What Constitutes Solicitation? (complicated question)

[Premiere]

I have a domain name I recently acquired which is the .com version of a corporation's sub-.org. No TM issues as the "corp" is a part of an non-TM institution and I only have the acronym. This was a pre-release which was previously registered by the .org owners. I have received no inquiries except a lowball $100 'certified' Network Solutions offer from an anonymous bidder.

I am wondering what exactly constitutes a solicitation from my corporation to those sending emails to these old addresses. This domain receives a number of emails daily to the very highly paid employees of the institution, and I guess this was an alternate address for them. If I autoreply to the emails with something like this is would it be in bad faith?

Dear [email protected],
Your offer for ACRONYM.COM has been received and stored in our database. Please note that only offers in the asking range will receive a response. To see a full list of our domains visit MYDOMAIN.COM. If you believe you have received this email in error, please delete it.
Sincerely,
[email protected]

Are there any other cases similar to this which are favorable or disfavorable to such a position?
Wire %%-

 

[Premiere]

Still looking for insights on this issue if anyone can offer their thoughts or legal opinions.

 

[Pommy - The DN Doc]

I realise that you have painstakingly set out what you see the issues are but more is needed in my view for some sort of advice. Especially about the acronym and how a corporation "is a part of an non-TM institution" - what does that mean?

 

[Premiere]

...how a corporation "is a part of an non-TM institution" - what does that mean?

I tried to write this up in a reasonable manner to explain it, but instead I sent you a pm. Anyone else who needs clarification on this I will also PM.

 

[Pommy - The DN Doc]

Thanks for your PM.

Based on what you have told me, I dont think that there is solicitation because your emails are replying, not cold calling. Also, they are auto-replying. If you wanted to be more cautious, you could leave references out to offers, and from what I understand, I doubt that those people emailing you will be wanting the name itself?

As always, non-lawyer opinions need lots pinches of salt when reading!

 

[-REECE-]

Why not call the company back and ask to speak to one of their execs (or however high you can manage to get)? Let them know what's been happening and take it from there -- not cold calling imo, seeing as their employees started it by spamming your email :]

 

[SlimPickins]

hi wire.....

i am not a lawyer, nor have i been in this position before but, IF it was my domain/situation as you describe i would do the following:

drop the auto reply email completely..... looks like you are just sitting on it waiting for "acceptable offers", but the emails that it receives are intended to be correspondence no longer getting through, NOT interested buyers. And the people sending the emails are likely not going to be interested in purchasing it. Then, once you have sorted out WHAT you want to do with the domain, have something legitimate set up on it and THEN notice that random emails seem to pour in intended for someone else, do along the lines of what Reece suggested, and contact the execs of the corp, let them politely know that it appears that emails intended for them have been landing in your email for your site, and that they should contact their tech dept/HR dept to update their emails system so they do not miss out on any more potentially VERY important emails as, apparently, their colleagues/business contacts etc seem to (rightly so) have the .com email addy embedded in their heads and are sending them to you instead. that is a polite, professional way to make someone up high know that the domain is now someone else's and, if that bothers them, THEY can open up the negotiations with an offer. or, at the very least, they might just thank you for your time and fix the problem, but at least saving you the time waiting and wondering if they might be interested..... that's my angle on it anyways, for what it's worth. good luck! sp

 

[Premiere]

I have attempted to contact one of the few people I can find for this domain and have received no response. If I have time on Monday I might try to make some calls but I think I might wind up spamming senders with messages about changing their email contact addresses which will at least get people talking. Right now I am getting no traction in any direction.

With this particular name you would think someone would have reached out by now, but my guess is the lame $100 network solutions offer I received was their very feeble attempt at contact. End users, even exceptionally wealthy corporate ones, are incredibly poor at figuring out simple things.