Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I need help! I have a site that ranks on the first page for all the keywords I was going after, but I recently received a Cease letter because I have a trademarked name in my domain name. I didn't know this was wrong.
Now I am scrambling to make a new website, utilizing the same content from the old website with the same url names.
I plan on doing a 301 redirect from the old domain url, to the new domain url.
Then I'll go back to all the places that have a link to the old website domain and change them to the new website domain.
Is what I am planning to do the correct course of action?
Is Google going to recognize that the old domain is now moving to the new domain and thus transfer the page rank as well as keep intact the search engine position?
If not, what would cause Google to lower the rankings?
What could be done to improve on my strategy?
I could really use some help because the more I read on this subject, the more I get confused.
Thanks in advance.
However, don't expect your pagerank to be transferred immediately - this will take some time, maybe 2-4 months...
Good luck!
.S.
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} olddomain.com [NC]
RewriteCond (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
If you don't have access to Apache Mod_Rewrite or ISAPI Rewrite, get it. ISAPI Rewrite for Microsoft's IIS is only like $99/server. We got it for something like $49 or $59 per server because we purchased about 30 copies for our farm. Best investment ever. Not sure about Mod_Rewrite for Apache since I haven't worked on Unix in about 20yrs. I'm guessing it comes already bundled w/ Apache.
[edited by: tedster at 7:38 am (utc) on Dec. 17, 2008]
[edit reason] de-link the example url [/edit]
Count yourself lucky for not having to hand over the domain name AND it's entire contents and then still get sued and slapped with a judgment to stay off the net. Such things aren't unheard of so don't waste any time vanishing from their radar.
# Redirect (www.)example.com to www.newexample.com
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ [newexample.com...] [R=301,L]
This will take care of both example.com/... AND www.example.com/... incoming links...
Hope this helps.
.S.
Count yourself lucky for not having to hand over the domain name...
Yes. One thing that's important to understand about 301 redirects is that you need to retain ownership and control of the old domain in order for the redirects to work.
It's not like you can just declare a redirect from oldexample.com to newexample.com and then you're done with it. You need to keep the old domain registered, with its DNS A-records addressing your site's IP.
If you removed the DNS setup for the old domain, then requests for the domain wouldn't be routed to your site, and you'd lose your old linking credits.
You need to keep the old domain registered, and the DNS records pointing to your host, but without any content - only the .htaccess file that holds the code I posted above.
Good Luck!
.S.
I didn't think I was doing anything wrong, to be honest. Let's say that the trademark name is widgets. I thought it was just illegal to buy the website widgets.com. In my situation, I bought a website called widgetsonline.com. I had no clue that this was in violation of the act. Also, I wasn't even using the domain in ill faith. I was promoting/marketing there products, not redirecting to some spam site or something not related. Not sure why they had such a problem with it. I look at it as free advertising for them. But they said I am not an authorized retailer for them.
Very confusing how companies work.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for your quick reply's.
Very confusing how companies work.
Anyway, it is their trademark
Why make a new website?
These are the only steps you need.
1. Buy the new domain name.
2. Point the new domain name at the exact same server where the existing site is hosted.
3. Set up the .htaccess file to redirect requests for the old domain name to point to the new domain name, retaining the same folder and file paths throughout.
Use this version to ensure that all non-canonical names are correctly redirected:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} [b]![/b]^www\.example\.new\.com[b]$[/b] [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.new.com/$1 [R=301,L]OR this one (Important: the conditions below are NOT to be end-anchored):
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)[b]?[/b]example\.old\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.new.com/$1 [R=301,L]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.new\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.new.com/$1 [R=301,L]4. Change the site logo to reflect the new name.
5. Edit the content pages, contact page, etc, to reflect the new name.
So, no new content, retains the same structure, and cleanly redirects old URLs to the equivalent new URL.
This could be actioned in a day, except that I would leave a clear 48 hours between steps 2 and 3, but you could start editing the content (steps 4 and 5) at any time.
Actually Walmart with its army of lawyers was unable to shut the suck site down, and eventually bought the site from the original owners.
So I guess if you turn the original site into a parody or customer complaint site, then they have no trademark claim, as it is falls under free speech.
This does not help your business, but if you are just starting up, and had not invested to much at this stage, it may be sweet revenge.
Another option, is to try to negotiate a royaly arragement for using the trademark, which could also be used as a delaying tactic, to get your act together and have the PR and links transfered to the the new domain over the next three to four months.
Sometimes hiring a lawyer, to play the delaying game is worth while.
Just food for thought, and unless this is a hobby business, that you can shutdown tomorrow, always seek profession legal advice.
Oh yeah, while you are at it. You should actually block the IP address of the company and the legal firm representing them.
I kind of shot myself in the foot because I received a letter from a marketing manager about a month ago asking to resolve the matter, but I delayed in writing back and that is when I received the letter from the law firm asking me to act within 7 days.
Interesting note: I did some searching for the main keyword and went through the first ten pages and found 17 other affiliate sites that are a lot less appealing than mine, not offering any good content or a nice user experience. Something tells me they are not going after those one's because they are not on the first page like I am.
It's also interesting that they said in the letter that they are trying to protect their brand image. I can tell you that they are not trying very hard because most of the affiliate websites I found doing a search have been around for years.
I am thinking out loud here, but if I do what was suggested and have a new website that doesn't include any part of their trademarks in the domain, am I then safe? Could they still go after me for mentioning their products on my website? If they threatened to do so, am I not covered under Amendment 1?
Anyway, I appreciate all the input on this. This is my first run in with a cease letter and it's kind of scary.
