Should I Bother with this?

[HeavyLifting]

I have been contacted via email by a company regarding a domain name i recently acquired. They contacted me, and i had no prior knowledge of their company. They are doing business as this name, under a european ccTLD. The name in question is a made up (word-smithed) word, not a generic word.

I replied to their email quickly and kindly and suggested we come to an arrangement to aviod UDRP (which they threatened). I suggested a few hundred dollars to cover my time with correspondence, the transfer, and the registration expense, etc.

They replied with an offer of little more than $10.

My question is this:

Since it is not even worth my time to bow to them for so little money, can I just go ahead and make them go through the additional expense of UDRP? Am I taking on any additional risk? If I lose UDRP, would I not just hand over the domain? I've never gone through UDRP before, so I don't really know what the costs and risks are for a respondent. I would 'represent' myself in this case since this is not a coveted domain.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[dax]

It seems that they are pretty arrogant. Let them file UDRP complaint. It will cost them about 200 times more than they offered you.
If you loose, domain will just be handed over to them, and you will not have any expenses regarding that. Well, you dont even have to respond to the complaint if you dont want to.

[draqon]

if you lose the UDRP, your domain is automatically turned over to them. you might think thats the end of the matter, but its not. In the future, other companies can refer to this UDRP decision to show that you have a history of cybersquatting. Its best not to have that record, it weakens your chances of winning a UDRP in the future.

i'd recommend transferring the domain to another registrar, using some fake registration info, and informing these guys that you have sold the domain. That way the UDRP will probably reflect the new guy's whois info.

[HeavyLifting]

i'd recommend transferring the domain to another registrar, using some fake registration info, and informing these guys that you have sold the domain. That way the UDRP will probably reflect the new guy's whois info.

wouldn't such a 'sale' be in bad faith, since i've already been contacted? would these guys have any recourse with me on this issue?

[draqon]

yes, technically such a sale would be in bad faith. but its dubious whether their attorney will be smart enough to mention your "old" name and business name on the UDRP, so at least if you lose you won't have your name on a lost UDRP case.

anyway you should be more worried about bad faith with your offer to sell the domain to them for several hundred dollars, that is definitely bad faith and weakens your case considerably.

[HeavyLifting]

anyway you should be more worried about bad faith with your offer to sell the domain to them for several hundred dollars, that is definitely bad faith and weakens your case considerably.

even though they contacted me? i never heard of them. my offer was a suggestion for an alternative to UDRP.

[seeker]

a made up word.
a euro cc Tld...
and a threat?

I am no lawyer, and I am sure you can get better advice, but unless they are big time players, in which case, I would check all neighbooring tlds to see who owns them...
in case they dont, you are probably being pushed around...
If you had just not replied with the offer, IMHO, you would have been clear.
as is, it really depends on the company.
Check for TMs etc...

[websitedeveloper]

I'm in the exact same situation but with a Swedish company who emailed me a similar message. I just replied to them last week:

"Hi,

My name is XXXXXX XXXX and I'm the owner of XXXXXXX.com

I did not "steal" your company's name. I haven't even heard of it nor have I
visited your website, until recently. I simply coined the term XXXXXX coincidentally a
long time ago and decided that it is a cool name to call an application I'm
working on and as I noticed the domain name was unregistered and found out
that "XXXXXXX" is not a famous mark, nor is it a registered trade mark in the US, UK
or EU, I decided it is the name I would use.

I'm not infringing or breaking the law by using the name XXXXXXX for my application and site. Please correct me if you believe I'm wrong.

If there's something I can help you with please do not hesitate to contact me again."

Well they did contact me again and offered $15,000 for the domain!

I think if the word is not TMd in US, UK or EU, and you have not shown bad faith, you have nothing to worry about.

[seeker]

way to go!!!
bravo!!

Free enterprise scores a win!

It has become a *bad habit* for companies around the world to threaten and bully people around.
ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

[freestyler]

Honestly if i were you, i wouldn't bother.

[NameWolf]

I say dont' give in to their threats if you feel you have a case. I am just tired of corporate entities trying to push individuals around by taking advantage of the law.

[draqon]

The fact that they contacted you, strengthens your case. The fact that you offered to sell them the domain for a significantly higher price than the registration fee weakens your case. You made a reasonable and fair suggestion to them; selling the domain for a couple hundred dollars would have left you both happy and would have allowed both parties to avoid a UDRP. However, the fact that your suggestion is reasonable is irrelevant during a UDRP - they will simply use your offer as proof that the domain was registered in bad faith as an attempt to sell it to them.

even though they contacted me? i never heard of them. my offer was a suggestion for an alternative to UDRP.

[HeavyLifting]

The fact that they contacted you, strengthens your case. The fact that you offered to sell them the domain for a significantly higher price than the registration fee weakens your case. You made a reasonable and fair suggestion to them; selling the domain for a couple hundred dollars would have left you both happy and would have allowed both parties to avoid a UDRP. However, the fact that your suggestion is reasonable is irrelevant during a UDRP - they will simply use your offer as proof that the domain was registered in bad faith as an attempt to sell it to them.

that sux :(

good thing i don't particularly care about this domain. i just think they are being so lame about it that i'd rather see this domain costs them more than the reg. fee they are offering.

[Phantom]

If you've done your homework and there is no US protection for their mark, they have no case. If they file on you, simply respond with a list of similar cases that were rejected , make sure to illustrate your wordsmithing techniques, and re-iterate the fact that they approached you to solicit a transfer of the domain name, and since you believed that you had no legal obligation to turn it over (ie, it was non-infringing) that you decided to sell it to them for what you felt was a low and fair amount.

[seeker]

phantom, I am with you and andriod here as you can see from my previous posts.
However, looking only for US TMs is just not logical. The planet and the internet does not revolve around the US only. EU and other TMS must always be checked.

[jberryhill]

However, looking only for US TMs is just not logical. The planet and the internet does not revolve around the US only. EU and other TMS must always be checked.

There is nothing magic about registered TM databases. This is particularly true give that folks here generally don't distinguish between applications, supplemental registrations or principal registrations.

Look, if you want to know if someone has a strong marketplace association with a term other than word that is generic for the goods and services in question, you check Google.

[dtobias]

There is nothing magic about registered TM databases. This is particularly true give that folks here generally don't distinguish between applications, supplemental registrations or principal registrations.

Unfortunately, the same seems to be true of some UDRP panelists.