My C&D

[Bob]

This will be an interesting forum.

I have had 3 C&D letters. One name I sold after being contacted (not to the C&D sender), one I coughed up after HOURS of WIPO research, and one turned into a Federal Lawsuit :laugh:

I am still sorting out the Federal Lawsuit. I cop showed up on my doorstep and served me a summons personally. It was pretty cool.

-Bob

 

[Kid Kool]

heh. what were the domains? you probably can't say...

 

[NamePopper.com]

Woah Bob. A federal lawsuit--we got your back!

So far I've only had one C&D letter. It came from a female attorney in NewYork--she was very nasty actually. The really irritating thing was that I let the name drop anyway--about 3 months before her letter. I wrote her back an equally nasty letter--and told her she should do her job a little more thoroughly. Never heard another word. :razz:

 

[MBZ]

Man, that was quick. Talk about customer service!

This should be good......

 

[adoptabledomains]

Had one C&D request via email a couple years ago. The domain was 4hclub.org in which I intended to offer free email and subdomains to 4h club members and organizers. I thought it would be a nice free service and I could maybe sell banner ads for income. After thinking of potential difficulties with COPPA age limitations and controlling the ad content, I decided to dump it on eBay as being too much potential trouble. That's what actually started the trouble. That's when I got the email from the legal dept. of the USDA that controls the 4-H movement. I offered them the domain but they just requested I not sell develop, or renew, and were pretty nice about it when I explained the orginal intent. They said I could still develop it, but would have to get a sponsor with the organization to back it. I was forbidden to sell it though. I allowed expiration with no other issues.

 

[Biggie]

Maybe we need "Trade Mark Consul.com"

 

[buddy]

One name I sold after being contacted (not to the C&D sender)

Did you mean you sold the name after you were contacted, or you sold it first and then got the letter? Nevertheless, what was the outcome Bob?

 

[Bob]

The names I tangled with:

PlatinumCard.com - American Expressed sent the C&D letter. I ignored it. They sent another one. I ignored it. Then, I had a private offer for $2000 on it.. So I took it :laugh:

NHLLive.com - The National Hockey League sent me a C&D letter. I did the research and they had no TM on "NHL Live", but the phrase was promoted on NHL games. After about 12 hours of digging in the WIPO decisions, I determined that I would lose if push came to shove. I consulted a domain name attourney and he thought my chances were 50% at best. He recommended I cough it up. I went back to the lawyer for the NHL (He was nice to deal with, but firm in his stance) and asked them for my registration fees back. After the name was transferred, I received a $20 check from the NHL! :yes:

Shamu.org - I never knew this was a TM, I simply thought it was a name. The lawyers for Annheuser Busch (ABI - ABI owns SeaWorld) followed the procedure and sent a C&D letter to the admin contact and to the admin address on file. However, it was an old snail mail address. I did the research and definitely knew I would lose this one. So I emailed them back and politely asked them to resend the C&D letter again via certified mailto my new address. They argued for three weeks over whether they should have to do this or not. I stated that email could be easily forged and that all I wanted was to receive a copy via certified US postal mail and I would turn over Shamu.org to them. They could have ended it with $3.50 in postage, but they were real butt-heads and still refused to send the C&D letter via certified mail. So, one day I get a police officer on my doorstep serving me a summons. Guess they wanted to spend a lot more than $3.50 to settle it up.

Anyway, over time i agreed to turn it over. They wanted me to pay $10,000 in statutory damages plus legal fees (which was in excess of $20,000). I laughed at them and got my lawyer in on it. Then they demanded $50,000 and lawyers fees, non-negotiable. We agian laughed and proved to them that I could not satisfy any sort of judgement. They backed off and they were supposed to write a letter to the registrar so it could be taken off registrar lock. That was like 4 months ago. They have not done that yet. . . MORONS.

-Bob

 

[Bob]

Originally posted by kvinsencius


Did you mean you sold the name after you were contacted, or you sold it first and then got the letter? Nevertheless, what was the outcome Bob?

I sold the name **AFTER** I received two C&D letters. (see my further notes in a differnet reply).

-Bob

 

[morel]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Bob. It was a very interesting read.

 

[buddy]

Great post Bob!! I enjoyed reading it and learned a thing or two from it.

Thanks!

 

[prasit]

yup, i agree. good learning lesson.

 

[proproject]

Hey, I got one of these for a 3-letter acronym (not one of the household names like IBM or ABC) but a company you have probably never heard of. (I certainly had not.) I looked at trademarks and was amazed how many acronyms were trademarked.

I just politely replied that my project for that domain name would not compete in the area of their trademark. So far no reply.

 

[Drewbert]

I had <>.net

The owners of <>.com wrote a C&D claiming they had sole rights to <> and demanded immediate transfer.

I promptly sold <>.net to <>.com.br for US$2000. I never even replied to their email.

So in attempting to steal the name from me, instead of offering me market value, they STRUCK OUT.

I bet the company owners were pissed with the attorney that recommended THAT strategy.