I recently leased a domain from Huge Domains, and I am glad I did, as I found out later the name of the domain was trademarked, and if I had bought the domain, then the domain would have been useless to my niche, not only that, I would have lost quite a bit of money.... I know better, but for whatever reason, I did not check the trademark on the domain before I went ahead and leased the domain from Huge Domains, and thus, I cancelled the lease, and probably will never use them again; after all, who really reads TOS? I bet you when you signed up to DP that you did not bother to read the terms.... and I would also bet that 99.9% of web users ever read the terms, and this is how Huge Domains preys on your ignorance, and once you are caught up, its too late.... Why would a legitimate company hide info so useful concerning trademark deep in their terms of service page that know one really reads to begin with? This is not by mistake; this is on purpose, why? more money for them if you are ignorant... Is this the type of dirty business you want to run? Huge Domains could easily put something about trademark on every-single domain page that they sell, however, what incentive would they get from being honest? If you think about it, bad for business to deceive clients, and future clients, so you keep my $100, as it will be the last dollar you will ever get from me! Huge Domains should be educating their clients, not hiding this info deep on the terms page, then capitalize on it later by saying "you should have read the terms..." only a dishonest company with full intent would pull this crap.... Another lost customer, I can not trust any company that conducts business in this deceitful manner.... Huge domains complaints Huge domains scam huge domains review
Really interesting, Do you think that they knew it was trademarked? Could it have been an honest mistake on their end?
absolutely not!!! according to them, they do not check trade mark, and their indication is that they do not care. It is their intent to leave this responsibility to the avg joe that normally does not read TOS, and it is just 3-4 lines to say, they do not check trademark or bear no responsibility, ie: no refunds.... Even if they did or did not know is no excuse, as they have the means to post a trademark disclaimer at the top of every domain/page that is listed, however, they do not!!!! They know for a fact that any domain they sell could be a potential trade mark issue, however, if they would have posted a trademark disclaimer at the top of every page, then I would have certainly checked before leasing the domain, then I would have not leased the domain.... my guess is that this is not an isolated issue; why would domain providers check for trademark? after all, it is not illegal to have the domain, and only becomes a problem when the person using the domain becomes trademark infringement, and this is why i quickly gave it up.... by not informing avg joe buyers upfront, they are hoping to make profit off of your ignorance, and I have should known better as I have been around for a few years. I am just glad that I did not pay the full price or I would have been screwed.... They are certainly very aware of what they are doing.... no mistake about it....
I am extremely sorry to hear this. I have nothing good to say about companies focused on squatting on domains, this just goes to show how much they really do not care.
Someone filed something on Rip Off Report concerning huge domains saying that he waited years for a domain to become available, and before he could turn his head, huge domains grabbed the domain, then listed in their marketplace. When you have companies like this grabbing up potential high value domains, then it kills the chance of up for grabs.... not even a day or two after I canceled the contract; huge domains sent me an email trying to sell me on a 2 year contract compared to the original 3 year contract.... and sure enough, after visiting their page, they have reduced the price.... (even after I sent them an email concerning the trademark) The domain is still available for sell! They do not care, and they hope the buyer does not catch that there maybe a trademark issue if they use the domain in that niche.... approved and allowed by the US Govt that wrote the rules on cyber-squatting, and that means the govt does not care either....
I have a domain name that just has my name, saying I am the only person with my exact first and last name I was surprised when HugeDomains bought it and are now trying to sell it to me for $4000 when I forgot to renew. It is really sad, nearly all LLL.com domains are squatted on.
Lease a domain? What an absurd idea. You're just developing a web property and increasing its value for someone else. Either a domain name is good enough to buy or it's not.
@dscurlock are you sure you're not mixing the words "leasing" and "sale"? I went to their site and I don't see any leasing options. All domain names are for sale. Can you show where the leasing tab / option is? Looks like they have a solid returning policy (30-day money back guarantee). After all you were able to return that domain, you should be grateful. Some companies would care less to take it back. Also, if anything, their ToS is short, easy to understand and it clearly states: "HugeDomains is not responsible in determining whether the domain name(s) listed for sale infringe upon the legal rights of others. It is the customer's sole responsibility to research whether the purchase and use of a domain will infringe upon the legal rights of other entities and individuals, including but not limited to trademark infringement." So they do warn their customers from the get go that they, the customers, are responsible of any trademark infringement. You said: "Huge Domains could easily put something about trademark on every-single domain page that they sell". How would they know which domain presents trademark infringement and which doesn't? It's impossible to know unless it is specifically stated somewhere by the original owner that the domain name is trademarked. But that type of thing is never stated anywhere when a domain name is expired or dropped. Honestly, I think you are overreacting. I do not see any deceit in the way that company conducts its business.
they sale domains for full price, and they lease them. So yes, it was a lease, and you will only get (assumed) refund if you pay full price for the domain, which does not make sense... so why not refund the leased amount within 30 days also? I am just telling you how it is, so if you want to defend corporate america, then that is fine by me; all I am saying is trademark info should be on every page, why hide it on a page no one really reads? Trademark infringement is a big deal dude, so why bury this very important info that should in fact be listed on every domain/page? oh wait, there is no refunds on leased domains, so if it takes you six months to realize there maybe a trademark infringement, then you will lose your entire domain invest since the domain may be of no value if you are in the same niche..... that is exactly why they do not issue refunds on leased domains, they are clearly betting you have not read the terms that no one really reads to begin with; mo money for them... It should be fair across the board...If they offer 30 day refund for full price domains, then they should offer 30 day refund for leased domains.... 1: they should offer 30 day refund for full pay and leased domains. 2: they should post a trademark infringement warning on all domain/pages. I wonder how many people actually lease a domain, then realize later the name is already trademarked, then they cant get a refund; I would certainly bet more then you think, and do I think it is misleading by not making this infringement warning so people can easily see it... Yes I do... Huge domains could save people time, and prevent a lot of backtracking if they just post a warning at the top of each domain/page. Would this have saved me time? It certainly would have, I would not have leased the domain, and continued to look for something that would work.... (it is not about saving me time; they could care less if I lost time, and have to do backtracking now, as it is more about money ie: no refund...) It does not matter if you agree with me or not; all I am saying is, if you plan to buy or even lease a domain from them or any domain provider... (now you know...) I certainly would have been grateful if I had a pre-warning about them.... This is nothing more then a sneaky play, so they get $100 here, $100 there or more from unsuspecting buyers, so they may figure it out in the first 30 days, or they wont, either way, no refund... (this is the type of play that dirt bags make...) so I must be over-reacting, sure, that must be it... and where did I say they did not? It is not very responsible of putting trademark info in terms that most never read, So why not list this information clear enough that every potential buyer can see? and the only way to do this is list it on every domain/page that is forsale or lease... The only reason to hide this info on a single area of your entire site is on a page that no one reads, and for them to make more money...
I'd have thought trademarks have a limited scope. I couldn't buy nestle and create a food brand but would be allowed to use it for the name for a forestry project, mechanics workshop, space research etc. To say nobody can ever use a domain seems unlikely therefore the company has every right to try to market it. What is dodgy is when they've selected it purely to squat, or buying a carelessly dropped domain as per @Jordan[H4Y] That's opportunistic.
for the most part, you can use a name as long as it is not in the same niche...So lets say you did a trade mark on Health Mart, I would not be able to file a trademark on Health Mart USA if it is in the same niche/market, or if it will confuse consumers, even if healthmart(dot)com was available, then it would do me no good if that is the niche I was in; I would have to come up with a different name. You would not be able to use nestle to any degree at all as it would be considered a famous trademark, it would not be allowed, even if your product had nothing to do with nestle at all because it would be a famous trademark, and they would sue you.... so NestleDogPopBusiness(dot)com may not go over very well, and you could be sued.... a couple days ago, I read a trademark brief that this restaurant used some type of famous designer name for their restaurant, even though two complete different niches... it was not a good idea, as this confused people into thinking that the restaurant was owned by the actual designer; they were sued, and when they renamed their restaurant to a similar name, then they were fined millions of dollars by the court....
It's not unreasonable to think a celebrity might own a restaurant - many do. However, if that same celebrity's name was linked to a tractor engineering firm people are less likely to be confused. I'd be looking at the intent to mislead on the part of the user before passing judgement. If they can completely justify the use of the name, that there were no other suitable names available I'd be less concerned. I'd be wanting to ensure the visual branding was completely different.
yes they do, but in the case that I mentioned, the restaurant decided to use the designers name without their consent, so when people went to eat, they thought the restaurant was owned by the designer... (so the restaurant was misleading people to think the designer owned the restaurant...) You have to understand how getting a trademark works; It has nothing to do with how you justify anything, as the trademark office will look at many factors, and take as long as six months - year to complete the process. Even if the trademark office makes a mistake, then you still can be sued if someone is claiming you are infringing their trademark; Even if your trademark is not approved, then you still lose all the money you paid to your trademark attorney.... If you are going to pick a name, then make sure it is completely different, and search the USPto site, and if anything comes up related, or even similar, then you need to take a real hard look...take the term "enforcer" for instance, if you look up this term, then you will see many trademarks on "enforcer" people trademark this term for batteries, fire extinguishers, gaming, computer software, firearms, so if you were to file a trademark on something like The Gun Enforcer, then the trademark office may think your name is too similar to an existing trademark on the books, and most likely would not be approved.... Even if your trademark is approved, then you still may not be off the hook; If another person was already using the trademark before you, then they simply could challenge your trademark with the trademark office.... if they are able to prove they have been using the trademark, then your application will be denied.... trademark infringement cases are very expensive, most attorneys charge $250+/hr and can get expensive really fast, and most of the time, the lawsuits you see are from corp vs corp that have big money, and sometimes it can depend on if you have more money then the other guy or if he has more then you....
We are in agreement on the restaurant case and maybe in the USA trademarks work differently to down here - you pay for the trademark in a particular industry, and again for each additional industry. Then you look at the countries that you also want cover and start the process over again.
in that case, you fee pay a fee for additional categories, and trademark office covers alot, so there is probably nothing you can think up that they do not already cover. so if you had a name that you would like to trademark, and it could fall under multiple categories, and for each category, there would be a fee.... in US dollars, it would cost approx $800-$1500 for a trademark (depending on attorney costs & fees)