I own a .org domain name for a somewhat known product and have been asked to transfer the domain over to the .com domain holder and pay 1000 dollar penalty fee. To describe my situation better you can imagine that I own the domain name pampers.org (just an example) and the domain of the company actually selling Pampers is of course pampers.com My website has a few articles regarding Pampers and some Google Adsense ads. The site gets a few visitors (up to 30 per day) and makes a little money. I have now been contacted by a law firm representing Pampers, and they are basically saying that I should transfer the domain over to Pampers and pay them compensation of 1000 USD. They also ask me what my name is - they don't know it because I have Whois Protection for the website. What should I do? I will not pay the 1000 USD that is for sure. My options: - Do as they say (I won't do it since I will never pay the 1000 USD) - Take the website down - Sell the website to someone else? - Do nothing What do you think?
That's really up to you. You don't have to do anything for them, and then they can then file a "formal" dispute, take the domain name from you if they can prove their claims, and possibly find out who you are and seek money damages still if they feel inclined. If you sell the domain name and web site to someone, you're just moving the risk to that someone. If the other party's smart (and that's a big if), they might...might...find out your information anyway. What you can do is negotiate with them, expect the worst, and hope for the best. Tell them you can't pay whatever you really made, but you can give them the domain name at no cost. Nobody really knows...short of consulting a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally good crystal ball. It's your call. BTW, are you and the trademark holder within physical reach of one another? Same country?
Thanks for your thoughts. No we are not in the same country... I live in one of the lesser known EU countries so I am pretty sure the trademark owners are based in the US or some other large EU country.
No they wont. This has nothing to do with them and the last thing they would do would be to try and offer legal advice.
You're definitely in the wrong here because you have been using their trademark for your own profit. I don't think you'll get out of this without forfeiting the domain, but perhaps you can negotiate on the terms? I would offer to give them the domain but not the money and see it they accept. If you've only made a small amount on the site, you could also offer to give them the domain plus any money you've earned from it and I think that would be a reasonable offer. You could get a lawyer to help, but that might end up costing you $1k anyways.
apparently not private enough if abc company and a law firm have already contacted you.... but it seems really odd that they are demanding $1k which is really small without any proof of damages, losses, etc... they would also be pushing it by even asking $1k as they should feel lucky if you just transfered the domain to them, and it be over, but that does not seem to be enough for them... i just cant see a multi million dollar company seeking a mere $1,000 then again, you did not disclose any info; for all i know, a teenager could be the owner of the other domain.... and seeing both parties are in two different countries, it is very unlikely they would ever be able to extract any money from you, even if they got the domain.... and the cost for them to try and even extract $1,000 from you would cost them much more then that... I would let them make the next major move or if you feel that strongly about it, then consult an atty....