i received C&D letter + 3560€ fine from powerball DE, please help!

[bizilux]

hi

ok so let me get into a background of this story real quick. me and one mate that i know, wanted to sell powerballs in germany, im from slovenia, and he is from germany, but currently lives in UK. so we registered domain, and put ecommerce site on it. everything was in english, not ready for sales or anything yet.

so before we went on, we wanted to know if we can sell them in germany, and how much the bulk price is.

so we contacted their headquarters in ireland and they told us that they already sold selling rights to someone for german market. so what we did? nothing, we left it as it was and moved on, didnt went on that site ever again since they told us that we cant market those powerballs in germany. we havent sold one single ball yet, hence i doubt there was even 1 visitor on that site. domain name is http://nsd-powerballs.de/ . that was back in january or february.


what happened today? i received a latter containing 10 pages of some german text... i dont know what is it about, i cant understand a single thing, google translate doesnt help much either, all i can see is that they want me to pay 3560?....(5100$) for some lawyer fee's or something like that i dont know.

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lets get one thing straight before we move on... they aint getting a single penny out of me. they can have the domain, i dont care for that, i never did.
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here are pictures of that letter if anyone can tell me what to do. i already contacted godaddy via their ticket system so that they can tell me what the fuck is going on... in english.

oh and please dont send me PM's since its 100% full because i have to renew my jrvip membership, write here please

page 1


page 2



page 3


page 4 - this is where they say something about 3560?



page 5



page 6



page 10 - i think that title means c&d in english

 

[bizilux]

Maybe you should cross out your name/address and the stick it back in the envelope and put it back in the mail stating wrong name/address? lol

On a serious side, I would be quite angry. Looking forward to what others will say on this matter. It looks like they are looking for a sucker to pay those fee's and maybe they sent you the letter so that you get scared and pay up?

yes thats what i mean, they are just looking for some suckers because lawyers dont have anything to do at this point, and they just have to fuck some fixed number of people per month so they can keep their jobs or something like that lol

 

[pyronaut]

What is the actual letter claiming though.

That you were selling the balls, or that you were just intending to?

If you are not selling them, or have not sold them yet, and did not intend to. I would take down the website and ignore it.

 

[ShadeDream]

Maybe you should cross out your name/address and the stick it back in the envelope and put it back in the mail stating wrong name/address? lol

On a serious side, I would be quite angry. Looking forward to what others will say on this matter but it looks like they are looking for a sucker to pay those fee's. Maybe they sent you the letter so that you get scared and pay up?

I thought that maybe they are going after you since you have registered the .de domain name but after doing some research, I don't know how accurate this is, but it appears that "Powerball" has not been registered as a trademark in Germany.

Go to:

http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/basicSearch.html

and enter in the name of the company/product.

 

[Gorush]

I read it all, it says this one guy is "the holder" of the words powerball. and u used it and u intended to sell THIS PRODUCT.

it says if u dont pay , they going to court

 

[Herbshack]

What is the actual letter claiming though.

That you were selling the balls, or that you were just intending to?

If you are not selling them, or have not sold them yet, and did not intend to. I would take down the website and ignore it.

I like this one. Realistically you are going to probably need to give them the domain, but they shouldn't get any money from you. Anyone can make websites like this, and it happens all the time.

**If they were REALLY serious this wouldn't be a C&D. It would be a summons. I'd just wipe my ass with it after you give them the domain.

 

[Humfred]

I'm a native German.

In the title of nsd-powerballs.de you use "Powerball Deutschland" and an your page you say that your shop is currently not available.

They think that there is a danger that you start selling them again and thats why they contact you, it is correct that they want 3560 for the lawyer.

You have to sign the neglect thing on the last page so that you won't do that again, or they are going to sue your a.s.s.


And they expect your answer until the 27 may.

 

[bizilux]

What is the actual letter claiming though.

That you were selling the balls, or that you were just intending to?

If you are not selling them, or have not sold them yet, and did not intend to. I would take down the website and ignore it.

i dont know what letter is claiming since its in german, but

i was not selling them, nor even intended to, website is already down, it was taken down by godaddy i think, so yeh thats it

I read it all, it says this one guy is "the holder" of the words powerball. and u used it and u intended to sell THIS PRODUCT.

it says if u dont pay , they going to court

i wasnt selling it, so they got that part wrong.

 

[Humfred]

They don't think you sold that stuff, they want you to take down the domain and give up all rights on it.

These bastards really want 3,5k just for consulting a lawyer, I hate the bureaucracy of my country.

 

[bizilux]

I'm a native German.

In the title of nsd-powerballs.de you use "Powerball Deutschland" and an your page you say that your shop is currently not available.

They think that there is a danger that you start selling them again and thats why they contact you, it is correct that they want 3560 for the lawyer.

You have to sign the neglect thing on the last page so that you won't do that again, or they are going to sue your a.s.s.


And they expect your answer until the 27 may.

hey thanks a lot

can you translate a bit more about that money though?

im fine with signing anything that i wont be doing it again or whatever, i wasnt even doing it in the first place but ok,

BUT they aint getting any money.

 

[zerocoolflo]

I'm a native German.

In the title of nsd-powerballs.de you use "Powerball Deutschland" and an your page you say that your shop is currently not available.

They think that there is a danger that you start selling them again and thats why they contact you, it is correct that they want 3560 for the lawyer.

You have to sign the neglect thing on the last page so that you won't do that again, or they are going to sue your a.s.s.


And they expect your answer until the 27 may.

Oh, the OP got away nicely, now just sing that paper xD

 

[Gorush]

they say ur are intending to. And YOU NEED TO GIVE Up the domain

 

[bizilux]

they say ur are intending to. And YOU NEED TO GIVE Up the domain

but what about those 3560 ??

im fine with giving away domain, but i will never in my fucking life pay those lawyer fee's

over my dead body

 

[vitosss]

I would just tell them to f... off

 

[bizilux]

I would just tell them to f... off

yeh i was thinking about that, but then they would just charge me with more lawyer consulting hahaha

 

[Humfred]

You have to pay 1760,20€ for the patent lawyer and the lawyer, plus 20€ for both for telecommunication and mail.

 

[ahiddenman]

This is the only Official Site: http://www.powerballs.com/

Contact them directly

 

[teflonbrain]

... I'd just wipe my ass with it after you give them the domain.

I don't think you can top that piece of advice.

I'm from the States, so I don't understand the relationships with the different countries, the EU, and cross jurisdiction and all that, but if you're from Slovenia, Powerball is out of Ireland, and the letter is from a firm in Germany, wouldn't you be out of their jurisdiction?

I wouldn't expect GoDaddy to do anything except complicate the situation. They are a pain in the ass themselves. They're known for taking domains after the least bit of spam complaints. They are NOT for the domain owner.

I would find someone to translate the letter for free, like a University student studying/teaching German, an embassy, somewhere so you at least know what it says. I would think that's important.

There's a saying in Internet Marketing--you're not really a marketer until you get a cease and desist notice. Congratulations, and welcome to the club.

 

[bizilux]

You have to pay 1760,20? for the patent lawyer and the lawyer, plus 20? for both for telecommunication and mail.

yeh i got that part, but how to avoid paying it? i mean i wont pay it thats for sure, i'd rather declare bankruptcy lol

 

[Humfred]

There is no way to avoid paying that.

You are going to court if you don't sign that, but you have to pay the lawyers.