I had a.... Inc. company in 2000 and bought a domain name with my company name. I deactivate the company 4-5 years ago, and kept the domain name.. I received $200 offer for the domain name a couple weeks ago. I start to wonder about the timing of this offer. I search on the internet for my domain name then found out that an energy company which made $550million profit last year has the same name. Furthermore that company is going through a merge with another big company. They already decided to keep the name I have for the new company, and look for a symbol in stock exchange... What should I do ? I did not register this domain name as a trademark.. Can this company get my domain name ? PS: I already replied that $200 offer with a counter offer of $119,000 I do not think that offer has anything to do with this company Thanks
Do you know when that other company was established? If you can prove that you had a legit business before then you are under no obligation to give it to them. Then again, i am not a lawyer. You also had a genuine interest in the domain which will help you in court if it comes to that. It's not as if you had "bad intentions" one of the characteristics of cybersquatting. PS. $200 is bloody cheap. If they want it they should dish out the cash.
It really depends on how unique the name is and who used it first. Since you haven't been using the name in years, you probably don't have continuing usage rights for whatever business you were in. What you certainly can't do is use the domain in a way that rides the goodwill of the larger company - which limits the value of the domain to anyone else. You should probably talk to an IP attorney that can give you advice on the actual name. What you don't want is to get into a lawsuit with a large company. They could force you to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to keep the domain - legal fees you don't get back even if you win.