Is approaching the owner of a .com with your .mobi about a sale always a dumb move?

[binaryman]

I ask this because I have read many cases here where such a move is even advised as good business and there was even an excample letter floating about on how to best word such an approach.
Please comment on my case scenario.
Yesterday I sent an e-mail to the editor of a small town newspaper in the USA asking if they would be interested in aquiring my domain "towncrier,mobi" for $500. The town is called Idle wild and the paper is called the idle wild towncrier
http://www.towncrier.com/ As you can see the site is towncrier,com not idle wild towncrier,com
I hold towncrier,mobi
Towncrier is a generic term much like fisherman or plumber or car salesman is..an occupation. Just to make doubly sure I also checked all the available trademark databases like USPTO to see if a TM excists. It does not. I would assume that they cannot be deemed to have build up protective rights on the term "towncrier" because of being used by them for a long time as a domain name in the form of "towncrier.com. I think that on the term "idle wild towncrier" they probably can claim protection.
My question is: Can my e-mail to them inquiring if they would be interested in buying my domain be construed as "bad faith" and can the domain be handed over to them by a wipo decision on the basis of this.?
Regards
Fred

Ps. Famous words by a well known poster here: Quote" You can't TM a descriptor. Cars.com can't TM their domain name for the term "cars" to sell cars. It's the actual description."Unquote.

What they can TM is the logo mark which is unique.

There excist hundreds of sites with "towncrier" as the last part of the name such as new york towncrier, emerald lake towncrier, woodsville towncrier...ect and I agree that those hold TM protection but only the term "Towncrier" does not imo. It is a descriptor.

 

[CyberLaw.pro]

This is too complicated to give a good answer. Basically, though, I would say that your assumption that towncrier has not built up common law trademark rights is generally incorrect. If they want to assert those rights they likely could.

 

[binaryman]

So any generic word can build up trade mark rights? In this case they are called Idlewild town crier but you say they probably have rights to just the word towncrier as well because they use it as a domain name.
So please tell me then when one can one register a generic name and be totally in the clear with it then ?? NEVER it seems. Whatever name or word I register I will always be in the wrong and so is every other domainer then. I specially pick out names that have no trademark on them and are generic and yet I am in the wrong. Quite crazy is it not? In other words no one is actually allowed to register anything at all because you will always be in violation of someone else and they can always assert their rights to take away from you any name or word I might choose to register.

 

[duceman]

I think the trouble comes when you offer it to the owner of the .com. Even if you buy the domain to develop and end up not developing. It still will look as if you bought to try and sell it to the .com and that screams bad faith.

I'm not saying that I've never used this method, but don't be surprised if they come at you with an adversarial position.

Right now I have a domain in a ccTLD that the owner of the .com has made several offers on and I have refused. In his last email he started to make UDRP insinuations. So I asked him if he was going to challenge the 3 different owners of the .net .info and .biz who all are fairly large companies... I haven't heard back from him yet.

 

[binaryman]

Thnx Duce for your feedback. Well and of course there are 3 things that I must be guilty of before they can force me to hand over the domain.

Paragraph 4(a) of the Policy lists the three elements which Complainant must satisfy in order to succeed:

(i) the Domain Name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which Complainant has rights; and

(ii) Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the Domain Name; and

(iii) the Domain Name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

Well there is no trademark on towncrier. It's generic anyway..an occupation like plumber or policeman or priest.

I have rights as I wanted to start up a mobile news site for the town I live in but have dropped my plans since.

I did not reg in bad faith. In fact I regged it without even looking who else had a site with that name. Later I looked at how other sites approached their layout and so on so I could fashion my site along those general lines. Only after I changed my plans did I actively go look for a buyer.