two things I would suggest....first of all dont let the domain go, second make it clear that ur intention was not to compete with them or make a profit by selling the domain to them. Only becaus they have a radio station called meow it does not mean that every domain in the world is related to them. meow can be an acrynom for many things...so come up with an acrynom and put it on ur site. As for the screen shot just say change of plan...also remind them that reverse hijacking is illigal, so tell them not to waste their time.
if you really want to try and defend it: http://www.dnlist.com/Domain_Names/Legal_Resources/Lawyers/ I would recommend Berryhill and Lieberman personally I haven't ever dealt with others but Paul Keating and Ari Goldberger have a lot of experience too and know their stuff.
its companies wanting to take domains away from people while they have a weak trademark for the domain....read on wiki they seem to have an ok explenation on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_domain_hijacking
I hope the outcome is in your favor. And thanks for the info on reverse hijacking, that was new to me and I love learning new things.
Try to sell it to them and they will have solid as hell proof of your cyber squatting. It's an undeniable ill intent and not only will you lose the domain, you will also face severe fees to compensate for their trouble. For as long as you can prove no ill intent, you should be safe. At least from legal fees, but you still might lose the domain name.
If you choose to fight it, then take your pick from Kohashi's list of attorneys who are well-versed in this sort of thing. But I did warn you what can happen if you changed your site after the fact, yet you followed other members' so- called "advice", went ahead, and there you go. If both you and the complaining party are within one another's area, they can very well file a dispute or even sue. Up to you if you wish to follow the other members' probably well-intentioned yet stupid "advice" on proceeding further with this, and they're not going to take the fall for you. Oh, and I like kittens. I once had that kitten in the pic showing on your site.
I say just try to sell it to them, unless you really like the domain. Obviously you shouldn't ask for a ridiculous amount. If you go the lawsuit way, that will take lots of money and time, plus you have a possibility of losing the domain.