Australian company demanding I transfer my domain to them

Are they entitled to this

[jmorgan]

Very big Australian (billion dollar) company has a product "widgets".

I own the domain widgets.com which has content about "widgets".

They say I am infringing their rights and have demanded (using their lawyers) that I transfer the domain to them.

Are they entitled to do this?

Note that we are talking about widgets.com and not widgets.com.au, which if it was the latter, I would say they would be entitled to request this since Australian laws are different when it comes to .com.au domains.

For the record, I am an Australian so they could easily look me up if they wanted to.

[matrix_jan]

Under which country is the domain registered?

If it's about "their widgets," then most probably you're in trouble. Your best win will be keeping the domain without any mentioning of "their widgets" in it (think nissan.com). If it's registered say in Lichtenstein, then good luck with taking the domain from your hands ;)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Is the product exclusive to them or are there other companies where you can get "widgets"?

[jmorgan]

No it's not exclusive. In fact, it's actually a fairly generic term. I could get a lawyer to make a fair case for keeping the domain but I don't have the time or money to do this.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

From what you have told us (generic term) I would say that you don't need a lawyer, they do! ;)

Let's see if we have this right. Is the situation something like you having books.com and Amazon claiming the domain name?

[Leosghost]

It is mostly going to depend on if they have registered it as a trademark in Australia..and what for..and what you are doing with, it if they have..

That will determine if they would be successful if they make a complaint to ICAAN ( actually it is usually WIPO who deal with it )..who then appoint a "panel"..whose members are the ones ( sometimes it can be a "panel" of one :-) who get to decide...

Here is a link ( In English as opposed to French for a a change ;) to a case that I was looking at yesterday..read it carefully , it will give you an idea of how it all works and what are judged, as criteria, to reassign a domain name, to someone other than the original registrant..

[wipo.int...]

HTH :)

[bhartzer]

This sounds like reverse domain name hijacking by the company. If you owned the domain before they got a trademark on the name, then you did not register it in bad faith.

Even if the name is trademarked, if you registered the domain before the tm application, then you are entitled to the domain.

Look up the recent saveme.com udrp decision, it is just like what you are describing.