larryscott2559
Restricted (Market)
- Impact
- 169
Okay, so not too long ago I had this idea for a website (because I am a huge startup kind of guy). It was going to allow New Yorkers to purchase Metrocards with bitcoins online. The site was setup beautifully and very informative and I spent 2 full days on creating it about 20 something hours. Within days of launching it and advertisements I had decent visitors and a few newsletter subscribers.
Here's where the problem kicks in....
The domain name I was using was Metrocard.nyc. Now I checked the trademark database for "Metrocard NYC" and nothing popped up, otherwise I might not have registered it. So as soon as I received decent traffic coming into the site MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) sent me a Cease & Desist letter. I've received these before, even from Facebook. So it wasn't that big of a deal.
But what was a big deal was, besides the fact of having to take down the site they also included "the domain name Metrocard.nyc is valuable" to the trademark and basically they wanted me to render the name into their custody. I had no idea the term "Metrocard" was a trademark...so i failed checking for the trademark of the domain and wasted a lot of time and energy on a good idea for a website.
I took the site down but I never gave them the domain name. Because if they were really serious about trademark and wanting to take Metrocard.NYC they would have gone after the owner of Metrocard.com Who recently in January 2016 bought the domain for $5,000 from NamesCon.
(Apologize for any misspellings if you spot them)
Here's where the problem kicks in....
The domain name I was using was Metrocard.nyc. Now I checked the trademark database for "Metrocard NYC" and nothing popped up, otherwise I might not have registered it. So as soon as I received decent traffic coming into the site MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) sent me a Cease & Desist letter. I've received these before, even from Facebook. So it wasn't that big of a deal.
But what was a big deal was, besides the fact of having to take down the site they also included "the domain name Metrocard.nyc is valuable" to the trademark and basically they wanted me to render the name into their custody. I had no idea the term "Metrocard" was a trademark...so i failed checking for the trademark of the domain and wasted a lot of time and energy on a good idea for a website.
I took the site down but I never gave them the domain name. Because if they were really serious about trademark and wanting to take Metrocard.NYC they would have gone after the owner of Metrocard.com Who recently in January 2016 bought the domain for $5,000 from NamesCon.
(Apologize for any misspellings if you spot them)
