Hello there; I'm offering a clone script for a famous website. However my webhost received these email and forwarded it to me and they gave me 3 days to close the website or resolve the issue. I've replaced every word about the website name with "TM" in the message. My webhost is in EU (Servage.net), and I live in Egypt. What do you think I should do? especially that the TM is in my domain, plus there are 3 other competitors who also offer a clone to this website. Any solutions? I received this email yesterday forwarded from my webhost and they said that they'll stop my website in 3 days !
Without the actual details of their trademark and your site that they are complaining about it is impossible to judge the merit of their claim and offer you any advice. Essentially you have two choices though. Allow your site to be removed or file a counter notice to the DMCA taking the position that your website/domain/clone is not infringing on theirs. If they didn't act to file a lawsuit against you within 10 days from that counter-notice, your host is supposed to keep your site up and needs to do nothing else to protect themselves since they followed the notice/counter-notice requirements of the DMCA. Since you are in Egypt, I would assume it is unlikely you would be sued, but without knowing the parties involved and the marks in question, that is just speculation on my part.
It sounds like the main issue is with your domain. I would think that getting a new domain that does not contain the trademarked term in it would solve the problem. Even if you are out of the reach of US law, they can still get the domain from you by filing a claim with ICANN to get the domain.
What makes me feel very bad, that my domain just started to appear at the first position in web search and I'm getting good traffic :/ I want to keep the domain, losing it will be something very annoying :////
Your title states this issues revolves around a cloned script, not domain.... So which is it? Is it about the clone script you are using, or the domain itself? Trademark domain is one thing, but clone scripts are something else. There are probably 1000's of cloned scripts sold and used across the net daily, can someone recall a lawsuit on someone using a cloned script?
I'm sorry, but I can't say what my clone script is. My clients would feel unsafe if they felt my lawful position isn't safe. But it's a clone to a very popular website, however the issue involves the trademark not the script itself. And the trademark is in domain name, that's the problem :/
are you using their trade mark in your domain? something like mycraigslistclone.com That would be a trade mark violation.
It sounds like they would have a legit claim then... You are using their TM in your domain, so in essence, you are taking traffic that could have went them them.... If they are in the US, and you are not, then it is possible this will not go very far, but that is just a guess, but that does not matter, with a court order, Icann can just shut your domain off, and it will be over... If they are that popular, and have the money, then it is possible that could pursue an attorney, file a complaint with the court, and serve the complaint to Icann, and maybe even attempt to recover any damages; It seems the ball is in their court on what they may or may not do, but it seems that have at least started the DMCA process for you to take down the domain.... You could always move to a host that does not care or honor DMCA, but in the end, they would end up going through ICANN in order to get your domain, if they really wanted to go that far...
We provide legal consulting services on trade mark issues. Reference: http://www.CanadianLawServices.com