Offer To Buy

[PRED]

Ok Guys,
need a little advice here. Just trawled through first 9 pages and there is no thread like this so think this may help others too.

First off until past couple of months i had never had any legal problems with domains, but i think lawyers a.ka. ambulance chasers are more and more seeing this area as a pot of gold and frightening 'clients' and also more 'clients' are getting web savvy and wanting to own certain properties by hook or by crook.

Well, from zero to 3 complaints in past few months.

First off, one , a .info that i dealt with myself against a top lawyer before it got to wipo, they backed down . I researched so many threads and wipo cases and also luckily i was genuine, it is a geo domain and the joke is the com, and other extensions had been took by this company at wipo. A couple of respondents were guilty imo but the fact it was a geo and no lawyer defending or wipo even acknowledged this was startling in any case. In the end they just asked to put a disclaimer on my site, which i did. I may blog about it in time as it's a great example of fighting your corner, especially when you are genuine. And winning!

Anyway, the next case, number 2, was another genuine case. The domain i have is a 2 word generic, lightly developed and i have plans for. A large company with the .com want it. The boss contacted me direct (i have privacy) but via contact form and said hand over , dont develop further

I got back to him and explained his trademarks were for him, im in a totally different area, different juristiction blah, blah.
Was polite and to point, was not going to backdown when i have done nothing wrong. Now i also never use lawyers, as they are in the most part ripoff scumbags and got burnt once before on some litigation, cost a fortune, they did jackshit and had used firm before for other stuff and they were good then. In this game if you do your homework before anything happens and after, you're in a good place. You can defend yourself in my experience before a wipo and during, don't keep the bottomfeeders (lawyers) in existence. (present company excluded )

Ok, my point................ , is with forums such as these and archive resources we all help each other, and thats what i need as i know if i rack my brains i will come up with a good response to his latest email. But having a bit of a brain blockage today.
He basically said, is it for sale, how much?

Now they haven't involved any lawyers yet, well, they may have got advice behind scenes, but they dont know who i am yet and havent obviously contacted me. They do, genuinely want to buy and although i had no plans to sell, everything is available for the right price if you know what i mean.

Do i get back and say, we had no plans to sell, never marketed the site for sale and are actively building out behind scenes. 'If' we were to sell we would need xx,xxx sort of range. Again, submit an offer but we can't guarantee we would accept, we would only consider as an online media company we occassionally get offers and it allows us to channel proceeds into other areas of development.

blah, blah

would this be safe?

i'm aware if not worded right, some wipo panels , would say bad faith. but they contacted me, ive shown its lightly developed and being worked on behind scenes, cleared up the tm area for them and answered emails etc

but just worried the angle of an 'exorbitant asking price' could be held against me, seen it in wipo before, also fact i have privacy on whois , could be held against me. again i feel i can defend all this if went to wipo, but want to avoid giving their legal team any excuse to do that. this is the problem, lets face it companies listen to their legal team, and lawyers always work in their best interests, not their clients. so im worried if im saying over like 10k they'll think, sod it, wipo him.

it kills me when you are genuine, you have to think like this and cover all your bases. i own this property, im genuine, but it makes you paranoid just of late

any help and advice in wording greatly appreciated.

by the way, when discussing lawyers above, im generalising, obviously not talking about the great lawyers and legal minds we have on here

your presence is very much appreciated on here

cheers Guy

[Keyboard Cowboy]

This is exactly what i've been pondering as of late as well. How to do it right and cover your bases when someone approaches you. My issue is especially with lll.com's and .net's, but generics would apply as well

Would like to hear opinions on this as well. Thanks for bringing this up

[draggar]

This is exactly what i've been pondering as of late as well. How to do it right and cover your bases when someone approaches you. My issue is especially with lll.com's and .net's, but generics would apply as well

I agree, I think John Berryhill recently defended a WIPO case where the claimant offered to purchase the domain and then used the respondent's agreement to sell it as evidence of bad faith.

Its sad people pull this BS because it makes people more apprehensive to even sell (also making it harder for end users to buy domains that they could use).

[PRED]

I once pondered question before on here and sort of threw it open for the onboard lawyers (can't find thread, was yonks ago), saying i've done all legwork, in a good place but the final negs required, does a lawyer want to do it here. A contact email from an official lawyer that you don't have to pay, but if they pull off for correct price you say give them 10%.

I'd consider that or word myself. I'll give it some deep thought. Again would really appreciate any advice and wording , in this thread please.

I will keep the thread updated on progress.

Thing is since my last email corrrespondance, that was in dec 08. He just got back yesterday, so want to bide a little time. Im thinking of adding a time limit to my offer though. It sort of covers me imo and makes it look genuine , which it is, that once full development goes beyong a certain point , we simply wouldn't sell because of all the branding and promotion etc. Also once you put an offer in an email etc it is legally binding, so a time limit is to cover our bases, and we are not actively looking to sell anyway. I was thinking of giving them 2 weeks?

[jasdon11]

Don't know how this would pan out....but....how about telling them:

"I am not actively looking to sell the name because I do have genuine development plans for it.

However, to say it cannot be bought is not correct, in the same way that the house I live in, the chair I'm sitting on, the clothes I'm wearing, can also be bought. In other words, I am not selling the name, but I may be induced into giving up my plans for it, for a consideration.

I am wary that others previously have used such negotiations against registrants at wipo, so if you are making an approach to secure the name (rather than trick me) I would discuss with you, subject to written confirmation that your intentions are such, not in gathering evidence to use against me at some future date. This or the placing of funds into escrow."

Good luck!

[acronym007]

I own a house, a car, and a domain name. None are for sale but if someone offered me the right price for my house I would sell it.

Be vague but direct.

I would never say it's for sale, even if they contacted you first to purcahse. Never use those words. That is the safest route.

Good luck.

[PRED]

I own a house, a car, and a domain name. None are for sale but if someone offered me the right price for my house I would sell it.

Be vague but direct.

I would never say it's for sale, even if they contacted you first to purcahse. Never use those words. That is the safest route.

Good luck.

i know what you mean, my ass is for sale for the right price
i'd eat pillow, but it would cost you a cool billion

anyway, cut to the chase, whats the wording then?

[PeterMan]

This is interesting , I now find myself ion the same position and wondering the exact same thing... I am trying to come up with a well crafted email right now...

I will pm you with my response if you like...