Help! Am i in trouble?

OK,

so i have a recently registered domain that im gonna use for selling beats. Stupidly, I used keywords in the domain so probably flagged something somewhere. However, as I'm only using it as an easy way to take orders for people on my fb and other friends networks (who will get a % of profit for each order.) I though it would be okay, as i'm actively hiding it from google etc.

But, looking through the recent visitors logs I've noticed some strange ips and associated browsers and os;s (linux, windows NT). So i looked up the ip locations and they seem to be from various areas of the US, specifically boise, idaho. did a search and a company called markmonitor [cant post links, google them] which specialises in brand protection is based there, seems like too much of a coincidence. the only referrer for the site came from a multiple url opener, so i guess someone got a list of suspect domains and found mine.

So a few questions for those experienced in this area..

1) is this normal for such a domain?
2) Should I count it as a loss, drop the domain and register a completely new one without any keywords?
bearing in mind i'm not going to make a significant dent in their earnings, its a small time thing to perhaps make 3k then stop.
The domain was registered through proxy, but isnt offshore hosted or anything like that. (I figured that there will always be a trace due having to get the money out at somepoint)
3) get off the web completely and just market offline (apart from some gumtree(CL for the UK basically) listings?

Help and advice greatly appreciated, thanks!

If you continue, you will get a notice from the company who owns the domain sooner or later. Considering it was a brand protection company browsing your site. And 100% if you are selling replicas on the site itself.

Thats the job of brand protection.

Its like what amazon does. I had a domain with the word amazon in it, and got a notice from them saying I had to give it to them. They reinbursed me for the domain with a $10 amazon voucher

Patel said:

If you continue, you will get a notice from the company who owns the domain sooner or later. Considering it was a brand protection company browsing your site. And 100% if you are selling replicas on the site itself.

Thats the job of brand protection.

Its like what amazon does. I had a domain with the word amazon in it, and got a notice from them saying I had to give it to them. They reinbursed me for the domain with a $10 amazon voucher

Click to expand...

Yeah I guess, but do you get a warning and if you stop its all cool? I havent actually started yet, so haven't done anything wrong apart from take a few images. I can't be certain it was, was just the same city they're based in, and ip locations can often be wrong. just seems like a huge coincidence. and as its registered by proxy, will they get my details from the proxyreg company?

Also forgot to ask if blocking all referrers apart from one link from my facebook page (this is possible right?) and sending all other traffic to 404 or some parked page would work?

any more suggestions?

If the domain has a trademarked term in it, delete it immediately and get a new one without any trademarks. You don't want any legal trouble for something like that.

If the domain has a trademark, they would get to it sooner or later even if you were not using it for that, just trash it before you get a letter.

I would have to agree, trash it. As you noted it was stupid putting a bullseye on your back. Target keywords but in a different way.

If there is any advice I can ever give people when it comes to selling any kind of replicas, this is it:

- Better safe than sorry.

If you EVER have the thought that somebody may be onto you, or something seems out of place, get out, and start over. Let's be honest. In the USA, copyright infringement is worse then being a drug dealer. Just like a drug dealer, if you ever feel something suspicious, you STOP, and clean up.

You definitely painted a target on your back. Take this as a lesson, and be smarter next time dude.

Besides, if I can give you some simple advice on something like this, make a totally unrelated website, and have a secure members area where your resellers can log in, and order there securely, with SSL and all.

You are not in trouble. If it bothers you though just get rid of it and start with something that you feel more comfortable with for the long haul!

You are fine,
You might get a letter,
but that doesn't mean you have to surrender anything technically
Unless, Are you selling exactly what they sell? then it get sketch

and to the guy that surrendered the domain with amazon in the name
I don't think you had to surrender anything
There are people that buy speculative domains that are similar to other names and make big bucks selling them to the companys

Like look at the Band The Tea Party, THe political party owns the trademark, but the band owned the site. And they got letters like every week for the party to get the site, but they held on to it up on till a couple weeks ago

Yeah thanks for the responses guys, decided to ditch it and start again thinking before I do anything. Used to sell drugs and was less paranoid about that! Just read up on some counterfeit stories on the web and seeing loads of people going to jail for years.. not up for that.
And thought about having a secure members area, but not sure how that would affect sales, etc.

Any ideas on how to legally monetize the domain, its a very good emd almost identical to beatsbydrdre.c0m? Alternatively anyone want it?