What are they really going to do to him? Take him to court over a domain name that has nothing to do with their business category? They know it's a guaranteed loss.
And your company will just let people piss all over and misuse their trademarks? In this case, if you believe the OP, then he has a legal right to use the name. However, the mark owner has every right to send the letter and try to get any infringement to end before it even starts (Obviously, they are writing the letter based on the domain name alone and they do not know how it will be used. It makes sense for them to assume that anyone using the name Oscar is infringing on their mark and the deal with the few exceptions as they come up.) And yes, if there was an infringing use of a domain name I would expect them to take further action up to and including a federal lawsuit.
It's nothing but an empty threat and I'd call their bluff. Under that mentality, Sesame Street should send him a C&D because it infringes on Oscar the Grouch.
It is pretty simple. If he is using the site for anything to do with the movie awards they would come after him. If it has nothing to do with the movies they would not. We established that in the first post I made on this thread. You are now defending the position that no company follows up on these threats and that they are all just a bluff. You base this on your 'experience' at the company you are employed by, because you say they don't follow up. Who cares what your company does when there are hundreds of other companies that do follow up.
You are defending the position that Oscars' claim is legitimate based on your opinion, who cares what your opinion is? Same difference. I still fail to see how he is going to get in trouble for registering a generic domain that has nothing to do with the Oscar awards.
Don't let them bully you! It has nothing to do with them. What's next? Are they going to try to prevent people from naming their child Oscar?
If a domain name bearing a trademark shows ads of competing services of the mark, coupled with various decisions supporting a mark holder's infringement claim on that exact situation, doesn't show you how the OP can possibly and potentially get into trouble, then I guess nothing will. Same goes for everyone else who do not seem interested in learning how and/or why this thing occurs, and would rather tell the OP to fight something they know nothing of. True, anyone can do that even as a bluff. It then depends if they're remotely capable of enforcing their claims, especially if someone sees through the bluff and calls them on it. As browntwn already said, it's been established from page one how. I guess a few people just don't care anyway. Heck, no. The Oscar folks don't have to do that, and it'd be extremely foolish on their part to even consider it. If people just stop being emotional about these things and think them through even a bit, one can learn something and try to prevent it from happening to them. For those who just came in and are probably too lazy to read the thread from the start, the OP said the domain name was already deleted with Go Daddy. There's no sense telling him to resist the bullying and what-not when it's done deal.