lipps said:
The whole wwL thing really pissed me off. Not because of the tm issue but how they approached it.
"Therefore, to avoid any action on LLL's part, we demand that you transfer the Domain Name to LLL"
I don't see what's wrong with how they approached it. That's just a basic C&D, that's just how trademarks are enforced and protected. I don't think that you approached it professionally, and I think that they did. You violated their trademark, they don't need to hold your hand when they take it back from you.
I knew fully well what the WW(L) initials were and bought the name because the GF son had such an intrest in the products. He was a wrestlelovinmonster. I told him that I got the name for him (He has a learning disability) and he was very excited. A very rare state for him.
He took literally hundreds of pictures of his wrestling items, posing all of his figures and shirts etc... I taught him how to make a webpage using his pictures.
Your intended usage doesn't matter. Trademark holders are required to enforce their trademarks, or they can risk losing them.
He then decided that he wanted more action toys, and I dont if anyone else has seen the cost of those toys but well they are not cheap. In order to teach him responsibility we decided that he could sell his name to make some money to buy some wwL action toys on Lbay. (hundred bucks no bids)
I then showed him how to sell things at auction. Thats when we got the CandD email.
Do you not see your wrongdoing here? You were trying to profit off of a trademarked name. That's violating their trademark, and by trying to profit off of a trademarked name, that's cybersquatting.
He read the email first and started crying stating tha wwL was going to come and take everything we had, that his "heros" hated him etc... Those with kids know what I am talking about..
Sorry, but that doesn't justify anything. You should have registered him a generic wrestling domain name, and you could have made a fan site without any headache. I hope that you didn't use a sob story in your communication to WWE to justify your registration, that comes of as extremely unprofessional and won't get you anywhere.
So we sat down and sent emails to the bosses not because we were mad that they wanted the name but because of how they approached the issue. Very unprofessional IMHO. All they had to do was to ask and it would have been theirs. He would have loved knowing that the wwL got something to use that was actually his.
They did ask. That's what they did with the C&D. Emailing the boss and his family is not going to get you anywhere, and would ultimately probably hurt you. They aren't persuing the name to use it, they're just enforcing their trademark as almost all trademark holders do.
I still own the domain but it sits in limbo. It will expire and another will pick it up I am sure.
WWE is going to take it from you before it expires, they're not just going to forget about it. If it did expire, I'm not even so sure it would be picked up. Its not valuable, as .name domains have essentially no value, and most would see the TM issues.
Really just want to show example of how touchy these subjects are. Perhaps there is a TM lawyer that will read this and think twice on how they make first contact. CandD letters are not always a good things. Sometimes it just best to ask first.
After all this his compulsion to wwL has stopped. He thinks they are "mean" but he did learn how to make a really nice webpage. Heck you should see his MySpacL page.
Most of us domainers here are fairly experienced with trademarks, and I don't think that anyone really sees an issue with C&D notices. You shouldn't take them personally. If a company sees somebody trying to sell a domain based off of their trademark, I don't see any obligation of their's to politely ask for it. I understand that you had somewhat of an emotional attachment to the domain because of your GF's son, but you've got to understand that their lawyers are just doing their jobs, C&Ds are just common practice, and I see nothing wrong with them.
