I recently purchased the domain http://www.wakeawards.com there is nothing on the site! Wakeboarding Magazine who has been publishing magazines for the past decade now have begun to hold an award ceremony. For the past 5 years Wakeboarding Magazine has been holding this award show. I sent them an email notifiying them that I own the domain(mite have been a mistake). The editor and owner of the company emails me back saying, "Interesting that you are attempting to profit off one of our brand extensions. What are you trying to accomplish?" What should I do, suggestions anything P.S. I dont think that the term Wake Awards is under trademark, copyrights or anything like that! Help
That was thing i was was undecided if i should just sit on it or show it to them so i sent them an email introducing my self and exactly saying, "I have recently acquired the domain name, www.wakeawards.com With the recent boom in the wakeboarding industry I felt that this domain could be critically in pulling more traffic on to wakeboarding magazine's website in the future years. If you could please contact me by email or by so we can further discuss possibility's of this domain
Yes, what are your plans for it? edit: Oh. If they didn't have that phrase trademarked there shouldn't be anything they can do about it.
I was looking to sell it to them, dont know how I could introduce that plan to them after such an email response on their part
They don't have to register the trademark to claim rights to it, they just have to use it. I'm not a trademark expert by any means, and not a lawyer, but from what I have read, they have established trademark rights through using it as they have. Most people/organizations do not look happily upon people buying their trademarks as domains and trying to sell it to them. It's a pretty underhanded thing to do.
Yes, it is an underhand thing to do but we as webmasters this is our playground while doing stuff with there magazines in such is theres some times low blows are a must.
If they indeed established trademark rights for the term, it seemed you were trying to ride on it. Intentionally or not. Up to you how you're going to tell the other party what your intent is, yet be honest about it deep down inside. Good luck.
Owning the domain name itself would probably not be an issue but trying to sell the domain name to another party (especially if it is close to their trade name) would does seems like a bad move. Legal is one thing but ethnical is another. Well, if you were to have developed the site to a useable extend then seek some cooperation or partnership, it might not be viewed in a better light.
here is my advice, they can't do anything to you for buying the domain, its just you want the goodwill from them to sell it. I would email them and say something to the effect of: "I was going to make a wakeboarding site and after registering it I noticed your magazine and thought you might be more interested in the domain then I would be. If you are not that is fine, I will continue with my site and if you ever want it let me know" Then if they don't buy it just put up some website about good wake boarders and say they get your wake board award or whatever. then if they want it in the future they can have it, and if they dont buy it then it was a $9 gamble that didnt work out, which you'll probably get in adsense anyways
I think you emailing them to begin with shows bad faith. You're essentially acknowledging their TM by assuming they would have an interest in your domain. Why would you assume they would be interested in it if you weren't aware of their Wake Awards? Which should be under TM protection (filed or not), because it's been running for 5+ years. I wouldn't be surprised if you get a C&D in the coming days... I think your best bet here is to respond that "I'm a fan of your magazine and am aware of your Wake Awards, saw the domain was available so I registered it with the intent to transfer it to you free of charge!" Maybe you'll make a friend and save yourself some hassle.
oh yeah, just send them a $9 gift for your appreciation of them treating you like ****... that will go over well. do what Deltron said. Hell, you might even make a profitable site out of it, and if you start making profit, then they will buy it from you.
You should've been like "I own xxx domain and I'm willing to sell it to you for $xx." Nothing more than that. You don't want to just notify them that you own it, you should tell them that you want to sell it to them straight off the bat. Say that you have other offers or something for it to push it for a higher price.
No, you send them a $9 gift so they don't sue your ass for TM infringement... When you register a domain and then try to sell it to the TM holder, it's called cybersquatting, they have every right to treat you like ****, because you're acting like a ****head...
Put up a pharma site for no doze type products and award one of them a medal for being the best at keeping people awake. Or something similarly lame. Trademarks shouldn't prevent alternate use. And try to make amends. Offer the domain at a public auction and invite them. Set the reserve low so that you make some, they make some and if anyone wants it then they can bid for it too. But don't put in false buyers. That will seriously backfire. Right now they're just trying to scare you. They've been running awards for 5 years but the domain hasn't been taken? They don't really want it, but they know they can't have you misleading people with a copycat site.
Someone should offer an online class on trademark law because nobody seems to have the slightest idea of what they are talking about in this thread.