What would you do?

[Intense]

Got this email less than 24 hours after registering two domain names. Names are used by this business but are not trademarked at all.

We would have in good faith negotiated with them to possibly sell them the names, but after the tone of the email, we are not impressed. We thought about using the names but at this point just regged them because they were good names....

What would you do? Ask them to make an offer and forget the tone of the email? Comments would be appreciated...



I have called them THEM below...


==================
Greetings…

I am curious about your domain name services and a couple of domain names in particular that appear to be registered through xxxxxxxx or an apparently affiliated organization. The two domains in particular are xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xom and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxother.com. Unless there is an incredible coincidence, I have to assume that the person or organization who registered these domains is either trying to make a point or they have a particular axe to grind with our organization, THEM. The content of the web page used as a ‘front’ for both of these domain names appears to be somewhat humorous on the surface, but is doing nothing to assist in the very serious business of progressing xxxxxxxxxx in the province of Ontario.

xxxxxxxxx appears to offer some services which may be of interest to an organization such as US. If your organization has no knowledge of the two domain names above, then I bring it to your attention now, as this may not be the type of image you want linked back to your company (as the registered owners of the two domains). If you are aware of the web site and the domain names, I would suggest it would be in your best interest to re-think use of these domains and have discussions with us instead.

Sincerely
THEM
=============

 

[dgridley]

Hm, I always wondered who "they" were.. now I have to wonder about "them" too??

 

[Dave_Z]

The one who brought it up with you...what did they initially say exactly?

Have you been able to research about them?

 

[Jammer]

It's hard to say without exactly knowing what the names are.If nothing else,the letter shows that they are passionate about their cause/issue.That can be either good or bad,depending on how you look at it.

 

[wisconsin]

Do they have a trademark/common law rights to the names?

I think rushing to offering them for sale, is NOT a good idea. Since, you just registered them, you may need to wait patiently and see what they have to offer.In the meantime, do not disclose your intentions about what you're going to do with the domains and simply say that you have plans for them for now.

Try to get as much info as possible, like why do they think your domains would conflict with their company business.

Perhaps, if you give us more specific and close examples to your situation by using similar and different existing company names, members can offer you realistic feedback!

 

[IAmAllanShore]

If you bought with the intent to sell, that hurts the whole (your words) "good faith" claim.

Really, we'd need to know more. I can't even follow the letter w/o knowing the background.

-Allan

 

[nRnF]

If you would post the names, I am shure that NP members could give you some real good advice, but we should know the names to do a little research.

 

[dc1pop]

look up the copyright before you proceed.

 

[Dave_Z]

look up the copyright before you proceed.

It's trademarks you should be worried about if it's only regarding the names,
not copyrights.

 

[Intense]

This company has a presense and it a government owned agency. They are using an acronym for their main web site that uses their initials.

The email we received was our FIRST contact with them. We have not approached them or replied yet to them..

The two names do contain their business name but also use generic everyday words words. We intend(ed) to develop these as one site that is live at present (very basic though).

They do not have any trademarks (Canadian or US) that involve their name and hence the two names should not have trademark issues.

AN EXAMPLE OF THE NAMES
An example of one name would be "Canadian Intellectual Property Office dot com" whereas they actually use cipo dot ca

BTW Canadian Intellectual Property Office dot com is not even registered !!

 

[Dave_Z]

If you're not going to sell the name to them, you might as well develop it at
the soonest possible time. More importantly, make sure it doesn't make any
reference whatsoever to the other party in question.

How do you intend to use the name?

 

[Intense]

How do you intend to use the name?

Generation of traffic for Adsense and another affiliate program. Goal was to develop site in order to create more traffic for above (to generate revenue of course)

May offer ad placement as well in future.

Original purchase of names was for above purposes. Never thought we would get emails within 24 hours of registering them....

 

[Woodcs82]

my advice

NO TRADEMARK ON THE NAME , then NO WORRIES!

if they dont have a trademark they cant do anything.

 

[Intense]

Thanks everyone.

We will ignore the email and see what happens. Will update thread if contact is made again.

 

[Intense]

UPDATE : just received from THE COMPANY... from their Director of Procurement.


"THE COMPANY has clear and well established rights in and to "THE COMPANY" and "THE COMPANY AGENCY" as names, and THE COMPANY reiterates its request that you transfer the related domain names to THE COMPANY as soon as possibleIn return, THE COMPANY is prepared to reimburse you for all reasonable out-of-pocket expenses that you have incurred to register them and that you will incur when transferring them to THE COMPANY"

They do not own a trademark resembling these names.....

What would "you" consider to be "reasonable out-of-pocket expenses" ?

 

[{insert name here}]

Since they dont have the trademark, I would say a "reasonable out-of-pocket expenses" would be $XX,XXX range, if they want them so bad. LOL

 

[Dave_Z]

These are just my thoughts and not to be construed as advice.

Assuming the other party in question has retained counsel who is versed in
this subject, they could argue that your intent to generate traffic for
Adsense and another affiliate program could constitute bad faith. I don't know
if any UDRP so far says otherwise, still checking (and it's a lot of info to
check).

Just because they don't have a registered trademark doesn't mean they don't
have common law trademarks. CLT doesn't have to be registered, but they do
have to prove such.

Two problems here are proving you have a legitimate use for those names and
you're not using them to divert users from their sites, especially the latter.
Chances are you'll be found to infringe on their marks if they can even prove
they have common law trademarks.

If it ever reaches UDRP and you prove you never used the names in bad
faith, you have a chance. But if you really want to cover your bases, you
might to use the names in a non-commercial manner for the time being.

However, just because you win in UDRP doesn't mean the other party won't
go the Court route. Be prepared for that possibility.

 

[Intense]

These are just my thoughts and not to be construed as advice.

Assuming the other party in question has retained counsel who is versed in
this subject, they could argue that your intent to generate traffic for
Adsense and another affiliate program could constitute bad faith. I don't know
if any UDRP so far says otherwise, still checking (and it's a lot of info to
check).

Just because they don't have a registered trademark doesn't mean they don't
have common law trademarks. CLT doesn't have to be registered, but they do
have to prove such.

Two problems here are proving you have a legitimate use for those names and
you're not using them to divert users from their sites, especially the latter.
Chances are you'll be found to infringe on their marks if they can even prove
they have common law trademarks.

If it ever reaches UDRP and you prove you never used the names in bad
faith, you have a chance. But if you really want to cover your bases, you
might to use the names in a non-commercial manner for the time being.

However, just because you win in UDRP doesn't mean the other party won't
go the Court route. Be prepared for that possibility.

Good food for thought. We will probably ask for our actual costs for each name and then ask them to donate $100.00 to a local children's hospital foundation. We would not profit from the transaction, but the children's hospital would.

That donation would make me happy as they would profit from the names....

 

[Dave_Z]

Good food for thought. We will probably ask for our actual costs for each name and then ask them to donate $100.00 to a local children's hospital foundation. We would not profit from the transaction, but the children's hospital would.

That donation would make me happy as they would profit from the names....

Great way to start the new year. :tu:

 

[johndoberman]

Look at how they wrote that letter!

Sounds like the damn MAFIA to me or something. Its like "better talk with us OR ELSE". I dont like the sound of that.

 

[wisconsin]

If I were you, I would ask for a higher donation to the local children's hospital foundation.

 

[Midano]

"THEY" are trying to bully you. Ignore THEM.