- Joined
- Apr 11, 2005
- Messages
- 563
- Reaction score
- 45
I picked up this domain on a drop 2 years ago, and I have never heard anything from Yahoo (or Hooters for that matter). It was just parked on a Godaddy park page. Then on Jan 14th, it was not showing in my GoDaddy account, and the Whois says that it now belongs to Yahoo Inc!
I contacted GoDaddy, and they said that it was involved in a legal dispute including many "YAHOO" domain names, and that it was transferred to Yahoo. I was never notified by Yahoo, the court, or GoDaddy during any of this! I never had a chance to expain my side...
They sent the court order, along with a list of 1865 defendant domains that contain the word "yahoo" or variations of "yahoo", compiled in 2005. All the domains had contact information outside of the US. The list showed the old owner's information for "yahooters.com", it is someone in the Netherlands. My name and info is not on the order or the list.
Their compaint alleges "Cyberpiracy", trademark infringement, engagement in unfair competition, and trademark dilution.
They were able to get a default judgment "In Rem" because they claim to have tried to contact the domain registrants several times but were unable, and also because the registrants where all outside of the US... It is obvious that they were just using the old contact information in these attempts, but my actual contact information in the U.S. was on the whois for the past two years and they never notified me once!
I can't believe that they were able to do this. They should have been required to dispute the name through ordinary channels, or at least to check and see if the whois information had been updated at some point during this... I NEVER had a chance to defend myself against these claims and now my name is gone!
Is there anything I can do?
I contacted GoDaddy, and they said that it was involved in a legal dispute including many "YAHOO" domain names, and that it was transferred to Yahoo. I was never notified by Yahoo, the court, or GoDaddy during any of this! I never had a chance to expain my side...
They sent the court order, along with a list of 1865 defendant domains that contain the word "yahoo" or variations of "yahoo", compiled in 2005. All the domains had contact information outside of the US. The list showed the old owner's information for "yahooters.com", it is someone in the Netherlands. My name and info is not on the order or the list.
Their compaint alleges "Cyberpiracy", trademark infringement, engagement in unfair competition, and trademark dilution.
They were able to get a default judgment "In Rem" because they claim to have tried to contact the domain registrants several times but were unable, and also because the registrants where all outside of the US... It is obvious that they were just using the old contact information in these attempts, but my actual contact information in the U.S. was on the whois for the past two years and they never notified me once!
I can't believe that they were able to do this. They should have been required to dispute the name through ordinary channels, or at least to check and see if the whois information had been updated at some point during this... I NEVER had a chance to defend myself against these claims and now my name is gone!
Is there anything I can do?
