Trademark owner.... trying to cheat me?

[foxstatton]

Hi all,
just need some quick advice.

I registered a domain, lets say popz.com in Jan 2012, I've not used it for anything yet.

Other day got an email from a company that says it has a trademark in Australia for popz! I looked it up, their trademark was filed months after I registered my domain.

Given that I'm not in Australia, and they have nothing in the US, how strong is their case against me?

They've offered me $20 to cover costs if I had the domain over to them.

 

[WhoDatDog]

Not enough info, but if you hand registered the name in 2012, then the name likely isn't worth so much. However, it is a good enough name that someone else wants it. From the info you have given, I would suggest that you are in the right, here. But it might be a good idea to try to cash in. Send them a polite response letting them know that you registered the name before they filed their trademark, and also that you believe that, for many reasons, you would likely prevail in court. Then ask for a price that gets you excited. It could be $300 or 3K, maybe even more, depending on how you size up the situation.

Be polite and try to get your rent paid for a few months. That is what I would do, based on the limited info you gave.

 

[Midnight Silver]

You are 100% OK and have Full rights to keep your DN popz.com --- If the Trademark Owner really wants your DN --- they are going to have to pay Your Asking price or agreed on your agreed on Price that you will accept --- You bought this DN with totally good intentions for investment - flipping - develop etc etc before they had there TM so they have No Rights at all to Threaten You to get POPZ.com Real Cheap...

 

[damic]

Right. In most cases, anything that may be out there BEFORE a person/business gets a trademark is generally considered "grandfathered" as they were already doing it before the Trademark was filled. There are some exceptions to that, but from what it sounds like - you're talking about two totally unrelated situations, not to mention, thousands of miles between you. They may be able to PREVENT you from doing anything with the domain name similar to what they are doing... but I can't see how they could force you to release the domain unless they meet YOUR price for it.

I realize this is an older post.... just registered today. Hopefully you got it all sorted out by now though.