TM question

[Domagon]

Park it and ride the wave for as long as you can.

Likely the worse that would happen is they demand it back; UDRP it.

Developing it increases the odds they will go after it sooner, and the chance they may skip negotiations, especially if you use it for TV and/or porn, and go straight to lawsuit.

So again, in my view, parking is the way to go to monetize the domain while minimizing risk.

On a related note, I own a domain that happens to be the same as call letters of a major TV station in the Philly area that gets some traffic - and yet to this day the TV station has never once even inquired about getting that domain ...

Digressed a bit, but point is that perhaps they purposedly dropped the call-letter domain you bought because they seek to brand their website with a more memorable name.

Ron

 

[DNQuest.com]

troop - Read my sig... unless you dont mind being a cybersquaater that everyone despises.


Dom - Is that a legal reply or a squatter reply?

"Park it and ride the wave for as long as you can."

You should at least explain a little more of the downside to such actions, such as a $100,000.00 fine, loss of all income from the domain, punitive damages, legal fees. You should not give the impression that it is ok to do such squatting actions.

 

[Domagon]

I'm being realistic ... TM issues aren't black and white ... business comes with risks.

In my view, parking is a minimal risk in this instance assuming he doesn't purport any website on it as being associated with the TV station ...

Anyways, they likely purposedly allowed the domain to expire, since most stations brand themselves with fanciful names, etc not their FCC assigned call-sign.

Ron

 

[Domagon]

Or conversely, it could be argued that the mere fact they owned it before would make a UDRP case stronger in their favor.

Buying drops, even more so if it doesn't go through a complete delete cycle, is always risky - though, most of the time the risk is minimal, such as getting nastygrams begging for the domain back, etc.

Again, my view based on the information you've provided, is there's a decent, but manageable risk with the domain - park it for awhile ... after a year or two, if no complaints, then perhaps consider some other use / development of the domain.

Ron

 

[Dave_Z]

One other possible problem here is how "common" or unique the name is. If it's
especially unique and its last registrant has considerable goodwill attached to
it, coupled with the OP putting any hint of commercial use, s/he might have a
lot of explaining to do.

 

[labrocca]

Why not use the domain for a legitimate purpose?

 

[Dave_Z]

Why not use the domain for a legitimate purpose?

I suppose putting up a gay picture with a contact email is legitimate. :p

 

[labrocca]

There ya go...I like the not too greedy part. Too many domainers think they can get a pot of gold for every domain.

 

[Dave_Z]

Good to see everyone won in that then.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

As we should all be (Happy with a $64 - $1,000 CO/CI); although the "free commercials" thing just sounds weird... Was this a public access channel TV station or something?
Do realize that you got lucky here - but it is better to be lucky than it is to be good.

-Allan :gl: