About a year ago, I was interested in purchasing a well known Cruise Vacation franchise. The company name I will give the fake name of: Cruise###
I noticed that the company had Cruise###.com registered for their site, but Cruise-###.com was available. So, I registered it with GODADDY.
Later, I decided I didn't want to do the Cruise Franchise. However, the name has still been sitting there doing nothing. Today I get a cease and desist letter from a CRUISE### attorney. They are accusing me of making a profit from their trademark, and accusing me of serving up Pay for Performance ads with the Cruis-###.com domain for my own profit.
I've never made any kind of profit from this domain. The only thing I have to show for it is the registration fees I had to pay OUT to register the domain. It does appear that Godaddy is using the page to serve ads. I didn't even realize this until today as I have never even visited the domain before.
I have no problem with them feeling that it violates their trademark, or ICANN or Cybersquatting laws. But, the part of the letter that accuses me of making a profit from the domain really makes me angry.
Here is part of the letter:
snipped
Do any of you have any advice in this situation?
Should I just transfer the domain over to them and forget it?
I really hate when someone accuses me of something. I suppose there was some kind of wording in the Goddady sign up letter that stated they would be using the domain for advertising until I did something with it. I never really read all that stuff. Anyone else ever have this happen?
[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 11:00 pm (utc) on May 7, 2004]
[edit reason] No email quotes, TOS 9 [/edit]
Neither Cruise### no their attorney has any idea of the difference between you and your registrar, as they're not in the web business. So they blame you, because you're the one who registered the name. I don't think it's a personal thing.
If you're no longer interested in the cruise biz, the easiest thing to do is just transfer the name to them and be done with them. Path of least brain damage for all...
most of mine are with Godaddy, so i just assumed it was. But, same situation either way.
I wrote them and told them I would forward the domain to their website until it expired. Not sure if they will go for it or not, but we will see. It was the easiest method for now. Still makes me angry to get a letter accusing me of something like that.
A nice read.
