Legal Question

[Vision]

Hello:

In November 2004 I registered MyBlogIt.com. My vision & hope was to develop a portal that generated communal buzz. Unfortunately, personal & business challenges arose that blocked my pursuit of said goal. I thought BlogIt.com was a small hole in the wall firm. When I registered MyBlogIt.com I was in no way trying to capitalize on their crappy unknown site.

In July 2005 BlogIt.com established a trademark.
Today, BlogIt.com in a 1 sentence emailed statement says, "We registered Blogit.com a year and a half before you did, and believe that the use of any variation on blogit.com would be an attempt to benefit from the success of blogit.com."

Now couldn't MyBlog.com make a similar statement? (BTW The domain MyBlog.com sold for $400,000 in December 2005.)

MyBlogIt contains 3 common global keywords.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Is there opinion legit? Given their premise, wouldn't MyBlog.com have a say too?

Thank You.

Mike

[renochka]

I don't see how they can say that without providing documented proof which says that a variation of a trademarked name is not allowed. I think that they are just trying to get you to hand over the domain

[Ian]

as i see it this is quite simple. it is a matter of who registered before who--they did not obtain a trademark for blogit.com until less than 2 years ago which was ages after your had created your name. you might pursuit a case against them with a good lawyer and win it but it could prove costly if u lose.
however, don't be intimidated, stay firm while dealing with them.
good luck.

[Dave Zan]

Theoretically you should be able to defend it since you got the domain name
before they filed a TM for it. But their TM's coverage appears quite broad, and
how your domain name's currently showing possibly infringes it.

It really depends on how much you're willing to defend it...or not.

[scrsteven]

A one sentence informal email? Forget about it. Respond when they send a legal notice by mail.

[Zona]

I agree. I'd wait until from them with something more official than a one sentence email.

It doesn't sounds like they even asked you to do anything. If they are serious, I expect you should/will receive something much more detailed via email and/or US Mail.

[Vision]

I'm grateful for everyone's wonderful advice & opining. In the future, any of you are welcome to bounce ideas off me. Thank You.

[DNQuest.com]

If you look at the TM registeration (which has not been approved yet), first use of blogit is 2/23/04 which is the date that is used when establishing TM rights. And it appears blogit.com was up and running on 3/17/04. You registered myblogit.com on 11/23/04. You have the domain parked at sedo with links to competitors and have a for sale sign up.... so they do have ground to stand on.

And yes, Myblog could have some say so in this matter...

[Vision]

DNQuest:

Thank you for your explanation.

How about this rationale:

Blog.com was registered on April 14, 1998, established a trademark in 2000 and they have had 8 years of branding, capital & resources allocated to Blog.com.

Fast forward 6 years and people decide to register BlogIt.com to capitalize upon the fame & success of Blog.com.

Can Blog.com pursue BlogIt.com and say, "hey look you are taking advantage of our success by running a blogging site?"

Thanks.

[Dale Hubbard]

I don't see it. Check here for allowed multiple filings:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield...h=Submit+Query

[Dave Zan]

How about this rationale:

Blog.com was registered on April 14, 1998, established a trademark in 2000 and they have had 8 years of branding, capital & resources allocated to Blog.com.

Fast forward 6 years and people decide to register BlogIt.com to capitalize upon the fame & success of Blog.com.

Can Blog.com pursue BlogIt.com and say, "hey look you are taking advantage of our success by running a blogging site?"

Thanks.

Sure they can. But who "triumphs" is another story. :-D

[Ian]

but i doubt how far companies can get with multiple filings, if at all it is possible. it is extremely tricky here.

[Ian]

but i doubt how far companies can get with multiple filings, if at all it is possible. it is extremely tricky here.