Loss of Profits

[BLazeD]

I recently got the following email about a typo I own.

Dear xxxxx,

you´re the holder of the domain http://xxxx.
The domain http://xxxx is our domain since long and obviously very similar to the one you own. The fact that one single mistype on the keyboard could lead our customers to your website instead of ours is indicating the danger of customer confusion and misleading.
This has already happened to employees of our own company. Therefore we insist of closing the domain http://xxxx as soon as possible to avoid any misunderstanding and confusion of our customers.

As ist seems you´re the holder of many different websites that are written very similar to our companies domain and this fact seems to be intended. Please keep in mind that in case of legal steps against you we will not only make you pay for the loss of profit of our company but also for a possible criminal offend against our good name and company.

I particularly interested in this part "Please keep in mind that in case of legal steps against you we will not only make you pay for the loss of profit of our company but also for a possible criminal offend against our good name and company."

Loss of profits? I didnt think these were possible.

I have redirected the domain to their site, just because it gets hardly any traffic and I was gonna let it drop anyway. More interested in the actual validity of their comments/threats. The company provides anti-spyware software, and I was redirecting it to a Fabulous software page.

Thanks

 

[gariben]

Definitely not a American company, right?

Even with my limited English, their gammer and choice of words are flawed.

 

[BLazeD]

Nah they are Eurpoean. Didnt even bother to email me back when I said no problem and redirected it to their site.

 

[fatter]

I do remmember a company tried in the midwest to recoup lost earnings from a trademarked domain use but i dont rememmber the outcome I beleive there wasnt any law to back it up for them to rule on. That really is a scary thought losing your domain no big deal, losing every penny like that scary. I dont think i have trademarks but who knows anymore. if it becomes possible with an international court in the future i think we would see domains dropping like crazy, lets keep the status quo. proving damages would require 10 accountants

 

[Smith]

I've seen threats of suing for damages before from European companies.

This is primarily because if it does go to court in Europe they stand a good chance of winning "damages" according to a number of European lawyers I've talked to. So it's not an idle threat.

Rule of thumb, stay away from tm's ... ESPECIALLY European tm's unless you like getting sued and tons of C&D's in the mail

 

[Theo]

In cases like this I usually point it to Sedo with "gay sex" keywords. Shuts them up every time.

 

[jberryhilljberryhill is verified member.]

Lost profits is an ordinary measure of damages in trademark cases. The measure of lost profits can be your actual profit or a hypothetical profit that they would have made on the same traffic.

 

[domaintalk]

Just check this out:
If they have the trademark for the domain because at the most of the cases they just send an email to threaten the guy as he would be in the weaker part.
So just check that out or no need to reply them or so.

Regards
VP

 

[Dave Zan]

But how could that European company sue you for lost profits and a "possible
criminal offend" when you're based in NZ? Unless they have a branch in NZ...

 

[seeker]

regardless of the outcome, I think you should have consulted with a lawyer, or even this thread BEFORE you did anything, including redirect your domain, which now makes you definately look guilty to them...

 

[BLazeD]

I was never interested in retaining the name, like I said, it gets no money and I will let it drop. Just interested in their threats is all - whether they have any base.

 

[Focus]

I would tell them to kiss my american ass and buy it if they want it, you didnt infringe on anything other than their employees inability to type in their website correctly! If you werent selling spyware as a result of the misguided traffic (if any at all) then you in no way shape or form benefited from "their" traffic, any reasonable individuals would immediately notice they went to the wrong site anyways and just retype the right one in...thats why I dont know why anyone makes such a big deal about typos...people may get there but they just leave..trust me I had one that used to get about 50 uniques a day and it made like $2/mo total...waste of reg fee imo