Hi,
I guess a skipped over a lot of the important details in my case, when
I said "long story short". I'm certainly not a cyber squatter, but
even if I was, it's often cheaper and faster for a large company (and
I'd say Hearst qualifies as one) to just buy the domain for a
reasonable amount, rather then trying to obtain it through litigation.
Also, people sometimes make a lot of smoke where there is not
necessarily a fire. That was the case with me. They had all kind of
threats and legal mumbo jumbo. After a few minutes of research, I
sent them an e-mail making the following points:
1. I couldn't find the trademark they claimed to have in the
trademark database. It later turned out it was supposedly "pending".
2. My domain contained their supposed trademarked term, but also had
extra words. Like if they're trademark was TRADEMARK then my domain
was TheTrademarkLounge. It was also a rather generic term, and they
had no right to claim every possible variation of that term.
3. The domain in question had been an active website for almost two
years, and generated revenue (though it was a VERY small amount of
money). Still, the site had links to it, and people had bookmarked
it.
So I told them that because of those reasons, I felt the domain was
worth $4000. They wrote me back in less then 10 minutes with an e-mail
that simply said "Done". I couldn't help but wonder how much they
were willing to spend. They certainly didn't have to think about it
very long.
By the way, he was supposedly a lawyer but I think he was an employee
of the company with the dispute. As Philippe pointed out, other
lawyers might have other motives.
Hope that helps,
ST
-----Original Message-----
From: Noah Couture [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2001 11:17 AM
To: ST
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: advice on domain dispute
I was advising him to avoid trying to make a deal for the time
being. Their letter made reference to some 'cybersquatting' law. He
isn't squatting, he just made up a name that happened to already
exist. I
was telling him to consider letting him have it if he could still use
an
email addy there. He'd rather not though.
noah
On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, ST wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently received a similar letter from a large corporation
> demanding that I hand over a domain that was supposedly in violation
> of they're copyright. They said they'd sue me if I didn't. Long
> story short, I ended up selling them the domain for $4000.
>
> ST
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Noah Couture
> Sent: Friday, April 27, 2001 8:37 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: advice on domain dispute
>
>
> Hey Folks,
>
> A friend of mine who registered a domain name for his own use has
> received
> a threatening letter from a rather large corporation demanding that
he
> transfer the domain to them. He's wondering what he should do. Any
> and
> all advice will be very much appreciated. Here's the story. My
> friend
> Derek made up a name for himself (i'm not sure what his inspiration
> was): Johnny Hazard. At some point he registered the corresponding
> domain
> name. Well, he just got a letter from Hearst corporation who
> apparently
> think they should own it for some reason. He is not using it for
any
> sort
> of commercial enterprise whatsoever. He doesn't want to sell it, he
> doesn't want to do anything with it except personal use. Any
advice?
>
> thanks
> noah
>
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