A legal issue

[yesonline]

I am sorry for posting a legal issue here, because I don't know if I post on the public legal board would be considered as bad faith to against me later if any?
The original post is here :
http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21750

And now is a latest reply from buyitnow.com, if I am right, they seem to want to offer me $500 to buy my domain buy-it-now.net?
Do you have any comment on this situation?(except take money and run) Do they have a better chance to win this case?

Thanks

Dear Mr. ;



Thank you for taking the time to write back to me, but I think you fail
to see the gravity of the situation judging from the statements you
made.



Mr. Chris Capelli is our patent and trademark attorney and our senior
corporate counsel and I have reviewed this matter with him carefully.



If this were a large commercial enterprise we would already have been in
the process of issuing a Cease and Desist Order, filing a claim with
WIPO for possession of the domain name for trademark infringement and
seeking damages.



As your use of the domain appears non-commercial in nature I thought it
best that instead of taking you to court and having you incur the legal
costs of having to defend the matter - that we would contact you
directly and try to resolve the matter in a manner that was both
favorable and fair to both parties.



By way of example, Amazon is both a jungle and a river (and yes, it is
also a US trademark owned by Amazon.com). Registering a domain AM-A-ZON.com
would surely bring their lawyers calling and indeed would be an infringement of their
trademark - just as we have come to find you.



If you applied for the trademark Buy-It-Now the United States Trademark
and Patent Office would deny your claim because the mark is ‘confusing
and similar’ to a register mark, namely ours.



We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars acquiring the rights and
domains related to BuyItNowâ„¢ and we are in the process of a major
redevelopment of the website for the pending launch of a new product.



We are also in the process of bringing legal actions against a large
number of websites using the BuyItNowâ„¢ either in text of graphic form and
thus far have been quite successful in having a large number of these
sites comply.



This includes several large companies that had hundreds of thousand of
listings on the various search engines offering products using the
BuyItNowâ„¢ graphic and/or text and in fact this number has come down by
almost 75% in the past few months.



Having said all that, we are fully prepared to take this matter to court
if necessary but as I said in my initial correspondence we would prefer
to resolve this matter directly and in a timely fashion.



Therefore we make the following offer.



1) We will pay you $500 to offset the costs of notifying people of your changed
email address and to register a new domain name.





2) We will pay any costs related to transferring the domain to us.



With thanks





A. Marek Bradbury

Managing Director

BuyItNowâ„¢.com

 

[stevo]

"Do you have any comment on this situation?(except take money and run)"

You leave me no room for comment.

 

[yesonline]

Originally posted by stevo
"Do you have any comment on this situation?(except take money and run)"

You leave me no room for comment.

I think you've made your comment clearly :razz: , take and run..

I mean, do you think they have good chance to win this case if they go to WIPO or court?

I just don't think their points make any sense to me.

 

[GeorgeK]

Personally, I don't think it's a very valuable domain name (hyphens, and a .net). If I saw that name on a drop list (expired names), I wouldn't register it. So, pragmatically, I'd take the $500.

 

[NamePopper.com]

Agree with George. Honestly I don't think you could get $500 on the open market.

Don't consider this losing a legal battle. On the contrary - consider it making a good sale!

 

[yesonline]

Thank you for your adivse, I know $500 is a good price to let it go, I will consider it of course:razz:
However, I just want to know, if this case goes to court or wipo, what the chances would be?
Their point of view does not make too much sense to me, if this case they won, then I am afraid that all the common English terms would be trademarked by giant companys and there are few space for us to live on:dead:

I am now wondering what will they do to buy-it-now.com? Here is a claim on the buy-it-now.com :

"Buy-it-Now.com is a trademark of Telemarket Resource Group, Inc"

I don't know it's valid or not, but very interested in seeing how buyitnow.com deal with buy-it-now.com?? Pay $5000? $50000?

 

[chatcher]

I would take the $500, based on the value of the name, not on the strength of their case.

I am not a lawyer, but using the phrase "buy it now" for retail services sounds descriptive to me, and I think the trademark registration could be challenged and cancelled by someone willing to spend the money to do so. But an arbitration panel, especially a one-member panel, may not take that into account.

I think over-reaching of trademarks is at least as rampant and as much of a problem as cybersquatting, and yes, there are few common terms that are not used as trademarks.

I think you should either sell it for the $500 or keep it and prepare to defend it. Trying to negotiate with these people for a higher price will probably backfire if they think they can win at arbitration.

 

[yesonline]

I think you should either sell it for the $500 or keep it and prepare to defend it. Trying to negotiate with these people for a higher price will probably backfire if they think they can win at arbitration.

Thanks, it is just what I am thinking now:razz: Take or fight.

 

[Fearless]

Wow another benefit to this private forum.

I was about to post that you can post special domain name for sale threads in here. You have a captive audience.

 

[izoot]

I agree with the rest of ya'll, take the cash and be thrilled. Being a .net and double hyphened, look on it as a present. It would have never gotten that much on the open market.

$500 is a great price for the domain and a great way to avoid legal issues.

 

[dictionaryof]

As some have noted, I would agree that $500 is about $499 more than the name is worth... so basically, this is about the best thing you could have had happen.

Best wishes.

 

[yesonline]

Yes, I agree with that $500 is a nice offer on this name, however, money is not an issue to me now, I'd like to know if such kind of trademark owner will win this case if goes to arbitration or court? I am more worrying about if they win this kind of case easily, then we all have greater chances to lose our domains which are general phrases or words, only if someone trademarked it, no matter what you registered it with or without knowing it is trademarked phrase or word.
Don't you think it is a more important issue than how much money you will get from for giving up your domain name?
:dead: