We purchased a .co.uk domain for a new business which we started up in October 2012. Exactly 22 days later, the .com TLD of this domain was purchased by this company (according to WhoIs): They have simply put up a DomainSponsor-powered page. The domain isn't exactly one which should be 'snapped up' as it consists of three words which are hardly popular keywords and totalling 17 characters. This is the name of our business, but it is not a trademark. We had every intention of purchasing the .com domain, and to be fair I'm not sure why we didn't do it at the time of purchasing the .co.uk variant. Now, where do we stand on getting the .com domain into our own hands. Are we at the mercy of paying an extortionate fee for it? Or do we have any legal standing in that this company have purchased the domain very soon after we did purely to profit out of it?
I do not think that you have much ground to stand on. Unless they try to piggyback off of your domain. or if you had a registered trademark. This is why you should have registered the .com first imho. Sadly if you snooze you loose. They do seem to have a proper website built at the moment. Visiting their website they are using the "registered trademark symbol" which could be "bad news for you" I would look deeper into this if I were you. If they are legit in their trademark they could go after YOU, reguardless of when they registered the trademark as far as I understand. If they are using the registered trademark symbol when it is not really registered, that could be an issue for them. Good luck either way.
Thanks for the response pal, however the URL (and site) in the Who Is isn't anything to do with my domain, it's purely their contact details with a completely irrelevant domain from mine.
That is a bitter lesson for you and your members, your .com is always the best to get no matter your Geo Location and now if care is not taken they will file GDRP on you and they may get you in trouble if you do not know your ground you better look for a GDRP lawyer to look after the issue before it is too late. If you are found guilty, the list you can pay for the right owner of the trademark is $100,000 only. Well, cheer up.
OMG, I cannot believe this. This company is in Oklahoma City (That's where I live too) and this the second time I hear of this company. They are not very famous because their site onnowtv.com does not get no traffic at all. Their Alexa is in the 14 millions too. I wish there is something I can do for you. Maybe hold a sign next to their office saying that this people steel other people's domain names. If I'm not mistaken, that address is of a house not a business????
Buying and flipping of domain name is a legal business but in the case of trademark it becomes a different ball game. If I may ask you, have you a trademark ownership of any kind before you light up an explosive that could finish you up? My sound advice is either you drop that domain for them or get a lawyer to help you out of this issue that could later lead to a big bomb shell on your business. Do not go to their house and ferment trouble; please don't do that it could lead to a more serious problem. You can as well check if they have trademark ownership on the name at trademarkia.com if they don’t it now depends on who get it first. If they don’t you can register the trademark and ask them to handover the domain to you. Cheers.
I lm sorry to have sounded so bad, it was due to how I felt at that moment. Accept my appology for that statement. Cheers.