Getting a WIPO

[fischermx]

When someone setup a WIPO complain, does that immediatly have an economic repercusion to you ?

I think I'm about to get one , just got an email asking me about stopping to use a domain with their trademark on it.

Could one, with the risk of lose of course, respond to a WIPO complaint yourself ? I mean do you need a lawyer forcedly ?

 

[Deleted member 2020]

I'm sure there is the potential for a lot of responses here.

I got a WIPO and due to circumstances and with the help of a friend, managed to persuade the complainant to "drop charges". So I didn't have to pay out any money for anything. I did pass them the domain though, which was making me something like $5 a day.

I generally don't buy expensive domains, so I'm not running the risk of losing too much if I make an "error" on acquiring a domain. Even the domain mentioned above only cost me $40.

 

[fischermx]

"Drop charges" ?
Did they sue you ? or are you saying they can ask extra-money in the WIPO complain besides getting the domain name ?

 

[dtobias]

A UDRP case doesn't automatically cost you money, though putting on a good defense might. The panel has no power to assess monetary damages, so you won't be out anything other than the domain itself if you lose. Your options range from ignoring it altogether and defaulting (cost zero, but you'll probably [though not absolutely certainly] lose; there are actually a handful of cases where a defaulting respondent still won, usually because the complainant was really incompetent in preparing its complaint or its case was particularly bad), through responding on your own without a lawyer (perfectly legal, though the old saying says that somebody who represents himself has a fool for a client; cost is whatever copying and postage costs are needed to send the paper-mail version of the response), to putting on a fully-represented case with a good lawyer (a few of them hang out on this forum), which costs whatever the lawyer charges for fees and expenses.

 

[Deleted member 2020]

Drop charges as in cancel the WIPO case.

Sorry, they didn't make any criminal charges or anything like that.

 

[jberryhilljberryhill is verified member.]

Could one, with the risk of lose of course, respond to a WIPO complaint yourself ?

It depends on the complexity of the issues, your skill as a writer, the quality of the complaint, and of course the underlying strength of the parties' positions. I've seen plenty of people do just fine on their own. In fact there was a recent case where someone had come to me for assistance, and the best advice I could give them was to surrender, since it didn't look to me as if they had a good position at all. That person wrote their own response and won.

My sister bought a motorcycle once, and then needed to buy a helmet. Looking at the price range of helmets, she asked the salesman, "How much should I spend on a helmet?"

The salesman said, "It depends on your head. If you have a cheap head, you buy a cheap helmet..."

 

[fischermx]

Thanks for your advice john.
I just see in other thread someone pointed you as lawyer with knowledge in domains and for your post history I can see that, too.
Could I contact you and show a letter I've just received from another lawyer about a TM complain ? I understand might be a fee involved