Can I register a domain with a branded product?
- Thread starter jamesyboy
- Start date
Oalddesign
Regular Member
- Apr 22, 2011
- 269
- 14
Well if they have copyright on the name it is probably not a good idea to do that,
geargrinder
Newbie
- Dec 29, 2009
- 13
- 13
Instead of suing you they will likely file a case with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) who has authority in these types of trademark issues across international borders. It will cost the company $1200 or so plus a lawyer to file the documents with WIPO. WIPO will notify your registrar (like GoDaddy) who will in turn notify you. You will also get a letter from WIPO at the snail mail address you have registered for that domain. You can visit the WIPO website to see the official complaint and you will have a certain period of time to respond online. You don't have to pay any fees. You don't need a lawyer.
If you feel you have a case to make then you can respond with your reasons. It is good to look through the past cases on the WIPO site (they post them all) to see what kind of arguments work. Pretty interesting reading.
A WIPO judge is assigned to the case and he will look at the explanations and also do some research on his own to validate. Even if you don't file a response WIPO could decide in your favor. However, if the other party has a registered trademark and you have a domain that directly matches or you are using it in such a way that a normal person could be confused, then they will almost always decide in the trademark holder's favor. The only exceptions might be common words that some company has trademarked that could mean something else too and you are not using it for the same meaning that was trademarked.
If they decide against you, then they will email you and also your registrar. Your registrar will notify you that they will transfer the domain in so many days (15?) and when the time comes, it will be moved. However, until the new owner changes the DNS it will continue to point to your site.
Can you tell I have been through this myself?
I had one site that I lost in a WIPO dispute that the big dumb company didn't change the DNS for over 6 months and I made quite a lot of revenue on it during that time.
Anyhow, if that happens that they take your domain, there is no cost, except the lost domain registration fee. Of course they could try to sue you for damages to their reputation and then you end up paying court costs or whatever.
One thing to NOT do is to offer to sell the domain to the trademark owner as that is taken by WIPO as a sure sign of domain-squatting, which will get your domain yanked, no further evidence needed.
If you feel you have a case to make then you can respond with your reasons. It is good to look through the past cases on the WIPO site (they post them all) to see what kind of arguments work. Pretty interesting reading.
A WIPO judge is assigned to the case and he will look at the explanations and also do some research on his own to validate. Even if you don't file a response WIPO could decide in your favor. However, if the other party has a registered trademark and you have a domain that directly matches or you are using it in such a way that a normal person could be confused, then they will almost always decide in the trademark holder's favor. The only exceptions might be common words that some company has trademarked that could mean something else too and you are not using it for the same meaning that was trademarked.
If they decide against you, then they will email you and also your registrar. Your registrar will notify you that they will transfer the domain in so many days (15?) and when the time comes, it will be moved. However, until the new owner changes the DNS it will continue to point to your site.
Can you tell I have been through this myself?
I had one site that I lost in a WIPO dispute that the big dumb company didn't change the DNS for over 6 months and I made quite a lot of revenue on it during that time.
Anyhow, if that happens that they take your domain, there is no cost, except the lost domain registration fee. Of course they could try to sue you for damages to their reputation and then you end up paying court costs or whatever.
One thing to NOT do is to offer to sell the domain to the trademark owner as that is taken by WIPO as a sure sign of domain-squatting, which will get your domain yanked, no further evidence needed.
Mountaineer
Senior Member
- Oct 14, 2011
- 912
- 149
What will happen if we ask them the compensation amount to give up the domain for what we have invested so far in the project? I have heard many people have successfully "SOLD" such domains using this tactic.
Kaiser69
Regular Member
- Mar 19, 2010
- 248
- 111
You might get a C&D letter (cease-and-desist) or the company can just take your domain down without notice (through the registrar) -If you have a good way of monetizing the ‘trademark name' you should put the ‘trademark name' on a "sub-domain" to get around the trademark issue.
Example: trademarkname.isp1.com
You won't get much SEO love, but you could make money with paid traffic?
Example: trademarkname.isp1.com
You won't get much SEO love, but you could make money with paid traffic?
Lol. Remember Nissan's case against, ummm Nissan.com?
What a farce.
P.S. Love the avatar.
climertech
Junior Member
- Feb 25, 2011
- 135
- 43
the companies name is trademarked not copyright,you cant/dont copyright a name.
But from personal experience in the past few weeks i can tell you first hand,
You get a cute letter from a law firm not the company they don't even give you notice that there's any problem they just send lawyers after you,but it gets better this law firm specializes in recovering trademark infringing domains and has pull in the courts that decide how to rule(conveniently the guy that sent me a letter was a former president of the federal organization that handles trademark infringement cases), to summerize it's a letter that's 2-3 pages long accompanied by a copy of your website and copies of their trademarks that says you can either hand over the domain or be taken to court on any of the many charges they'd like to get you on,one they reference they can get up to 100,000$,after reviewing one of the laws in question that the domain violates if you request compensation you further incriminate yourself and they can say you bought it only to resell it to them for a profit/payoff(which is an even bigger lawsuit more money,charges and time involved because the government supports big business), and even if you decide to take it to court and by chance you actually win, all you do is keep a domain and don't get any money from the company so you wasted lawyer fees and all just to keep a domain that's worth 1% or less of all the fees involved and that's not even considering time
the only time you would be capable of getting them to buy it or use the domain at all is registering the domain name before the trademark was made and having a completely different company that you are using the domain for not letting it just sit,now you could get permission to use the domain name from the company but it's very unlikely
But from personal experience in the past few weeks i can tell you first hand,
You get a cute letter from a law firm not the company they don't even give you notice that there's any problem they just send lawyers after you,but it gets better this law firm specializes in recovering trademark infringing domains and has pull in the courts that decide how to rule(conveniently the guy that sent me a letter was a former president of the federal organization that handles trademark infringement cases), to summerize it's a letter that's 2-3 pages long accompanied by a copy of your website and copies of their trademarks that says you can either hand over the domain or be taken to court on any of the many charges they'd like to get you on,one they reference they can get up to 100,000$,after reviewing one of the laws in question that the domain violates if you request compensation you further incriminate yourself and they can say you bought it only to resell it to them for a profit/payoff(which is an even bigger lawsuit more money,charges and time involved because the government supports big business), and even if you decide to take it to court and by chance you actually win, all you do is keep a domain and don't get any money from the company so you wasted lawyer fees and all just to keep a domain that's worth 1% or less of all the fees involved and that's not even considering time
the only time you would be capable of getting them to buy it or use the domain at all is registering the domain name before the trademark was made and having a completely different company that you are using the domain for not letting it just sit,now you could get permission to use the domain name from the company but it's very unlikely
and to answer the quote the site i got a letter about was a review site with a positive review that wasn't even setup to be for profit at the time the letter was sent
Last edited:
- Aug 21, 2009
- 2,556
- 2,663
And what if you buy the domain from internetbs.net and get an offshore hosting?
climertech
Junior Member
- Feb 25, 2011
- 135
- 43
You still have WIPO and if the company is big enough they'll get your information, domain privacy is worth nothing.
climertech
Junior Member
- Feb 25, 2011
- 135
- 43
This was my situation i was #10 on google without trying but its not the only situation,if they look to create a seperate website for the product and do a domain name search and find you using it..then you got the same problem