Selling TM'd domains

[joshric2006]

I have recently registered a domain that I believe many of you will say was a noob blunder but before I ask for a grace delete I'm hoping to get your insight first.

As an example, let's say I've registered the domain carmaxes.com. This most certainly would infringe on their trademark, especially if I did anything pertaining to cars on the website, correct?

My bigger question is in regards to selling the domain. If I have not developed the website at all, am I able to list it for auction or try to sell it otherwise? Of course I cannot contact the TM owner, but if someone were to buy it does anyone know of any legal issue with my selling it?

While I fully understand that automated estimations are not in the least bit viable, godaddy estimates the domain at $800-$1,500. Godaddy has been the most realistic estimation tool I've found thus far. The domain is a 7 letter dot com with a very popular root word. My exact match brings up only 800 global monthly searches, while dropping the "es" brings up 5,000,000 and the root word has 83,100,000 global monthly searches. You may feel that these numbers mean absolutely nothing, but as mentioned above, total noob here so please bare with me.

Thanks in advance for your insight!

 

[arend]

TM Get rid of it. You are just passing the problem on to some one else. I have bought TM names unknowingly at auctions as a noob. I was not impressed with person selling these in th efirst place.

 

[joshric2006]

Thanks for the response Arend. Anyone else have any thoughts on selling a TM'd domain? Is there anyway to legally use a TM domain other than a fansite?

 

[biggie]

:talk:

think about "why" you chose to acquire that name?
( not that name specifically )


was it because of similarity to carmax


was it for the term "car" and you totally ignored "max" and added "es" to distort the clarity?

intent... will be what you'll have to answer for, when the letter comes.

 

[mitch007]

ditto above...

grace delete it ...

 

[GiftedDomains]

Bad Faith.
Because you are selling a TM Domain.

Why the hassle with such domain when you can find generic or brandable domains with no TM issue? Why the risk to lose it and get mail from WIPO and lawyers?

Drop it and stay away from TM names.

 

[joshric2006]

Thanks for your input everyone. My intentions were not based on the TM. As a super inexperienced noob, I was adding "es" "ed" and "er" on to common words and when one would be available I would look at Godaddys automated appraisal. Anything worth a minimum of $500 I would purchase. I saw this one, thought absolutely nothing about it being a TM and went ahead with the purchase. My thought was that as long as I don't set up a site to benefit from the TM I'd be fine. My main goal was to simply buy and sell the domain.

If it is a super common term, with one prefix and one suffix, and I do nothing even closely related to the TM, do you feel it would still be an issue? Also, would selling the undeveloped domain be an issue as well? I may be a broken record here, just not familiar!

Last thing, how do I go about requesting a grace delete?

 

[infmoney]

Thanks for your input everyone. My intentions were not based on the TM. As a super inexperienced noob, I was adding "es" "ed" and "er" on to common words and when one would be available I would look at Godaddys automated appraisal. Anything worth a minimum of $500 I would purchase. I saw this one, thought absolutely nothing about it being a TM and went ahead with the purchase. My thought was that as long as I don't set up a site to benefit from the TM I'd be fine. My main goal was to simply buy and sell the domain.

If it is a super common term, with one prefix and one suffix, and I do nothing even closely related to the TM, do you feel it would still be an issue? Also, would selling the undeveloped domain be an issue as well? I may be a broken record here, just not familiar!

Last thing, how do I go about requesting a grace delete?

I would grace delete in my opinion. And I think you can get one for up to 5 days from purchase.

I just got one the other day. All you have to do is call Godaddy at (480) 505-8877 and ask the rep to give you a refund.

They will ask you to delete the domain and then they will send you a refund within 5 or 7 days(not sure) to the card or account you used to purchase it. Mine only took 2 days to get back in my paypal account.

Hope this helps. Trust me, just get a refund you do not want to get sued.

 

[Name Trader]

Yep. TM infringing name. Best thing to do is grace delete it.

 

[richface]

Joshric2006, When I also first began domaining my very first domain was a TM Infringement. I also had the cheek to email the TM holder for offers, mind you this company was in the top 5 largest companies in the world yes You heard right in the WORLD. I told them other companies were interested in the name so it was first come first serve (Sales Tactic). Anyway I got a reply after a week with guess what an offer $7,000, BUT they also wanted to know which companies were interested. At the time I was clueless, I remember reading the email and seeing dollar signs, 7k wowzer! Peak times! blue skies! I even went to the gym that day and worked out for like 3hours thinking of what figure to counter with,
I remember even wolf whistling at random women because I was so excited.
I was in great shape, I came back and countered with 40k .Got a reply in like a few days saying they will get back to me and guess what they got back to me alright one of their top notch lawyers contacted me with evidence of bad faith. lucky for me my birthday came early, he offered me a life saving gift to hand over the domain or face wrath of ruthless IP lawyers. I handed it back so quick you would have thought I got threatened with life imprisonment. It happens they even knew about me the second I registered the domain name and frequently scan the entire net everyday to catch fools like me. Forget about Mark Monitor these guys had some sophisticated in house tech, apparently these systems can even scan and cache forum threads that was back then. At the time the domain was with godaddy so I had to keep calling this busy company begging them to accept the domain even though they told me their tech team will accept in due time I couldn't sleep until they did. But I remember the day I saw that godaddy email saying transfer completed I was so relieved it felt like I won 50k. You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you need to go? ) I had that for a week due to nervousness. My friend stay clear of TMs if you think you are smart trust me you ain't if you have a death wish then go ahead. When I see TM domains I run fast!!! Work smarter be smart no quick gains in the Biz domaining aint easy if it was many of us will be retired.

 

[infmoney]

Joshric2006, When I also first began domaining my very first domain was a TM Infringement. I also had the cheek to email the TM holder for offers, mind you this company was in the top 5 largest companies in the world yes You heard right in the WORLD. I told them other companies were interested in the name so it was first come first serve (Sales Tactic). Anyway I got a reply after a week with guess what an offer $7,000, BUT they also wanted to know which companies were interested. At the time I was clueless, I remember reading the emailing and seeing dollar signs, 7k wowzer! Peak times! blue skies! I even went to the gym that day and worked out for like 3hours thinking of what figure to counter with,
I remember even wolf whistling at random women because I was so excited.
I was in great shape, I came back and countered with 40k .Got a reply in like a few days saying they will get back to me and guess what they got back to me alright one of their top notch lawyers contacted me with evidence of bad faith. lucky for me my birthday came early, he offered me a live saving gift to hand over the domain or face wrath of ruthless IP lawyers. I handed it back so quick you would have thought I got threatened with life imprisonment. It happens they even knew about me the second I registered the domain name and frequently scan the entire net everyday to catch fools like me. Forget about Mark Monitor these guys had some sophisticated in house tech, apparently these systems can even scan and cache forum threads that was back then. At the time the domain was with godaddy so I had to keep calling this busy company begging them to accept the domain even though they told me their tech team will accept in due time I couldn't sleep until they did. But I remember the day I saw that godaddy email saying transfer completed I was so relieved it felt like I won 50k. You know that feeling you get in your stomach when you need to go? ) I had that for a week due to nervousness. My friend stay clear of TMs if you think you are smart trust me you ain't if you have a death wish then go ahead. When I see TM domains I run fast!!! Work smarter be smart no quick gains in the Biz domaining aint easy if it was many of us will be retired.

Very nice and informative post man. This is so true. You can make money if you do it the right way but it's not easy by any means.

I'd rather be broke and sleep good than register tm domains and roll the dice. I'd be on edge too.

If they take you to court you will have to pay so much money that the risk is not worth it at all.

 

[joshric2006]

Thanks for the information everyone. I've gone ahead and deleted the domain. A $12 mistake is well worth the information learned. My only thought now is whether or not I should have contacted the TM holder and offered to transfer the domain to them (at no cost) rather than simply deleting. I did some more research and found out that the TM holder absolutely does take infringmenet quite seriously.

I'm definitely glad I found this forum and am able to learn from the experiences of others, especially when it comes to legal matters!

Last question- now that it has been deleted, I am in the clear on it correct?

 

[infmoney]

Thanks for the information everyone. I've gone ahead and deleted the domain. A $12 mistake is well worth the information learned. My only thought now is whether or not I should have contacted the TM holder and offered to transfer the domain to them (at no cost) rather than simply deleting. I did some more research and found out that the TM holder absolutely does take infringmenet quite seriously.

I'm definitely glad I found this forum and am able to learn from the experiences of others, especially when it comes to legal matters!

Last question- now that it has been deleted, I am in the clear on it correct?

I would say your safe. Did you call godaddy to get a refund? If it hasn't been 5 days since you registered it you can get your money back.

 

[joshric2006]

No, I had registered it about 12 days ago.

 

[richface]

Good decision

I would say your safe. Did you call godaddy to get a refund? If it hasn't been 5 days since you registered it you can get your money back.

Well done. You are now in the clear. Next time when in doubt of a name use Trademarkia.com
or Namecheck.com just to be sure. Deleting it was the right choice contacting them could have turned ugly especially if one of their lawyers was in a bad mood. Its deleted problem solved.

 

[infmoney]

No, I had registered it about 12 days ago.

I think it's too late to get a refund, but it's a lesson learned.