[HELP] Trademark and Legal Issue

Hi all,

In need of a bit of business and legal advice. I have a landing page as part of a link pyramid, a URL that I own. www.manufacturersbestsellingproduct.com so to speak.

Now this site is integral in my external linking structure, that points to my money site (e-commerce retail store).

My URL has been noted by the manufacturer of the product, as I have just out ranked them on G to the #1 spot. Which I think has p**sed them off a little.

So it turns out they have a worldwide trademark on the brand name and product name, so my URL is in breach of trade mark and I have been told that to use images of their product and logo, as well as the URL is in breach of trade mark, and they can legally have the site removed and the URL transfered to them.

So looking into this I believe it is true. However, I don't want to lose the link juice and all the time spent from building up that site, that drives a LOT of traffic to my money site.

Any advice on steps moving forward. Someone mentioned to me to buy a company in the Camens or Russia and a server there and transfer the site, or to use a Katz server in the Middle East. This is not my area of black hat expertise so any one with any knowledge here I'd really appreciate the input.

Thanks in advance.

My understanding the breach is with you as website owner and as such it is true they can request your site to be pulled or seek legal recourse to do so.

You need to tread extremely careful, as moving it to foreign servers could still be seen as a means to evade the issue but they could still sue you personally based on your country's law unless of course you are moving to Russia with it!

Thanks, I shall indeed, look to down this website, and take my hat off to them on this matter. Thank you again.

no problem, glad to help

I agree. I think I may actually sell the URL to someone else, and see if they want to squeeze some PR juice from it with more knowledge than me on cloaking or whatever.

They only have to prove that they are owners of the TM, and they can request your ISP to have the site taken down.

Do some keyword research, find a domain name without the TM issue, and move the site to that domain. You'll have to work on the SEO again, but you won't have to rebuild too much.

Meantime, offer to sell the domain to the complainants for about $500 to $1000 - point out that you put work into it, and that's cheap compared to the lawyers costs if they carry on with the legal process. DO IT FAST!

To get around the pictures issue - the easiest answer is that you will have to take some yourself, or buy some stock library pics.

What I would do is take down the site itself, and 301 everything to a different url. Then I would let them know that you took down the site and see what happens. They may not force the domain transfer if you take down the site quick enough. If they with a reply that they want the domain there is not much you can do but worth a shot in my opinion. I would make sure I do not include their name in my new domain and cover it with privacy so they can not see it is you when your new site starts rankings.

Thanks everyone. Is there any merit in cloaking the domain, so the user see's a SITE HOLDING PAGE? Whereas Google see's the old SEO page, and the outbound backlinks remain intact?

I was, other than that, thinking of registering a company off shore, and moving the site content to an offshore host. Might change the URL, and do a 301 redirect, pumping the link juice across. Any thoughts on that?

Any suggestions for forming an off shore company, as even with Privacy enabled, Im sure they could easily determine the owner of the new URL when it comes to TM infringement.

Thanks for all your help.

Bump - sorry for bumping this one, its actually related but a seperate point. Just curious about the Anonym.to service - with cloaked links from this site, would google spider and carry across PR to the final URL destination from an outbound link?

Thanks

only with a 301 redirect. And I would advise you goto google webmaster and change it there as well.

This is why when I register a TMed domain, or anything similar to a copyrighted name I ALWAYS register it offshore and privacy whois it, depending on how I go about things I will also fake whois info. If they already have your information then I guess its too late for that unless you just say f it and 301 it. I personally would cloak the landing page and tell them I took it down or tell them I sold it to someone else and move it offshore.

But again thats me and depending on how you care about the consequences if something were to go awry. If you arent willing to risk it... dont do it

Just look their email header, and get their ip, then block (Im using IP ban plugin for WP, or u can deny ips from htaccess) all state or city

Or make new godaddy account with fake info (ex. some russian guy) and transfer the domain to new account. When they ask you for copyrighted content/domain tell them that you r not the site/domain owner anymore, and ask them to not contact u in the future. After a wek transfer the domain to internet.bs and buy some malaysian vps/dedi server
Another option - sell it in flippa, fast sale 1-2 days(use escrow, with paypal buyer always can make a refund), make same money and start other projects.
hope it helps
p.s. sry for bad english

Excellent advice all round from both of you thanks.

Thevil, cloaking is not an area I specialise in. Do you think you could PM me some tips.

IP banning is interesting. I think thats an interesting concept. And I shall check out the goDaddy and dedi servers off shore too to move site to. Thanks.

Looky, I don't think you guys understand.
In the past, you could hide out on a domain, and the process of who is right would have to drag through the courts slower than the mills of God.
The ICANN rules changed recently. Any TM holder can object about a domain to a registrar and get it taken down - no legal process needed, and no registrar/ISP will go against ICANN, or they risk their own livelihood. No reason needed, TM holder just has to prove it is his TM.