cease and desist ?? shit

[lowridertj]

plain and simple they have the name consumerreport trademarked

comply or be prepared to go bankrupt trying to prove otherwise in court

TJ

 

[diggy20]

If you use private registration on a domain like that, is it still easy for them to come after you?

 

[yuppy]

1) Consumer reports is a generic name, thus so it can be used by another entity so long as you ALWAY refer to yourself by your full name to avoid confusion.

2) Dont try to imitate their look.

3) tell them to fuck themselves.

diggy20: Yes it is. they can get it just as easily (20 bucks or so)

 

[yuppy]

I've been through it before. Is it in your real legal name? Either way transfer ownership to 'someone' in a non-extradition country.

Said person need not exist.

bad idea. if the person is not a real entity then the registration will be revoked likely.

 

[yuppy]

and if you fight them (or offer to settle) they wont pursue it because the amount of money it would cost them is not going to be worth it....

 

[yuppy]

And their reply will be, "See you in court." Then you'll be stuck with legal fees and a nice big lawsuit for registering their trademarked term in bad faith.

absolutely truth. that shows bad faith (that kind of reply)

 

[chezzie]

Sorry to interrupt this tread, but i have a question wich is related to this subject..

I have registered on godaddy the domain called: "AMAZONABLE.COM"
had not tought on the trademark issue..
I live in Belgium, Europe...should i use this domain as an amazon-affiliate to sell ther products ? Can they take me down ?

TIA

 

[zoux]

googlelady made a site with a domain with the word amazon, she had some troubles, she had to change the domain
some extracts:
amazon:


"It has recently come to our attention that you are using a domain name in our Associates Program that contains a variation and/or misspelling of the name AMAZON, including but not limited to AMAZONWALL.COM.
"
"If, however, we do not hear from you regarding the above within ten days from the date of this email, we will have no alternative but to terminate your associates account effective as of the date of this email and you will not receive payment for Q4-2007."

googlelady.com/578/case-study-problems-barriers/

 

[dana_w]

I'm surprised no-one else has suggested this yet...consult a lawyer and find out what your rights and your options are, for God's sake. It could be that you need to turn over the name to them right away, it could be they don't have a legal leg to stand on. But you won't know until you speak to an attorney with a specialty in this field.
And keep this in mind - you may be right, but if they were to take you to court over it, do you have enough money to fight a corporation that keeps attorneys on retainer? The law isn't always fair. In some cases if you win - IF - they would be responsible for your attorneys fees. But again, you won't know until you seek an attorney.
As for not giving the domain name back to them - couldn't their attorney complain to the domain name registrar? I don't think that domain name registrars are famous for sticking up for the little guy.

 

[lukelafaque]

Don't make the mistake of offering to sell it to them. That is considered bad faith with ICAAN. It cost them $1500 or more to open an ICAAN complaint to have you "give it to them". Ignore them and build out the site with something other than consumer report type content. If you use "Gooble" then they will fill in the blanks for you. AND see an Attorney if you really care about the name. It's not that great of a name and I've wasted 8 minutes on it.

 

[yuppy]

you cant sue to get into the amazon affilaite program. competing for keywords (amazon) is explicitly against the TOS.

 

[themagician]

Copyright law does NOT protect domain names.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit organization that has assumed the responsibility for domain name system management, administers the assignation of domain names through accredited registers.

Names can not be copyrighted, but they can be trademarked.

IF the other site's name is trademarked, and if it's very similar, and if you are selling similar products or providing information of the same type, you could have a problem.

As a first step, check their site. Do they say anywhere that their name is trademarked? If they do, you have a choice. You can wait for them to come after you, or you can change your name now.

'...A little story:

There is a famous UK bank which has a real estate division. This real estate division has a most distinctive name and logo and is known to everyone throughout the U.K. through television, newspaper and magazine advertising as well as a chain of offices in every major city as well as many smaller towns.

When I was working in real estate in The Canary Islands a rather feisty Irishman opened a real estate office and called himself by the same name as this real estate company in the U.K. Either they found out, or more likely, he was grassed up but they told him to cease and disist immediately. However, what they hadn't realised was that he had legally registered the name in Spain, which the U.K. company neglegently had not and so there was nothing they could do other than huff and puff and make meaningless threats.

If you are prepared to fight this, I am confident there is little they can do, especially as you are outside the U.S. However, you might like to retaliate with the suggestion that your legal people have assured you you can continue to use the name registered to you or, as a generous unprejudiced offer, you will consider transferring the name to them if they would care to purchase it. Then we shall see how much it is worth to them.

My feelings are they screwed up and hope to scare you into submission. Furthermore, although it was unintentional on your part, you have dropped lucky and could make some serious money out of first making them squirm and then selling the domain name to them at least at a price to include compensation to you.

All that said, you ARE using their trademark, although trademark law doesn't grant ownership of the mark. As long as you aren't confusing people into thinking you are affiliated with the company or into buying a product they think is made by the company when it really isn't you are supposed to be okay.

Unfortunately, even if you follow all the rules if you make the company mad there's nothing stopping them from filing a lawsuit. The suit in that case would be without merit, but you'd still have to defend yourself and there's enough grey area that they might get lucky and win, or at least drag it out enough to bankrupt you first.

themagician

 

[Tom]

They sent it via email? Screw them.

Option 1: Delete it.
Option 2: Reply with an error message that appears automated (The email box you provided in invalid, etc.).

 

[nebuLa]

My advice would be to just give them the domain and concentrate on making some money. The time and wondering what they are going to do next isn't worth the $7 domain name. They will most likely contact your registrar and/or your hosting company and cause trouble anyways. Just ask yourself is it worth it. I've been in the same boat with eh*rm*ny. I bought a domain with their name in it, made about $800 per day with it for about 2 weeks and their lawyers sent a letter asking for the domain. Basically they said if I didn't give the domain to them, I would forfeit my affiliate commissions and be sued for copyright infringement. I thought it was decent they offered to still pay my commissions being they were pretty high. I signed the waiver and sent them the domain. You're in a better boat than I was in. I would just give them the domain and move on.

 

[vmedia]

related to this topic - a commercial business has registered my son's name as their domain. their business name is one letter different than my son's first and last name with a dot com at the end - so it's a mis-spelling of their company name. can i simply trademark my son's name and demand they transfer this domain to me? is it that simple? what recourse do i have if they just tell me to get bent?

 

[bargain]

in my experience all they can do is pay 1500 usd to pull a WIPO dispute against you. if they attempt to litigate in usa courts then ignore it, they cant do anything to you because you are overseas. the outcome of the WIPO would perhaps be that they get the domain, perhaps not. either way it wont cost you anyhting.

 

[yuppy]

related to this topic - a commercial business has registered my son's name as their domain. their business name is one letter different than my son's first and last name with a dot com at the end - so it's a mis-spelling of their company name. can i simply trademark my son's name and demand they transfer this domain to me? is it that simple? what recourse do i have if they just tell me to get bent?

no because you cant trademark someone elses tradename then sue them for it. thats one of those things that the trademark laws are designed to protect people from.

 

[Tilt4832]

I think I'm F'd

So, I own a few dozen domains in the form of regiontrademarkedname.com regiontrademarkednames.com regiontrademarkednamesubset.com I had in mind taking their idea and making it fun, more social, like putting ning in a subdomian and having a blog as the TLD.

So, I gather that the only way I might be able to get away with that is to turn the TLD blog into a review site of TM site or a tourist/travel/ site, any thing other than what the TM site is doing? And even then the C&D order could arrive.

I do live in the U.S. and TMD is a U.S. corp.

I'm not too invested, so I guess I could take the sites BH and not care if they get banned or not.

As I've been typing this I did some research, some of the regiontrademarkedname.com sites that I did not pick up are being used for promotion of REGION......, others are using a DNS redirect to TMD, I don't see how the TDM redirects are making money but the really interesting thing is that TMD is not protecting their TM.

So, is it time to move to the Bahamas? Keep the investment low and use domains for anything other than what TMD is doing, sell domains off on DP. Keep the dream of a more fun site and just do a redirect to ning with tons of disclaimers.

Or?

Thanks all,

T

 

[vmedia]

uhhh, its not a tradename. its my kids name. they registered my kids name but their tradename is different. example - my kid is bubbajoe and they run a business called bubbajos. they registered bubbajoe.com and bubbajos.com

no because you cant trademark someone elses tradename then sue them for it. thats one of those things that the trademark laws are designed to protect people from.

 

[vmedia]

you should somewhat develop the domains and flip them on DP. let the new owners worry about it...

I think I'm F'd

So, I own a few dozen domains in the form of regiontrademarkedname.com regiontrademarkednames.com regiontrademarkednamesubset.com I had in mind taking their idea and making it fun, more social, like putting ning in a subdomian and having a blog as the TLD.

So, I gather that the only way I might be able to get away with that is to turn the TLD blog into a review site of TM site or a tourist/travel/ site, any thing other than what the TM site is doing? And even then the C&D order could arrive.

I do live in the U.S. and TMD is a U.S. corp.

I'm not too invested, so I guess I could take the sites BH and not care if they get banned or not.

As I've been typing this I did some research, some of the regiontrademarkedname.com sites that I did not pick up are being used for promotion of REGION......, others are using a DNS redirect to TMD, I don't see how the TDM redirects are making money but the really interesting thing is that TMD is not protecting their TM.

So, is it time to move to the Bahamas? Keep the investment low and use domains for anything other than what TMD is doing, sell domains off on DP. Keep the dream of a more fun site and just do a redirect to ning with tons of disclaimers.

Or?

Thanks all,

T