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An obvious case of reverse domain hijacking... the domain is lq.ca - You be the judge

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Adam DickerAdam Dicker is verified member.

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Reveived this today
An obvious case of reverse domain hijacking... the domain is lq.ca since the domain points to the .ca section of dnforum and has always.
It is in no way a violation of their trademark.

You be the judge?

11/7/2012

Abuse contact

This letter is written concerning the unauthorized use and registration of the domain name http://www.lq.ca/ (hereinafter referred to as the domain name). Your immediate attention is requested in this matter.<?
La Quinta Worldwide, LLC (hereinafter referred to as La Quinta) is the owner of a family of trademarks comprising the words "LA QUINTA" (hereinafter collectively referred to as the trademark). For over thirty-five years, La Quinta has expended considerable effort and expense in offering quality hotel and motel services under its trademark. As a result, the trademark has come to identify the services of La Quinta, and La Quinta enjoys valuable goodwill attached to this trademark. That goodwill is extremely important to La Quinta, and it is equally important that La Quinta not permit use of any mark by another in such a way as to cause a likelihood of confusion as to sponsorship or association with La Quinta.

Consistent with La Quinta's extensive common-law rights in its trademark, La Quinta is the owner of U.S. Trademark Registration Nos. 875,802; 1,080,641; 1,393,578; 1,393,579; 1,429,660; 1,823,440; 1,841,032; 2,298,693; 2,300,509; 2,575,959; 2,832,831; 2,855,754; and others. The aforementioned trademark registrations are valid and enforceable under Title 15 of the United States Code. Furthermore, the trademark LA QUINTA is a famous trademark within the meaning of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(1), and is therefore afforded a broad scope of protection under U.S. and international trademark laws.
It is the position of La Quinta that the use and registration of the domain name are likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception of customers or potential customers as to sponsorship or source. Accordingly, we must demand that you transfer the domain name, as well as any other confusingly similar domain names, to La Quinta and cease and desist from any further use of our trademark, or any marks confusingly similar thereto, as a domain name or part of a domain name.

Under the provisions of federal law, Title 15, United States Code, the owner of a mark may obtain various remedies in the courts for violation of its rights. Among the remedies provided by law are injunctive relief, defendant's profits, damages sustained by the plaintiff, destruction of infringing articles, costs of the action and reasonable attorney fees. Moreover, under the anti-cybersquatting provisions, a prevailing trademark owner may recover up to $100,000 of statutory damages per infringing domain name.

Your compliance with the above is required within ten days of the date of this letter. If you do not provide written confirmation of your compliance within the requested time frame, La Quinta will consider resorting to its legal remedies and seeking those remedies to the full extent provided by law.

If you have any questions regarding this email, please respond to this email.
 
so they are basing this on the fact that own lq.com. somehow they think they grants them the right to lq in any country code the operate in? Hardly. "lq" is not their mark.
 
Take them to court and collect that $100K
 
Not sure.
 
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Zak will handle it from here on in.
I fail to see how dnforum is confusing their customers.

I will deinitely be suing them for an attempt at reverse domain hijacking if they even attempt anything beyond this letter.

Adam
 
You should bill them $25 administration fee for the time you've spent reading their letter.
 
I was going to say it's time to contact Zak, but see you are already there.

I stayed at a La Quinta Inn in Sandpoint ID recently - lol.

They must be making a move into Canada and want to get the domain cheap with scare tactics. Keep us posted on how it goes, they don't have a case and probably know it.
 
This letter is written concerning the unauthorized use and registration...

All I had to do was read this far and I had to stop. Just that language is enough to piss me off and want to fight.
 
As someone who spends a lot of time in Canada and is involved in the gambling industry, when I saw your posting I assumed that Lotto Quebec would be the "LQ" who was going after your domain. Lotto Quebec is widely referred to as LQ and I think it is hard for La Quinta to argue that they are widely known in Canada as LQ.
 
the domain is lq.ca since the domain points to the .ca section of dnforum and has always.
It is in no way a violation of their trademark.
Are you going to redirect the domain to this thread now ? :)

This letter is written concerning the unauthorized use and registration...

All I had to do was read this far and I had to stop. Just that language is enough to piss me off and want to fight.
Can you imagine that. It's year 2012, this two-letter domain should have been sitting unregistered for the rightful TM holders to take it. How dare you.
 
I've seen a few La Quintas in my day, and when I see LQ all I can think of it...Low Quality :)

(Adam: Fell free to delete this comment if it's in poor tatse)
 
Oh, wow. I hope this doesn't unfold as the case of LH.com did, being a very similar name to this one.

Your name isn't even parked, though... I think this will be an easy one for you to defend.
 
From what I have seen in recent filings, they are not finding to much issue with even parking the name, as long as it doesn't infringe on the actual TM. With more users coming online, these sort of scare emails are really lame. Clearly they do not own everything lq, and are overstepping their reach.

It is a shame that the domain owner has to pay thousands to defend their domain, with no monetary recourse. The lawyers will most likely advise whatever creates revenue for them, win, or lose. Why not go after LAQ.com as well, where does this end?

In the letter I keep seeing the reference to the mark La Quinta, but nothing to the effect of LQ, slippery slope...
 
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From what has been discussed here I think it's really hard for them to win this case.

I hope you succeed in retaining the name, Adam.

There have to be penalties for reverse domain high jacking. Clearly, the process used now is so broken.
 
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