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Never had anything like this, but it was bound to happen sometime. Here's what happened.
We own a domain since 2021. I'm using "we" since I trade as a business.
Anyway this is a made-up domain that I regged in May 2021 and been renewing it. It's a good short 7-letter .COM domain that obviously this company wants. I won't post the name here, but anyway it's comprised of a main word and a modifier. For example if the word was "shop" it could be something like "shopify" dot com. Anyway again this is a fictitious example.
So what this brand new trademark owner did was the following:
- They registered the .io correspondent domain.io in January 2022. At the time we had this domain already for about 8 months.
- Since then, there was only a plain Jane website there, sort of "coming soon". No service, no product.
- In October 2022 they filed for a trademark. At this time, notably the trademark is still in PENDING status (obviously this was too little time for their claim on the brand to be approved).
- Today they reached out to Sedo and had our name listing taken down.
I'm baffled how Sedo can do this without a minimal effort in establishing the situation and correctness of the claim. We have owned the domain for more than 1.5 years and anyway even by Whois you can tell registration predates their filing by a lot.
I have submitted a request to Sedo to reinstate the domain, sent them original registration and awaiting their decision. I am very curious how this will go.
Also today they sent us an email with the following contents in brief:
- That they are the owners of the trademark (note, it's still very new and in pending status)
- That they saw the domain listed for low xxx range (FALSE - it was never going to be that low as it's a good name; also it's not a price I ever used for any of my names)
- That they informed Sedo about us doing cybersquatting and extorting a trademark owner
- That they suspect we belong to a group in our country they had ongoing disputes with another TM (not the case, we never had any such ongoing disputes; this phrase makes me think this is a serial hijacker).
- That they hope to settle the deal by offering us that low xxx $ amount for the domain via escrow dot com.
- If not, they will have to pursue "lengthy and time consuming" legal action.
- So we should "please accept the offer."
What do you make of this? How you would respond to it?
Notes:
- For now we sent no reply.
- We are however moving the domain to another registrar, more trusted in handling this correctly as per an firm UDRP resolution.
- The lander is now on a make offer lander via Afternic. (it was already).
- I've informed my Afternic rep about this hijack attempt just to be aware.
- I've contacted our legal team and will be looking into finding future legal support in the US if it deems necessary at some point. I know it's most likely just an UDRP max but still want to get to the bottom of this.
Final note, if I look at the email I don't know if I should cry, be stunned or laugh out loud. What is this, a legal trademark warning, an insult, a lowball bribe, or a 3-in-1?
(edit: even if so, I'm not taking this lightly; very much dislike that someone comes later and want to just take a name I brainstormed and created that they have no rights over)
If their intention was to get this domain for cheap, then that's not going to happen anymore. I'm going to keep the domain and even if unsold I'm going to develop it. I don't like squatters on both side of the process.
Side note if this was a legitimate request I would have thanked them for letting us know, handed them the domain with no regrets and written off the less than $20 spent for it.
Great world we live in.
We own a domain since 2021. I'm using "we" since I trade as a business.
Anyway this is a made-up domain that I regged in May 2021 and been renewing it. It's a good short 7-letter .COM domain that obviously this company wants. I won't post the name here, but anyway it's comprised of a main word and a modifier. For example if the word was "shop" it could be something like "shopify" dot com. Anyway again this is a fictitious example.
So what this brand new trademark owner did was the following:
- They registered the .io correspondent domain.io in January 2022. At the time we had this domain already for about 8 months.
- Since then, there was only a plain Jane website there, sort of "coming soon". No service, no product.
- In October 2022 they filed for a trademark. At this time, notably the trademark is still in PENDING status (obviously this was too little time for their claim on the brand to be approved).
- Today they reached out to Sedo and had our name listing taken down.
I'm baffled how Sedo can do this without a minimal effort in establishing the situation and correctness of the claim. We have owned the domain for more than 1.5 years and anyway even by Whois you can tell registration predates their filing by a lot.
I have submitted a request to Sedo to reinstate the domain, sent them original registration and awaiting their decision. I am very curious how this will go.
Also today they sent us an email with the following contents in brief:
- That they are the owners of the trademark (note, it's still very new and in pending status)
- That they saw the domain listed for low xxx range (FALSE - it was never going to be that low as it's a good name; also it's not a price I ever used for any of my names)
- That they informed Sedo about us doing cybersquatting and extorting a trademark owner
- That they suspect we belong to a group in our country they had ongoing disputes with another TM (not the case, we never had any such ongoing disputes; this phrase makes me think this is a serial hijacker).
- That they hope to settle the deal by offering us that low xxx $ amount for the domain via escrow dot com.
- If not, they will have to pursue "lengthy and time consuming" legal action.
- So we should "please accept the offer."
What do you make of this? How you would respond to it?
Notes:
- For now we sent no reply.
- We are however moving the domain to another registrar, more trusted in handling this correctly as per an firm UDRP resolution.
- The lander is now on a make offer lander via Afternic. (it was already).
- I've informed my Afternic rep about this hijack attempt just to be aware.
- I've contacted our legal team and will be looking into finding future legal support in the US if it deems necessary at some point. I know it's most likely just an UDRP max but still want to get to the bottom of this.
Final note, if I look at the email I don't know if I should cry, be stunned or laugh out loud. What is this, a legal trademark warning, an insult, a lowball bribe, or a 3-in-1?
(edit: even if so, I'm not taking this lightly; very much dislike that someone comes later and want to just take a name I brainstormed and created that they have no rights over)
If their intention was to get this domain for cheap, then that's not going to happen anymore. I'm going to keep the domain and even if unsold I'm going to develop it. I don't like squatters on both side of the process.
Side note if this was a legitimate request I would have thanked them for letting us know, handed them the domain with no regrets and written off the less than $20 spent for it.
Great world we live in.
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