When I was born I was christened <with a name, that in part, includes the letters of a famous company>. This is a female name of Yoruba origin and sometimes last year, I registered a domain name with my name in it.
Two days ago, <the big company> sent me a threatening "cease and desist letter" about the domain.
I have replied them and I stood my grounds that <snip> is my name so I have the right to hold the domain.
Does anybody know more about the laws in terms of domain names? Do you think I should "cease and desist"? What do you think I should do?
Many thanks.
[edited by: Webwork at 6:52 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2007]
[edit reason] It's in your best interest to not "name the name" and that also fits our policy. [/edit]
Anyway - time to get a lawyer. UDRPs are cheap, and tend to favor larger companies.
More pertinent is the situation that while parked, the site in this thread showed/shows (via archive.org) contextual ads for that company's products
As they say its not the winning that counts but the taking part. And that's the bit that you have to question whether its worth the fight.Domain names are cheap get another.
If the OP fought and won she would still (probably) not be able to use the domain for anything related to the trademark owner.
Why have a domain that's limited to what you can put on it?
Your domain name is in "redemptionPeriod" status and if you want to keep it, you'd better get your skates on and renew it otherwise you'll loose it anyway.
Now, if your doing something shady like selling a product or selling a knock off product, then they will fry you.
BTW, it does not matter who was born first. What matters is that you legally purchased the domain.
There is a great example at lawrefs that covers exactly what is happening to you.
Don't cave in!
And I just want to point out that in the Nissan case the little guy won.
And both parties shouldered their respective costs. For some people, I guess
that's not a problem.
What's wrong with wanting to own a vanity domain?
While normally there's nothing wrong with having a domain name, certain laws
and applicable decisions limit their uses. Trademark infringement is an inherent
risk in registering domain names.
Learn from them. And have a lawyer handy if you wish to defend your rights
to it.
David
One of my domains is my last name, the name of 2 counties and a city in the midwest, and being the family genealogist I knew who they were all named after.
Anyway, first they offered to buy the domain and I mistakenly shot back a big fat number assuming they would choke and move on. Bad idea because it looked like I was holding it up for ransom money so they fired back a nastygram that they were going to claim I was cyber-squatting if I didn't cough it up for a much smaller amount.
Realizing my faux pas I countered with taking out a full page ad in the city they did business containing all their email threats trying to extort the family name away from a direct descendant of the man that the city was named after.
Never heard back from them again and that was 11 years ago.
The moral of this cautionary tale is to never respond to requests to buy your domain unless you actually want to sell it because you don't know the motivation of the person behind the request and your response can set of an avalanche of unintended consequences.
Your domain name is in "redemptionPeriod" status and if you want to keep it, you'd better get your skates on and renew it otherwise you'll loose it anyway.
IMHO the name should be renewed and kept. Buckling under when a big fist is shaken at you is a bad state of mind to get into, and can end up becoming a very bad lifetime habit of cowardice.
There is absolutely no hint of any kind of trademark infringement. You can read up on that at Chilling Effects. The domain/trademark infringement FAQ is particularly helpful.
[chillingeffects.org...]
In your place I'd definitely pay the few bucks to renew it (even if I had to borrow what I think is the extra $80 for redemption), I'd make up a pretty little header graphic, and I'd put up a blog (Blogger is easiest and is the most easily portable if hosting is changed) in a /subdirectory/ like Matt Cutts does - and he recommends doing that in case a site is ever used for something additional, which yours will be.
I'd also put up a /gallery/ with some of your current portfolio items, and a nice little bio saying you're a student.
That's the first and foremost criteria for a trademark infringement claim: that there's a chance of confusion.
"You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without permission. What about “Warner Brothers”? Do you own that too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor’s eye, and even before there had been other brothers—the Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brothers, an outfielder with Detroit; and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (This was originally “Brothers, Can You Spare a Dime?” but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other one, and whittled it down to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”)"
[chillingeffects.org...]
Anyone can C&D really cheap and hope someone will get scared but it will cost them around $3000+ to UDRP so don't worry about it until that happens. If they are crazy enough to drop $3000+ to try to steal the domain name from you, there is a free template form or two you can find to respond yourself (it's free, except for your time and hassle).
There's a 50/50 chance you'll lose a UDRP. The judges are supposed to be neutral but since 99% of their business comes from Fortune 500, they tend to side with big business when they can so they will get more business (UDRP business is huge with huge profits and a big backlog).
(oh and IANAL, thank goodness, so take this as you will)
[edited by: amznVibe at 3:05 pm (utc) on Oct. 9, 2007]
Even though its your given name what's the point of keeping the domain?
Well what is the point of yielding to "Big Company"?
An individual has as much right as any corporation. Just because corporations tend to have more lawyers it doesn't make them in the right.
Your Nissan example is a strange one as the little guy prevailed in that case.
If it's a genuine situation on both sides, and that neither is particularly trying to profit from the other, it should be pretty easy to solve with a casual chat.
A lot of things go to court and escalade from there, with large legal expenses, while they could probably have been sorted out in a few minutes over the phone.
In the case of Nissan, I can easily see both points of view.
Easy to blame the big company, but thinking about it, the truth is that Nissan computers is nothing but unknown, unlike Nissan Motors and that when visitors type "Nissan.com", most of them expect to land on Nissan motors website.
As a result, owning the domain name "nissan.com" is quite possibly hurting "Nissan computers" more than it helps them, because it generates a volume (possibly large) of utterly irrelevant trafic and visitors who will feel deceived unless you provide abundant justification of your rights to the domain name - but then you are no longer selling your products, which is exactly what happenned to the "nissan.com" website. 2 years after the resolution of the court-case, the most prominent spot of the page is still devoted to advertising the law suit with Nissan Motors, not to sell Nissan Computer's products.
And regardless of the fact Nissan Motors does not have any claim to it, it remains that not having the domain www.nissan.com is probably hurting them by confusing their customers.
I don't know the particulars but you sound like a squatter to me. Ask them for a fair price for the name and sell it seems like a reasonable way to end it.
If it's a genuine situation on both sides, and that neither is particularly trying to profit from the other, it should be pretty easy to solve with a casual chat.
Ask them for a fair price for the name
If it's a genuine situation on both sides, and that neither is particularly trying to profit from the other, it should be pretty easy to solve with a casual chat.
too late for that. The other side has already written a letter with demands.
I don't think so. You can just call the guy and explain the situation. And the odds of that working out are pretty good.
A lot of people are so afraid to communicate, they think the only solution possible is a fight or a litigation or a war or whatever other nonsense.
They never realize that a vast number of people go through life without ever paying a dollar's worth in lawyer fees, and without folks stepping on their toes either.
Sometimes, it is necessary to call upon justice to defend yourself and your rights, but you would be surprised how many things can be solved with straight, clean communication.
To give you just an example of that, I received a summons from the tax office. They were extremely pissed of and ordered me to pay X,000 + interests (because they had been sending a whole bunch of letters and warnings to a wrong address, they felt entitled to add 500% interests).
I called them up. Had a nice chat, asked them to see what they could do to help me solve the situation. They told me they would get back to me on that. I called them back a couple times, had a couple other nice talks. On my last call, I found out they had not only cancelled the interests as I asked them to, but they also cancelled the main amount as well because I was so nice about it.
It's amazing what you can do with a straightforward, honest communication. When you assume people will be nice, you often find out they are.
So no, I don't buy that a copyright claim over an unused domain name kept aside for hobby purposes is an issue so dramatic it requires legal proceedings.
Ask them for a fair price for the namethat's how you instantly lose in this situation. As soon as you ask for money from them, you're a cybersquatter.
Not necessarily. If you honestly are not a cybersquatter - a despicable species by the way - it's pretty easy to explain the situation.
Once they realize you are not cybersquatting, odds are good they would themselves offer a fair amount for the name, if they still want it.
For those suggesting price negotiations, go read some UDRPs sometime.
Remember, these people didn't start with a casual email or phone call, they started with a C&D, they are not "let's talk about this" people. You probably need to do one of two things 1. do not respond and see if they escalate 2. retain an attorney familiar with domain name law
But IMHO it would be fairly unwise to respond with even the shortest of emails on your own (IANAL) Some domain name lawyers will give you initial "free" advice before you need to retain them, you might want to take advantage of that instead of just asking here.
Then again, the name in question is still in Redemption status.
Go figure.
See Can I register my domain name as a trade mark? [itma.org.uk]
and
See The threats trap [website-law.co.uk]
Sorry for scaring you, I'll get my coat.
and yay you won ;)
