Threat of criminal proceedings

[domaingenius]

Hmm, first time I knew this. I received letter today from officialdom stating ,amongst other things, "Under section.........of.................it is a criminal offence for any person to use the words .......................{my domain name allegedly} or any words suggesting that his place of business is,or is officially connected with.........."
I did some checking and found this quote to be correct.

Now this brings me to the question , could a simple domain name aver that
I am connected with ....?.

DG

[afloat.com]

I suppose it depends what .......... is.
If its McDonalds or Microsoft your screwed, get the picture?

[flamewalker]

Give us an example, not the actual domain but an example of what the domain might be similar to, and the people that are going after you.

For example, is the domain: supertoyotas,com, and the company Toyota?

More information will be helpful in getting better answers/opinions.

[domaingenius]

Give us an example, not the actual domain but an example of what the domain might be similar to, and the people that are going after you.

For example, is the domain: supertoyotas,com, and the company Toyota?

More information will be helpful in getting better answers/opinions.

Nope it is a Government type name. It is not a commercial name.

DG

[flamewalker]

So... like you have uspto.com (uspto.gov is the real site)? or usptolookup.com or something of that nature?

[Dale Hubbard]

If it's a play on e.g. MI5, MI6, security-related, or otherwise sensitive to the UK government it can simply be illegal. In this case, you could expect Special Branch, not the boys in blue at your door.

[domaingenius]

So... like you have uspto.com (uspto.gov is the real site)? or usptolookup.com or something of that nature?

Yes.

DG

If it's a play on e.g. MI5, MI6, security-related, or otherwise sensitive to the UK government it can simply be illegal. In this case, you could expect Special Branch, not the boys in blue at your door.

Well I could tell you a story, but I wont lol.

DG

[flamewalker]

IMHO (non lawyer opinion), give them the name. Without knowing the name its hard to be sure, but my guess is that its not worth fighting over, and you would be better off with a more generic name.

[domaingenius]

IMHO (non lawyer opinion), give them the name. Without knowing the name its hard to be sure, but my guess is that its not worth fighting over, and you would be better off with a more generic name.

I am probably going to get it cancelled rather than give them the name, but yep it is only matter of my stubborness.

DG

[Domagon]

Is the domain a .COM/.NET/.ORG ... or is it a ccTLD?

If it's a ccTLD, in particular if it's .UK (which I assume is your home based on your user profile), then likely the best thing to do is cancel / hand the domain over.

If it's not a ccTLD, but say in .COM, then it may be worthwhile, especially if the domain is quality, doing some more legal research on the matter first before deciding to relinquish the domain.

To be clear, the TLD alone likely doesn't decide the matter, but could play a role in how the law applies to your situation...

Ultimately the laws of your country (I assume U.K.) will be the determing factor - in the U.S., owning a government agency name, such as in .COM, is generally tolerated; ie. whitehouse.com, dea.com, usdoj.com, and irs.com* comes to mind.

* IRS.com is a special case - it appears Congress / IRS sought to the domain canceled, but it appears, despite being redirected to irs.gov, is still privately owned - am curious what's happening with irs.com, but I digress.

Ron

[Focus]

* IRS.com is a special case - it appears Congress / IRS sought to the domain canceled, but it appears, despite being redirected to irs.gov, is still privately owned - am curious what's happening with irs.com, but I digress.

Ron

Amazingly..it is actually redirecting to banks.com/taxes and someone is getting PAID.
I like it!

[Domagon]

Whoa! I sidn't even realize that. So much for irs.com being a "special case" - it's privately owned, like most of the others, being utilized for other non-government things.

What confused me is that when one searches "irs.com" in google it brings up irs.gov website #1 with no mention of irs.com at all anywhere; gives the appearance irs.com is a redirect to irs.gov when it really isn't...

Makes me wonder whether irs.com got suspended from the index, and why ... abuse by irs.com? -and/or google went out of its way to make sure irs.com searches always go to irs.gov ...?

Ron

[Focus]

From what I recall the banks.com company bought irs.com in 2005 for something like 11 million...if memory serves me correct..that's alot of bread. I assume it's ALOT of traffic too..