Exact game name domain appraisal

There's a game coming out for the Nintendo 3DS soon called Resident Evil: The Mercenaries. I purchased the domain residentevilthemercenaries.com about a month ago and have developed it a little bit with all original content (as you can see), but haven't done any sort of promotion. How much do you think it's worth as is? I get a bit of traffic, but because I haven't been indexed, the site doesn't rank for exact keyword matches of the game name.

 

Lots of people are gonna say that you will be sued: they might be right (assume this scenario before thinking of keeping it!).

Would love to tell you: don't worry they are scarecrows (and even if I think they are!), but sadly, since I started domaining, saw too much of them(not millions, but enough to know it doesn't worth regging them!) having legal problems...


Since you got the exact name of the game: you can't say that it's generic or that you didn't intend to register they're brand!


The good part is that if you only promote them, they probably won't take you down (+ they "probably" have something else better to do...--not like facebook or apple).

Ultimately, it's your decision. Just remember that your not in position of negotiating against them...


Hope your decision will go well.

 

I am guessing that the name of the game is trademarked and therefore not even worth registering as it can be considered trademark infringement. I would stay away from TM domains in the future imo.

 

It's trademark infringement which gives the domain a negative value because of possible legal costs. Drop the domain.

 

Yeah, drop it man... Best choice before getting a bad cal!

 

Thanks for the advice guys :-/ Oh well, I tried.

 

Am I allowed to keep the domain and not profit from it? Just use it purely as a fan site or something similar? I figure since I already spent the money on the domain and pay hosting every month anyway, just dropping the domain would be a bit of a waste

 

There are some cases where a non-commercial fan site have won the rights to operate a site, however, if the TM holder objects to the domain, you could be forced to spend thousands of dollars (tens of thousands) to keep the domain and even if you won you would still be out attorney fees. Non-commercial means you can run ads or take in any revenue whatsoever - not even donations. It doesn't make a lot of sense to put time and effort into a site that can't make any money and might wind up costing you a small fortune.

While a TM holder does not have to give you any notice before suing you, in most (but not all) cases, they will ask you to turn over the domain before proceeding.

 

Check this out. Zynga is probably the most aggressive about protecting their TM. The very next day after I registered 4 domains with the name "Cityville" in them, just two weeks after the game came out, I was contacted by a Zynga attorney and warned about using the domains. So I emailed her back and told her my intentions were to simply put up promotional blogs of the game and have adsense ads on the blog. I also told her I would have a disclaimer page stating that the blogs were not associated with Zynga/Cityville and that Zynga did not support the blogs. And I promised not to offer any downloads associated with the game.
She gave me a thumbs up to go ahead, and that was it.

 

I agree 100% with all the comments made, not worth the risks and hassle.

That's a great response, so effectively - as long as you are not trying to compete but actuvely promoting them, they are interested?

 

You can get sued. Make what money you can from the traffic and walk away.