Trademark violation - URL stealing?

[Thorshroom]

My website example.com which has been around since 1987 and is Trademarked has had someone take the name theexample.org, .net, .com..

Do I have a strong case here, its obvious this person is using our uniqueness to attract people to his site when people are coming looking for our site.

Should we seek legal action?

[edited by: engine at 2:33 pm (utc) on Feb. 14, 2005]
[edit reason] examplified [/edit]

[BigDave]

Wow, your website was around for 5 years before the web existed?

What you should seek is a legal opinion.

[VegasRook]

When you trademark something, you do so in a "category".

For example:

You trademark the name Sally Widgets for use in an espresso cafe.

Down the road you see a flower store called Sally Widgets. Do you have a claim? yes and no.

The general answer is no unless you submitted for a trademark in that field. However, you can take anyone to court for anything. Outspend the other party and who knows.

Also be aware of prior art. Let us say google.com never filed a trademark for "google" and you run out and try to trademark it. Later in the year, it gets approved. Is google.com violating your trademark? Nope. They existed prior to your trademark being approved.

You need to seek an IP (Intellectual Property) lawyer.

[Thorshroom]

Hehe oops, yeah 97 is what I meant to put.

Thanks for the advice, I think at this point I will seek legal counsel since the person who intentionally is trying to divert traffic from our website is not willing to listen to any reason.

Sigh I wish people weren't such jerks.

Thanks for the advice :)