Look at this threatening letter I got

[binaryman]

Recently I sent the following e-mail to the owners of Mbendi,com
(mbendi is an online business information site geared towards Africa and based in South Africa)

Dear Sir/Madam,
>I am selling the domain MBENDI,mobi for Euro 250
>Mobi is the internet extension for Mobile phones. More info can be found
>on .mobi's official website:http://mtld.mobi/
>If you are interested in aquiring this piece of mobile virtual property
>please contact me at (my e-mail address)
Regards
(my name and surname)

Here is the reply I just got:

Dear Mr. (my name and surname)

Thank you for your notes.

Please be advised that if the domain mbendi,mobi is not transferred
to our ownership at no cost to us by midnight on 24th January 2008,
we plan to lay a charge of theft of intellectual property and
extortion against you and your company with the Netherlands police.

We were already aware of the activities of your company and have
brought them to the attention of our various audiences so they too
can taken legal action against your company.

Regards
(Name of owner of mbendi)

Now the tone of this response upset me and I have done the following:
I have cancelled the domain in question.
I have e-mailed the owner of mbendi and told him I did not appreciate his reply and that I have cancelled the domain and if he wishes he can go and register it himself.

I checked uptsto(TESS) by the way there is no trademark on this name. Also I dont know what he refers to when he says "my activities" as I have only parked the domain with SEDO and did nothing with it further then that and the .mobi version showed no links that were in any way related to the .com site.

If he had been friendly I would have given him the domain for nothing. And I dont even have a company.

 

[nametrekker]

Call the police and have you arrested for "extortion". Wow, that's pretty extreme. I hope you work this out as you make great contributions to this forum.

 

[Mark]

What did you expect ? You infringed on their Brand/Site name ...

 

[nametrekker]

Very sad for you and your family - not good news to close the year 2007. Are the laws so rigid in Holland? I wish you all the best during this difficult time.

 

[Mark]

(btw) Moved to legal section due to Bots

 

[PowerUp]

Did you get any refund when you canceled your mobi domain?

 

[binaryman]

"Did you get any refund when you canceled your mobi domain?"


No I did not nor did I ask for any. Extortion? HUH? Mbendi is based in South Africa and the Dutch police here in Holland are certainly not going to bother about this like he seems to think. Anyway I did nothing wrong, the name is not even trademarked and is an African generic name. I would have given it to him for free but since he was so threatening I just cancelled the domain to be rid of all this.

 

[Mark]

In the legal section - Bots can't crawl this thread.

You say you checked USPTO - But that is only for registered items here in the US , You have to remember there are many countries/territories out there to worry about brands in. When I search google for this "term" - I only see Raw listings (Many pertaining to this site/company) - But more important to me is that I Don't see any ads at the top or on the right hand side where Google places sponsored listings.
If there aren't any sponsored listings , Either the term would be difficult to monetize -or- Theres a chance it's a protected brand (Not that google has a problem with showing ads like this all of the time).

There are plenty of stories out there about being successful at selling a domain of another extension to a site owner on a different extension , But what you don't see is the thousands of problems people ran into like this. Many sales pitches were ignored , many were turned down, Many ran into a person/company that is dead serious about protecting their Brand.


If the term isn't generic or considered Common use - You really have to be careful.


This isn't directly related to your story Binary - But It shows how serious this is becoming in this industry :
http://www.domainnamenews.com/legal-issues/registrar-belgium-domains-locked-out/1351

That Registrar may not be the "Usual" registrar we use everyday - But could you imagine all of your domains being locked down due to someone else Tasting TM's ?

 

[binaryman]

Thnx for your reply Mark,
I dunno. I figured let me just cancel the domain and wash my hands of it. That's good enough is it not? Or do you think the Dutch police will now come and arrest me and extredite me to South Africa to be thrown in jail there? For what? Because I wanted to sell a .mobi domain for Euro 250
The mbendi guys dont have anything about TM rights on their site either only copyright on their articles. Look I dont want trouble so that is why I just cancelled the domain. If they had been more friendly in their approach I would have just transferred it to them for nothing.

 

[interestedenough]

Any international lawsuit will cost him more than the 250 EU, in my opinion he looks like he is just pissed off. Even if he had the resources (which is in doubt), it wouldn't make sense for him/her to do it. Now that you cancelled the domain, there is less reasons for them to do this.

I believe also that on his/her letter, they shouldn't ask for the domain be transfered to them at no cost, that is in its own (in my mind) could be considered extortion by those standards.

I am not a lawyer and this is just my opinion.

 

[homebuyer]

Happy holidays to all.

 

[notlikeyou]

I'm guessing you knew what company was before you purchased the domain, would you not be a bit angered if the shoe was on the other foot? My guess is yes. I would not expect to hear anything further from them. Most of his response seemed a scare tactic, but you must admit his tone was well warranted.

 

[homebuyer]

I'm guessing you knew what company was before you purchased the domain, would you not be a bit angered if the shoe was on the other foot? My guess is yes. I would not expect to hear anything further from them. Most of his response seemed a scare tactic, but you must admit his tone was well warranted.

Google "mbendi." ALL of the search results I got relate to the Mbendi company. So just be glad that they might just go away.

Happy holidays.

 

[binaryman]

No his tone was not.
I originally regged Mbendi as that is my dogs name. I hail from Africa too originally.
MBendi, by the way, is defined as a composite African word meaning "the knowledge that brings wisdom."

 

[notlikeyou]

No his tone was not.
I originally regged Mbendi as that is my dogs name. I hail from Africa too originally.

Careful he might threaten to take your dog as well!

Best of luck

 

[binaryman]

Well my dog passed on about a month ago that's why I tried to sell the domain. Certainly was'nt trying to extort anyone.

 

[labrocca]

I don't believe you about the dog. And I think the companies reaction is justified.

Domainers here are smart enough to spot a sales pitch bred from a cybersquatter and I guess so is Mbendi.

 

[domainsusi]

It would be interesting to know how long you have had this domain.

When did you first register it?

 

[labrocca]

It doesn't matter what I believe...what does Mbendi believe. Can you imagine telling a company "well I registered the name because that's my dogs name"? It's been used before and it's a laughable excuse. I just simple don't believe it as an excuse to register a domain and then contact a company offering it for sale.


Even IF he did have a dog named Mbendi...the action to sell to the company was in bad faith and is evidence of cybersquatting.

http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2000/d2000-1549.html
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-1012.html
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2000/d2000-0428.html (personal fav)

 

[RWAC]

Extortion?

That's a bit OTT.