Jasdon11, you're underestimating the power companies with money have to slap you w/a C&D at once, just like that, w/o any previous attempt to 'resolve' the thing or find a solution moneywise. Not only do I know this happens, but it happened to me recently. I was told to 'use my head' and that there was no way a business in its right mind would pay at least $1,500 for a UDRP fight + lawyer fees, instead of getting a domain from me for a couple of hundred. Well, I 'used my head' and it didn't do me any good. We owned an acronym that meant nothing. Then a bunch of hillbillies in the middle of nowhere in some old-world country, who can hardly speak any English, decided we were infringing on their "tradename" because our acronym 'contained' their company/website letters. It made absolutely no sense as a claim but they did it to me and got away w/it. The letters in their "service" were included in our acronym, as if they had owned BRA.com and our acronym had been TBRAX.com. It was that absurd. When I approached them simply telling the truth that we had never heard of their company or services or website I was called a liar. I gave them a low offer and they did not even bother to respond. So not only did they first contact me with a C&D but they did not even make me some insulting offer after my email which I just might've accepted. The 2nd time I heard from them was the actual UDRP which I didn't have the money to fight. On hindsight, I should've defended myself but I feel I would've lost it anyway, my 1st TM dispute ever. Lawyers charge mid-$XXX's for just answering a UDRP to the claimants and respond to the registrar, initially. After that it's several thousands to fight the case. And the domain was worth low-$XXX at best. We lost, but they had to spend the UDRP filing fees and I assume the lawyer charged them money (adding insult to injury, good old Go Daddy made $70 from me ! $20 for 'receiving' a C&D and doing nothing more, plus $50 for the 'service' --as they call it-- of simply receiving a UDRP and doing nothing at all, and I mean nothing, except locking the name until the case was decided, I could've done that for free. I don't kow what makes me angrier, the fact that I was called a liar over and over and the panelists sided w/them and we lost when they had no proof, or watching the Go Daddy crooks make a $70 profit out of my misfortune. On top there is of what I paid for the name in auction a few years earlier. I'm still fighting the cc charges GD made but they aren't answering me)
When you tell the TS to take the initiative and contact that business he'd better realize what consequences may follow. Maxwell did make excellent points and you cannot categorize them as "ignorant" even if you don't agree. Since my initial post agrees w/Maxwell then mine are just as "ignorant" to you, right ? lol. And even if I were making some points some would consider "ignorant" there are other ways to put it, you're a long-time Exclusive member. And his are far from ignorant. Contrary to what you stated the TS has a lot to lose, or at least a lot to risk. I'm not advocating being 'afraid' of all companies and the TS does have a fact working in his favor, he regged the name long before the TM was filed. But so was my case. I predated the complainants by acquiring the domain in auction years earlier. He is correct and so is Katherine and she's an extremely knowledgeable domainer. Maxwell is right the TS should consider why he got the domain and still wants it now. Is it worth fighting for ? Like Maxwell said, wait for them to contact you, otherwise you'll run the risk of knowingly trying to profit by selling to them, plus you won't be able to claim later you didn't know the company and this TM existed, for example. If the TS really believes in his domain then he should go all out, perhaps. Katherine is right, watch the ads the parked page generates and look for conflicts. He did not develop the domain so simply parking it could help in some way (but, one of the arguments made against us was that we 'just had it parked and had not developed it' implying domainers are nothing more than name trolls and I was one) So another way to look at this is that 'just parking' could also hurt you, NamesBond should weigh all that (if he had developed the domain into a website totally unrelated to that product space that would give him a leg up and he might still choose to do this)
In the limited research we did, UDRPs are almost invariably decided against the domainer, usually the respondent, and what's worse, WIPO, NAF, etc, are ALL heavily in favor of the COMPLAINANT, normally not the domainer, because if they start ruling against complainants there won't be as many bullies paying $1,500 for a one-person panel --let alone three times that for a three-person panel-- as those bullies will begin to think twice about taking people to a UDRP process. Those of you who follow legal stuff know these observations are actually facts. I'd tell the TS to weigh options carefully before approaching the company, he might be jumping the gun when he didn't have to. The two coexisting indefinitely (the business/product w/a TM and the TS w/a webpage/website) is probably not sustainable. Chances are they'll contact NamesBond at some point telling him to turn the domain over to them, and no, they usually will not make you an offer, you will need to bring that up (the domainholder will) Consider selling the domain NOW. I'd entertain that if I were you. Offense (as advocated by Jasdon11) would not be the preferred course of action. Defense, ie waiting to be contacted by the TM holder, is wiser as you've done nothing wrong and you handregged the domain long before a TM on it was even filed, and you haven't developed into a website/business conflicting w/the TM owners. And Katherine is also correct on all her posts. I do get the points madeby JRyan777 but do you have the resources JTyan777 obviously enjoys ? lol, very few of us can do what JRyan777 does in real life and has suggested in his post. If you regged the name and didn't buy it in auction at a high cost then ask yourself what your domain is worth in today's market. And even now I'd concur that anybody w/any common sense should want to buy the name from the domainer at a cost far less than a WIPO/NAF battle, but as I can attest to, that's not always the case. A lot of cases have ended in awarding the domain to the TM holder even if the domainholder had owned it for years and there was no interference w/the TM owner's space. Good luck and I hope you can come to the correct decision (and I hope those of you w/o vast TM experience can learn from my case, I don't advocate "giving in", I just say "be realistic" about what you face, and what you'll be left with even if you should win, in my case it would've been my pride..... and nothing much more, except endless lost hours and a worthless domain)