.mobi Trouble or Money?

[RayUK]

I am a newbie when it comes to domains. But recently I had purchased some .mobi domains which have a the name of a major car manufacturer. I have received a letter from company saying that I have infringed their trademark and have asked me to sign away the rights to the domains. The .mobi domains are just parked, with no stupid pages, so it's not getting them any bad reputation as such.

Anyway, my question is - Am I in trouble? Or would you think I can still pass the domains to them for some cash?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

 

[Keith]

What are the names?

keithmt

 

[scandiman]

non generic TM names are trouble. If you owned Hummer.mobi you would likely loose it but if you owned Mercury.mobi and had a site with info about the planet then you would be OK. Of course nothing prevents them from suing you anyway.

 

[Pred]

I am a newbie when it comes to domains. But recently I had purchased some .mobi domains which have a the name of a major car manufacturer. I have received a letter from company saying that I have infringed their trademark and have asked me to sign away the rights to the domains. The .mobi domains are just parked, with no stupid pages, so it's not getting them any bad reputation as such.

Anyway, my question is - Am I in trouble? Or would you think I can still pass the domains to them for some cash?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

yeah, post what they are. if they're like 'fordparts.mobi or something, just hand them back.
personally quite pleased they're so keen to get them. sorry about your loss though :p
let it be a lesson, will save you cash in long run
if you make your mind you're gonna hand back, you have nothing to lose by asking for regfees refunded plus a bit extra for your admin costs as a gesture of good will from them.
its what i would do, if i regged tms

 

[-REECE-]

non generic TM names are trouble. If you owned Hummer.mobi you would likely loose it but if you owned Mercury.mobi and had a site with info about the planet then you would be OK. Of course nothing prevents them from suing you anyway.

Agreed. Something like fusion.mobi which could be a site about the limitless possibilities brought about by deuterium-tritium fusion would stand a good fight against Ford and the Ford Fusion in example.

However, if you regged FordFusion.mobi, good luck with that one :lala:

In short, if you regged the companies name (i.e. General Motors, Ford, Ferrari,...), you'll likely be in trouble, however if you registered an abbreviation (i.e. GM, which could mean not only General Motors, but Genetically Modified) or a particular line which happens to be generic in nature (like the fusion example above -- registering RX300 is NOT a good idea).

 

[onassis]

Ignore them until you received the summons. If you received the summon, just refuse the letter. You can be excused to attend the court and they cannot do anything to your domain name. Usually, most people will panicked when received a letter. It costs less than 50 USD to send a legal letter. Sometime, even cheaper at 5USD for telecom companies. Standarized format always. 100%, they are just trying their luck to see whether r u stupid to give it up for free. They will mail at least 2 letters in the hopes that you reply. If you reply, they will seek for stupid answers from you which link to bad faith.

Most of the times, if you ignore them. They will forgetten you and put the matters a side.

Given reply without legal knowledge is the most stupid thing. If you do not know how to negotiate, dun reply it.

Not give it a damm. Summon to court are only legal issues that concern you, it mean that they really bring it to the court. Legal letter from lawyer are worthless but court letter are different. Even you lose, just give up the name and nothing to lose.

Alternative, go to surf other extension of the same name and analysis what they are offering. You can use it for other purpose and they cannot do anything.

Notes: Not reply them but only when you received court summon or letter. In reality, lawyer letter are just a format letter without value.

:tri:

 

[Mark]

Ignore them until you received the summons. If you received the summon, just refuse the letter. You can be excused to attend the court and they cannot do anything to your domain name. Usually, most people will panicked when received a letter. It costs less than 50 USD to send a legal letter. Sometime, even cheaper at 50USD for telecom companies. Standarized format always. 100%, they are just trying their luck to see whether r u stupid to give it up for free. They will mail at least 2 letters in the hopes that you reply. If you reply, they will seek for stupid answers from you which link to bad faith.

Most of the times, if you ignore them. They will forgetten you and put the matters a side.

Given reply without legal knowledge is the most stupid thing. If you do not know how to negotiate, dun reply it.

Not give it a damm. Summon to court are only legal issues that concern you, it mean that they really bring it to the law. Legal letter from lawyer are worthless but court letter are different. Even you lose, just give up the name and nothing to lose.

Alternative, go to surf other extension of the same name and analysis what they are offering. You can use it for other purpose and they cannot do anything.

Notes: Not reply them but only when you received court summon or letter. In reality, lawyer letter are just a format letter without value.

:tri:

? What Matchbook did you read this on ?

Please don't give Advice to people unless you've actually had experience Folks.



BTW - I see several people telling them to Openly post the domains in here .... Good idea - This section is only crawled by BOTS every other second of the day. Start a thread in the Legal section if you want BOTS to not see the names "At the very least". http://www.namepros.com/legal-issues-and-disputes/

 

[Keith]

? What Matchbook did you read this on ?

Please don't give Advice to people unless you've actually had experience Folks.



BTW - I see several people telling them to Openly post the domains in here .... Good idea - This section is only crawled by BOTS every other second of the day. Start a thread in the Legal section if you want BOTS to not see the names "At the very least". http://www.namepros.com/legal-issues-and-disputes/

What difference would it make if he posts the names? It wont change the fact that he is still the owner. They may be names he could potentially keep but wont know it if he cant get advice.

keithmt

 

[onassis]

Sorry, it based upon my previous working experiences with a MNC. I prepare the affividat behalf of the company and attached company trademarks to submit for legal action towards other competitors using our trademarks.

We mail several lawyer letters to the party for infringement our trademark and demand them to destroy the products immediately. They ignore it and continue production. Therefore, we submitted to the court for summon the party to the court, but it just refused to collect the summon letter by the court. Therefore, the party did not disrespect the court for not attending the court. The legal term, the moment you receive the summon, you does not have the right to refuse to attend the court and must attend it at all cost.

It push on for five years due to absence of the party and the best we can do is to raid the production plan. I worked for a famous japanese MNC. What I observe, merchants usually take lawyer letter for granted but court letter they take it seriously.

It might be different for domains issues. :great:

 

[Mark]

Why ?

#1 - This isnt the legal section

#2 - There are TM Leeches out there. The correspondence could be FAKE .. and by posting the names in here - The "Real" company could be alerted. This isnt the legal section once again