Just received a 'cease and desist' email

[RSK3000]

Can anyone help - appears to be an all to common problem for domainers.

Just received a 'cease and desist' email from a US based company.
I'm in Manchester.

They claim my domain name infringes their trade mark.

As the domain has always been parked for sale on SEDO I can't see how site visitors would be confused that the parked page was connected with their company. But thats what they claim.

I don't want to say the domain for obvious reasons, but, if my .com domain name was "iSiteHosting" their trademark would be "iSite", and they would own the dot com domain iSite.

I've got 7 days 'to stop using this domain name' before they take action against me under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, the Lanham Act and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy ("UDRP").

My questions are............

How worried should I be about this?
Would you fight or just let the domain drop? - without the 'i' I'd value the domain at $2,000 max.

Any websites that have advice for domain owners in my position?

Any suggestions or general advice would be appreciated.

 

[BG]

PM Sent.

Best,
Barry

 

[accelerator]

Did you register the domain after their trademark?

Is your domain related to a business service covered by their trademark?

Have PPC ads been displayed by the Sedo holding page that related to their trademark?

Do you think they have a case?

Rgds

 

[foz]

Welcome to the club.

Seek legal advice.

 

[Skinner]

If the "Hosting" word applies to their business, lets say McDonaldsBurgers vs McDonaldsHotels then the golden arches have no beef (pun intended) otherwise, you're probably waist deep in doo doo. Simply put.

 

[RobM]

Is it possible to send a C&D by email now? I have had many over the years and every single one has been delivered by mail and *had* to sign to prove I'd received it. Also I don't remember the UDRP ever being mentioned on dot coms - was always cease and desist or we'll see you in court. This sounds odd to me. What if you didn't receive the email?

 

[bensd]

Have you ever received or defended against a C&D letter, DRS or UDRP?

Did you register the domain after their trademark?

Is your domain related to a business service covered by their trademark?

Have PPC ads been displayed by the Sedo holding page that related to their trademark?

Do you think they have a case?

Rgds

 

[RobM]

BTW don't know if it's still an issue but Sedo could be 'gamed'. Basically a person wanting your domain when confronted with a sedo page of ads not related could type in certain search terms related to their business. They would do this over and over again and from as many different connections as possible. Eventually when a fresh visitor came to sedo he was confronted with ads directly in competition with the person who had been messing with it as the sedo 'algorithm' had deemed what was most likely being looked for. They would then take a screen shot and move to threaten mode. Basically sedo does not mean at all that you are safe - it all depends what is seen at the other end.

 

[RSK3000]

accelerator - yes to all except I'm not sure about Sedo displaying their ads.

foz - thanks

skinner - without the letter ' i ' the term is as generic as "site hosting"

RobM - defo by email. Perhaps letter is still to come.......

bensd - i've been involved with domain names as a hobby for more than 10 years and never had any domain name disputes. Except for the time I registered some LLLL domains which had previously been used by spammers, and I just let them go!

Its interesting that the company doesn't want the domain name. They simply want me to " cease and desist" using the name and write to them to say I will do so within 7 days.

 

[accelerator]

Could you form any sort of argument that the term in your domain is "generic"? If not, the fact they had a Trademark related to the term and the business service before you ever registered the domain puts you in a weak position. Trademarks are powerful in cases like this.

 

[foz]

Could you form any sort of argument that the term in your domain is "generic"? If not, the fact they had a Trademark related to the term and the business service before you ever registered the domain puts you in a weak position. Trademarks are powerful in cases like this.

Comes down to domain use (when generic).

No ads showing within the TM class, safe.

TMs are to protect in trade, not to bash domainers over the head with.