Legal threats from company with no trademark or service mark

[Cartoonz]

The .net and org is not owned by them. the .co was registered by my friend about a month ago...

You've answered your own question.
1. Its a dot co. UDRP panelists are sick of those already, even in situations where it would seem the Respondent "might" have a chance... ".co = No"
2. She already knew about the existence of this large company and the name of them before she recently registered their exact name in ".co"

take the $5k and RUN... otherwise, I hope what you said about her not needing money is true... 'cause she'll likely end up losing a pile of it.

[south]

Is there an echo in the forum?

Take the money & run....

[Sole Designer]

This "powerful & wealthy " company does not appear to be very sophisticated.

If i told you the company name and their business and how much assets they own you would drop a brick. With that said, your comment of their sophistication is a good one. I imagined they would be more professional but from what i read in her emails, they really like to threaten and throw out anything they can to scare people.

After their threats and then registering for a trademark all to try and use the "I own a trademark" excuse, they offer $5k for a domain they swore they owned. No sophistication at all.

---------- Post added at 12:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 AM ----------

Accept the $5K offer (today if I were you) and you have a legal contract for a sale.

It sounds like the standard boiler-plate language (you have no case, you are wrong, we will win) is spooking your friend.

Anything is possible, but unless she brought up selling the name first (advertised it elsewhere) and had no intention of blogging, I don't see how anyone would take a claim of bad faith sersiously.

If she has been blogging for a while and has some readers, ask for a redirect from badname.co to great.org or soso.com for half a year or less.

It sounds like she needs some basic advice on domain names. Here is a somewhat dated ebook I wrote a while ago:
http://www.seemly.com/book.pdf

If a company is willing to pay her $5K for a hundred percent chance of winning, I would worry more about them paying their lawyers to take legal action if she declines the $5K.

She never offered to sell the domain. She still refuses to sell it for any amount but i am trying to persuade her to consider it seriously. Will send her that book link, thanks!

---------- Post added at 12:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 AM ----------

You've answered your own question.
1. Its a dot co. UDRP panelists are sick of those already, even in situations where it would seem the Respondent "might" have a chance... ".co = No"
2. She already knew about the existence of this large company and the name of them before she recently registered their exact name in ".co"

take the $5k and RUN... otherwise, I hope what you said about her not needing money is true... 'cause she'll likely end up losing a pile of it.

Thanks for the words Cartoonz. Like i said i will use some of what i got here to persuade her in selling but it will be up to her. Thanks for the info.

[eeedc]

" I imagined they would be more professional but from what i read in her emails, they really like to threaten and throw out anything they can to scare people. "

It's standard legal positioning. Don't take it personally or it will cost you $5,000.

The standard legal positioning is obvious when two opposing lawyers talk to the press. One will say, "The case is totally without merit." The other will say, "We caught them red-handed." When both lawyers know that no case is a sure winner and no case is a sure loser.

---------- Post added at 04:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:37 PM ----------

Take the money and run. Everyone here wishes we had your/her problem. A two-word dot co is worthless.

[Aristo]

yeah, there is definately an echo going on. I would counter offer, and settle for maybe $4.5-5k. Or just take The $3000 and be happy about it, especially if .net and .org are still available
i know that I haven't sold a $30 .co for 100 times the initial investment.

[eeedc]

The $3000 and be happy about it, especially if .net and .org are still available
.

If the dot org or dot net, I would take it as a sign the name is not that good, but I would not use the dot org or dot net for legal reasons even if the company has not already registered them.

Maybe she has fallen in love with "the one" domain name, which happens often and how people here sell some names, instead of looking at all options.
Falling in love with one domain name is about as successful as falling in love with someone at first sight.

[MPinelli]

lol i wish I could make $5k on a hand reg. im sure I could find a new domain......and a few new toys to make me forget about the old domain.

plus .co? better off with any other extension if she's serious about her site. you know how much work it would take to make her blog worth 5k to anyone but this company? sigh.....

[Aristo]

ok here is another idea. so your "friend" with the .co holds on for the name. then someone else registers .net, and a third person regs a .org domain.
yes, i know they just supposedly filed for a TM, but it will take a while.

And if you have 3 people ( who are not related) who own the company's domains, it is going to be difficult for them to proof "bad faith" or that their name is recognizable / trademarkable

So maybe you can buy some of my .co(s) now, that you are so rich!!!! haha

[eeedc]

And if you have 3 people ( who are not related) who own the company's domains, it is going to be difficult for them to proof "bad faith" or that their name is recognizable / trademarkable

I would guess that the company might have given up on trying to argue "bad faith" if she really was blogging. The company only has to argue that they were there first, which is undisputed, and that the names are similar enough to cause some harm to them.

For example, even if your name is, Cooke, you can't even in "good faith" sell Cooke Cola.

And don't tease the bear. Take the money. Say, "thank you," and run.

[eeedc]

Every cease and desist letter sounds threatening as on this thread strarted today.

http://www.dnforum.com/f26/cease-des...ml#post2032949

Don't take it personally.

[Gerry]

Send one back to the sender.

See this thread post:

http://www.dnforum.com/f26/cease-des...ml#post2032959

[eeedc]

It looks like I and Doc Com both linked to the same thread, at about the same time, but we both made the error of not linking to the top post. Sorry about that; just scroll up.

If your friend is still in love with a dot co, she may not realize that she is losing customers to the .com since most poeple will forget or never notice that it's not a .com. Maybe CoCo.co is snappy and worth something. But, most two-word dot-coms are not worth anwhere near $5,000. For example my own UpperStage.com , two words that often go together and 10 letters is maybe a $1,000 name.

---------- Post added at 12:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:33 PM ----------

I swear I did not look first, and I take Estibot.com estimates with a grain of salt, but they just said UpperStage.com is worth $1,000

http://www.estibot.com/appraise.php?...upperstage.com