I own the trademark for a certain company name. (Think "GammaCorp" , or something that would have no use other than that of a corporate domain name) The person who owns the domain currently owns countless other domains that are misspellings of other popular trademarks (Think misspellings of disney,dominoes,macys,etc.) I have contacted this person about buying the domain to simply shorten the process, and he put the domain on private ( luckily I have all of his information ). Unluckily, the info is bogus. The phone number does not have enough digits, the company name is bogus, and the address does not exist. I have not had any contact yet from the owner of the domain, even after countless emails explaining the trademark claim and my rights to the domain. Ideally, id like to get this domain without having to spend 1,000-1,500 on approved ICANN abitration services (WIPO). Is there any other way to go about getting this domain without spending large amounts of money (Less than 500 ideally) Thanks
I believe that the person can lease the name, however being that the name is trademarked, they can NOT make money using that name. i would contact there server/host to get there owner information and let them know that you have trademark on that name. If they do not want to listen, have an attorney send them a certified letter explaining why it would be in there best interest to release the name.
They can make money...They can not appear to b affiliated with the trademark in question is all. This is why so many sites have the word google or yahoo in them. I can buy the site (assuming it was free still) sony.com and make t something not relate to sony and sll what I want... This was how so many people made money when the internet first came out . Look at he site yahoodomain.com, they go to godaddy.com and sell domains and Yahoo can't do shit about it, even though yahoo also sells domains.
Yeah, I get your point about sony.com The domain in question is a parked domain, along with his other infringing domains. I think that this would fall into the "cybersquatting" relm, and its simply being registered in bad faith. They are obviously not using, nor are they planning to (over 2k domains registered with the same whois info, its obviously a squatter) Okay so contact registrar, have an attourney send them a letter stating what?
well, like nolag said, it is not illegal to have a domain that uses a trademarked term. the only issue would be if there were pretending to represent your company. You could consult an attorney to see if there are any loopholes, otherwise i would send a letter of goodwill stating that you would like to purchase this domain name for your business. the certified letter may scare them into selling the name. but like i said, they technically do not have to sell the name. If you can prove that they are fraudulently representing the company, then a letter to the register or host stating a lawsuit will be filed if this issue is not taken care of. Im not a lawyer, this is just advise. hope things work out
The problem is that having a trademark does not give you exclusive rights to it's use. There are over 40 classifications of trademarks in the US alone, so in theory, you could have dozens of owners for the same mark (i.e. their are several owners of the myspace trademark, each with different usage rights). When was this domain registered vs. your date of first use? If they registered the domain before your usage, that isn't bad faith. Can you show this person registered the domain to take advantage of your goodwill? A lot will also depend on the uniqueness of the mark, but I would say you would be lucky if you could acquire the domain for $1,500 in a WIPO (which means you are doing the filing yourself, and not using an experienced attorney). Many times it takes a lawsuit to acquire the domain and of course, you are looking at spending a lot more than $1500. Personally, if I wanted the domain, I would pay several thousand rather than risk a WIPO unless it was a very strong case of infringement. You really need to consult with an IP attorney.
The only possible benefit is if the site is not registered correctly (IE fake info), then they can get rid of it but you would not get it right away (if ever).
The OP stated that the contact information used to be incorrect/fake, but since they now have a proxy registration, the whois would be considered valid.
You can report them to ICANN for free if they are not using correct admin contact information in the WHOIS records. They will be given a "fix it or else" notice that they can't ignore. If the guy is out of your country, you're pretty much screwed and there is nothing you can do, legally.