Potential trademark risk?

[heirJORDAN]

There's a site I used to frequent a lot. It's actually very inactive now and has lost a lot of it's traffic. It was recently bought out with intentions of furthering it, but that owner is now looking to sell for about $3,000.

But there's actually a very public trademark issue online over the name "Rap City" where they fought a (then) 12 year old kid to shut down the domain.

The .com I'm looking at has an extra letter at the end (rapcity*.com). I'm not intending to seek revenue off of it, but to re-direct it to my own site. And at $3,000, I see this as a trademark risk. Should I back off?

 

[Zona]

If you are looking to redirect traffice to your site then it sounds like you are seeking to make revenue from it - just indirectly.

I have no idea how much traffic this domain is generating but for $3,000 with some possible issues I would be careful.

 

[heirJORDAN]

You're right in a sense. But at the same time, I'm trying to upstart my
own business venture. And I'm doing it to simply re-direct the talent
that I've seen on that site without spamming them. But I definately have
to take your opinion into account. Here's the stats I got from one of those sites:

PageRank: 3/10
Alexa Rank: 277,966

Link Popularity:
Incoming Google Links: 4
Incoming Yahoo Links: 114
Incoming MSN Links: 72
Incoming Alexa Links: 19
DMOZ Listed: No
Archive.org Listed: Yes

I can't gauge whether that's any good or not. Mainly the incoming links. But that is apparently dating back to August 19th (approximately 4 days). But at $3,000 - barring any trademark risk, can I tell him to go much lower than that and pose a legit argument?

 

[DNQuest.com]

Upstarting your own business venture with traffic intended for the TM....

^^^^ this is textbook squatting

 

[ParkQuick.com]

Given that history I'd leave it alone. You'd certainly be in danger of a TM lawsuit.

But there's actually a very public trademark issue online over the name "Rap City" where they fought a (then) 12 year old kid to shut down the domain.

The .com I'm looking at has an extra letter at the end (rapcity*.com). I'm not intending to seek revenue off of it, but to re-direct it to my own site. And at $3,000, I see this as a trademark risk. Should I back off?

 

[heirJORDAN]

Thanks fella's. I figured I'd bargain with the guy to go down. But just based on the fact it's not only a trademark risk, but that my intentions are illegal?

This site came through again. I should've came here to learn how to shave when I first hit puberty.