advice What to do?

[decryn]

Hi. I bought a number of domain names associated with the cryptocurreny market in Germany... so mostly .de addresses. I know that 4 letter domains are in demand so I bought btcq.de, btcr.de, btcv.de, btcz.de,.. I also bought 4 bmw#.de addresses (thinking bitcoinmoneywallet ) bmwb.de, bmwn.de, bmwo.de and bmwy.de . Anyway, I have had an enquiry through 1&1 (where I bought them) as to the legality of me owning these bmw# domains as I live in Austria- I am hoping this will not be a problem as I understand all I need is a delivery address in Germany and my partner (life partner) is German and registered there. The enquiry to 1&1 came from BMW- the car people. I bought these domains about a month ago with the hope of selling them again. My question is what do I do now?.. I have no experience in selling domains now that I know BMW are interested in 4 of my domain names I am at a loss as for what steps I should now take. I dont know that they want to buy them but I am guessing that they dont like that I own them. All information and advice would be very much appreciated.. I could really do with some.. Thanks in advance.... Declan

 

[Kuffy]

I would see if 1&1 will let you grace delete them. I gather 1&1 is not the best registrar for a domain dealer anyway.

 

[karmaco]

Make sure there are no BMW ads on any landing pages. That might be how they found you. If so I would take the landing pages down immediately or make sure they are ad free If you don’t have landing pages at all I would keep it that way. As far as a reply not sure what that would be. You selected a well known trademarked acronym and I doubt they will believe your bitcoin idea. It might be best to let those go,

 

[decryn]

Hi.. Why would I delete them? Why not offer them to BMW to buy? I hope that is not a naive or stupid question.

 

[decryn]

I have done nothing at all with them.. not even a webpage. They are 4 letter domain names- bmw just happens to be the first 3 letters. Can I really get in trouble for that?

 

[deez007]

Hi.. Why would I delete them? Why not offer them to BMW to buy? I hope that is not a naive or stupid question.

If you offer it to them to buy and they decide to take legal action against you then you would have no case at all. Bad idea

 

[Kate]

Hi. I bought a number of domain names associated with the cryptocurreny market in Germany... so mostly .de addresses. I know that 4 letter domains are in demand

In .de too ? I doubt. Otherwise why were they available ?

Anyway, I have had an enquiry through 1&1 (where I bought them) as to the legality of me owning these bmw# domains as I live in Austria

The admin contact (not the registrant) needs to be resident in Germany. Some registrars will provide you with a local admin contact if you don't have one.
Germany requires a German admin contact to serve legal notices, which is exactly what is happening here.

The enquiry to 1&1 came from BMW- the car people. I bought these domains about a month ago with the hope of selling them again. My question is what do I do now?.. I have no experience in selling domains now that I know BMW are interested in 4 of my domain names I am at a loss as for what steps I should now take. I dont know that they want to buy them but I am guessing that they dont like that I own them. All information and advice would be very much appreciated.. I could really do with some.. Thanks in advance.... Declan

You have not done enough research. You are buying names without a clear understanding of their potential and the pool of potential users.
Of course, if you buy a lot of names that contain a well-known trademark, it is a worrying pattern for TM holders. They are obviously wondering what you have in mind, perhaps they fear you will set up phishing sites or something like that. Unless you can have justify a legitimate use for these names, it is assumed that your intentions are wrong.
The big companies are usually proactively looking for copyright and trademark infringements, and they often use monitoring services to spot new domain names that may infringe. So they found you.

Hi.. Why would I delete them? Why not offer them to BMW to buy? I hope that is not a naive or stupid question.

That is the very definition of cybersquatting. Go ahead, ask them to buy the names then they have all the evidence to complete their case and sue you in Germany, the justice system is rather strict and efficient and I think the same holds true in Austria. You should tread carefully. This is not a game. If you bought these names in the hope they will want to buy them from you, that was a mistake. Maybe they will pay someone, but it will be their lawyers, not you.
The best would be to request deletion of these names, since they are not assets but liabilities. Unless you have very compelling reasons for owning them and they are worth fighting for, which I doubt.

 

[decryn]

Thank you Kate. That was a great reply. no, i havent bought a lot of trademark names.. just these 4. the other 4 letter domain letters are btc# or eth ones. thank you