Harley-Davidson trademark help

[markts]

Last month I had taken advantage of the free .info offer and found a number of names that were free and included the name Harley Davidson. I just received a registered letter, here is part of it


.......all 20 of these domains redirect the user to your company,s website www.********.com. Under the circumstances, your use and registration of these domains constitutes cybersquatting. You should be aware that the penalties for cybersquatting include traditional money damages and statutory damages of up to $100,000 per domain name. Furthermore, your cybersquatting activities are evidence of your intent to trade on the reputation and goodwill of Harley-Davidson.

If you provide to us, by December 20. 2005, your written assurances to assign to us all domains names that you have registered containing any of our trademarks,and stop all other infringing uses of our trademarks, we will be willing to discuss a private settlement. Otherwise, we will refer the matter to outside counsel.
________________________

What should I do? What do they mean by a private settlement? I suppose if they infringe then I should turn them over. Should I do that immediately by the 20th or should I contact them and discuss somee kind of settlement?

Please help

 

[inflames]

i would call and see what you can work out with them , but i would waste time , hd is pretty big and i would say they would pretty much clean you out

 

[NP41215]

It is never a good idea to register domains that are trademarks. That may be why the domain was available in the first place.

I would make sure the person really represents HD before going any further.

 

[markts]

I checked out the lady. In the chamber of commerce and doing what she claims to be doing at HD. I think that I'll try to give her a call.

 

[markts]

Hey Guys, I just reread the registered letter. I think they made a major screw-up – the date reads in BOLD - December 20. 2005 --------

Another not so major mistake is the first one. It’s not .com but .info

harleydavidsonevo.com
harleydavidsonflathead.info
harleyframes.info
harleydavidsoncustom.info
harleydavidsontwincam.info
harleydavidsonengine.info
harleydavidsonvrod.info
harleychopperbuilding.info
harleydavidsonmotorcycle.info
harleydavidsonchopper.info
harleychopper.info
harleydavidsonknucklehead.info
harleydavidsonpanhead.info
harleydavidsonframes.info
harleydavidsonshovelhead.info
harleydavidsonservice.info
harleydavidsonmachining.info
harleydavidsonenginebuilding.info
harleydavidsonchopperbuilding.info
harleydavidsonparts.info

They were from my pick of the 20 free info’s. I like HarleyDavidsonMotorcycle.Info We are the top HD and Indian builders in the state and I figured that anyone could share info about Harleys. Do the magazines ask for TM approval before they write articles?

I think their screw up was the date. It was a registered letter and the date was in bold. Why would they give me a year to sign them over? The free .infos are only registered until October of 2005. If I turn off the auto-regisister they’ll be dead by next December

What would you do?

 

[FanCube]

You should contact the HD lawyer and make some kind of agreement. You got the domains for free and they are not worth anything, so if you end up loosing some or all the domains have you really not lost anything.