Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
Background
I have a well established website since 200 and a recognised brand for a particular field where the domain describes the type of people that uses the field (lets say it's drug customer.com).
I was approached by a company that sold drug equipment and supplies and therefore we looked into setting up an affiliate site - which they then went out and purchased the .co.uk of this url which is called "drug customer store .co.uk".
To cut a long story short I was not happy with the way they were setting the affiliate earnings scheme up as there were no repeats, no tracking if customers went straight to the site using my brand as the domain etc etc. and decided not to go with them.
So emailed them to say that no hard feelings - we had done work, they had done design work, and as no deal unless they allowed some of the affiliate stuff that I wanted, then we shoudl call it quits.
I then asked to buy the domain in recompense of their buying purely to use for our partnership. I offered £200 which I thought was more than fair!
They said they wanted £2000 based on work expended etc etc so I said no as I had done a fair amount of work also. Quid pro quo.
I then checked about a week later and they still were using my design and brand etc. SO I emailed them and basically advised them that the design was mine as was the use of the brand in the domain name and I wanted them to cease all use of the site.
They have since changed the design but they still operate the site on the domain. I have said that I am happy for them to have a holding page with a disclaimer and links both to my site and to their store... but they will only do a small footnote disclaimer.
I am now considering whether it is worth the hassle going legal...no legals have been signed so I was not committed to working with them. They did not ask about the domain they simply went and bought it.
So I would like to ask for opinions on what I should/can/can't do...
I am of the opinion to try and spook him by sending him a cease and desist letter from my laywer....
Any ideas?
Do you have a limited company in that name?
Have you traded under that name, i.e bank accounts etc?
Let's say I sold water and you came along and set up a website called 'water-drinkers' dot whatever.
There's nothing that I can do.
Could their lawyer boil it down to that scenario?
You may not like this, but...
£200 may not really be all that much. The other company/party contacted you, discussed things, looked into a suitable domain to buy, bought it, then spent time designing and developing a site expecting a long partnership. They did this instead of working on another project/venture. Companies do have overheads and time is money. £200 doesn't really go all that far these days.
It does not (and should not) matter to the other company that you've spent time and effort on it as well - because you were the one who decided to cancel the project (for perfectly valid reasons).
I'm not sure how best to handle this - but you should also see that, from the other company's perspective, £200 may not seem that much.
The first thing to decide is whether you need the domain. If not (and you didn't before) then just ask them to remove any reference to your company and move on.
You could also try to negiotate with the company and reach a compromise. If you have a legal claim on the domain then you stand in better stead - but it will still cost for arbitration and take time. If you can live without the domain, do so. Otherwise it may useful to try negiotating first. Hope this helps.
Your case seems strong and I assume you have the correspondance between yourself and them.
And the end of the day they will try and broker the transfer for a reasonable price, for a .co.uk that should be around £500...
Actually got better than that maybe - the site is PR6 due to their linking and a few of their associate sites - so have settled for a disclaimer - which obviously carries a link direct to my site ;)
TW
