Rich Jerk wants to Sue me!

I share the exact same oppinion, just notice people that you have nothing to do with the original trandemark, and you are not affiliates/related to Rich Jerk and that's pretty much it.. you should be safe. Not a lawyer here, but Lexiseek seems to know what he's saying.

 

I think you should wait it out. Get advice like others have been saying and prepare in case he does sue you.

Still I find it hilarious that you rank 1st for "rich jerk". Great SEO work!!! That's why he's livid.

Skinny

 

Unfortunately a notice isn't enough to protect you, whether most actually sue or not. That wouldn't be any different than stealing someone's copyrighted work to put on your website, and sticking a disclaimer/credit box at the bottom. A disclaimer isn't enough to get you off the hook, and certainly doesn't give you the right to simply do as you please with trademarked / copyrighted material. Normally I'm all for keeping the domain, but from what I could see on the site it looks like a pretty blatant misuse of a trademarked name, with the intent to profit from it and draw traffic from it (especially since you already said you've spent money specifically to optimize for that purpose). You should avoid giving details publicly in a forum as it is, b/c you don't want to risk it being used against you later.

 

Rich Jerk isn't small. I believe I was actually introduced into marketing by their stuff. I didn't buy the ebook, but I can see how the newletters and many freebies networked together would make a terrific empire. They also have a members only site. I believe they are Pretty Darn Big.

Anyways, I am surprised by all the people in here urging you to just make him angry. It would be respectful to your hosting company, the law, and the Rich Jerk's company, to temporarily change the content until your real legal advisor tells you otherwise.

Are you profiting off of the usage of the trademark?

 

I've been reading every single post of this thread and the only thing that stuck out in my mind was 'how the hell did you get ranked #1 for that!"

Of course, I hope you come out tops in this one too

---
Dylan

 

why not sue RJ?

just kidding...You may want to know how many people are not satisfied with their ebook...If there are many, you probably would win.

 

It's obvious why he's ranked # 1 -- Check his keyword density for 'rich jerk'. It's like 10x higher than the actual site richjerk.com, plus it's in his domain name. Great SEO work Ryan!

 

I had a "Harry Potter" domain with the word "Harry Potter" in the domain name. After about 3 months I got a letter from lawyers acting on behalf of Warner Bros. who wanted me to vacate the domain name as I was infringing on their copyright. Unfortunately if the trademarked term is in the base of the domain name then you are very likely going to lose any legal action.

I suggest you register something like rjscams.com and then wait move your domain with a 301 redirect. I don't think you are under any obligation to "give" the domain to the Rich Jerk, just don't host your site there!

Also to infringe their copyright they have to prove that you have earned money using their trademaked domain name. This would suggest that you would have to remove adsense and affiliate links.

 

Guys,
Anyway, its a funny story how I got to the position. My site was sandboxed so I went SEO crazy till my site ranked, but really I did so much SEO that it went to No.1 just yesterday. Opps. I really didn't intend for it to get so high, you know everyone knocks No.1

Anyway, am still waiting on ICANN response in which case I will report back here. A few very kind users have offered their hosting to me which I might take up just for sakes.

Still looking for options tho, and for those that know a bit more than me, if I register another domain then redirect all my traffic from richjerkscams.com to the new domain, I'm pretty sure I'll get out of the trouble. My worry is that it might destroy my SERPS.

Anyone can tell me how to do this redirect? And also if It will destroy my SERPS?

Thanks for the info guys, really thanks!

 

The phrase "rich jerk" has been in usage in conversation long before the internet.

 

Perhaps, but not "common usage" - the fact that the two words may or may not have been used together doesn't matter. The fact that they're commonly associated with this program, and weren't commonly associated with anything previously is the difference between RJ and the example someone gave of trademarking "merry christmas".

 

Great thread.

Stay the course, you'll be fine.

What an incredible example of well-done SEO you have here - I can see something formulating from all this: "How I Beat the Rich Jerk at His Own Game and Took #1 Position."

Get started, strike while the iron is hot.

 

So basically, what you are saying is that, if I blog about Windows XP, and say it's not a great OS, I'm using his trademark? And I profit because I have ads on my blog?

If the future looks like this, then I wanna live in Africa..

 

cant you ask someone to host it on their dedicated server?
Would that work, or are you still renting the server off someone.
Try it
GL!

 

This is not a lawsuit.

It's an email threat. There's a big difference between the two.

You can't sue people by email. Wait until the Rich Jerkoff sends you something in writing. You know, something that costs money. Otherwise this is just a "threat by email" and should be filed in the cylindrical.

 

That's not even close to what I said! You can give your opinions freely, in reviews or otherwise, and that's fine.. You cannot simply refer to something as a "scam" unless you can prove that it is... that's libel.

 

Add a disclaimer that clearly states that all of the comments on your website are an opinion.

 

I never heard of the program, the website, or anything else releated to the internet site prior to this thread. However, in this part of the world at least, the phrase "rich jerk" (yes, used together in that exact combination) is a common phrase. You're in Pottstown, PA... rent a high-end sports car and park it in a handicap spot on High Street on a busy weekend (the next car show perhaps) and you will hear the phrase "rich jerk" quite often.

 

If I wanted to throw off some competition, knowing that it is not such a big brand, I would send a threat email, and if that doesn't work, I try all the possibilities to scare the hosting providers (maybe they don't have the guts), and if that doesn't work, I might do something even bigger than that, just try to stay on TOP, and get as much benefit as you can from all this twisted story!

 

Uhm, ok I agree with you on this one, I might have misunderstood.