Hi Aaron, Oh yeh. What a waste of time. He's some ideas for you that will help you decide what to do:
Does the complaint have a US trademark, federal NOT state or common law? If they don't, they will have to use some other means. Have you offered the domain for sale? To them? If so, you may have established bad intent. Is the domain a great value to you? It will cost you 3-5K minimum to respond to an WIPO action (I assume), so make sure it's worth it. Are you holding it in speculation, or for a real business? You have to demonstate that you have legitimate use that DOES NOT infringe on the trademark holder. If you have the domain for no other reason than to sell it to the trademark holder, you're DOA. Give it up. Is the complainant in an unrelated business or or the same? You have to know that using an existing trademarked name in an same business in not going to fly anyway. Why bother? Make your own mark. Are they obviously famous like AT&T, McDonalds, etc.? In this case, give it up. The ICANN policy is totally in favor or Trademarholders and gives them the right to drag anybody with a coveted domain through an action. Even if the mark holder is declared a, "Reverse Domain Hijacker"-- as they were in my case -- You win NOTHING! You're out every dime it took to defend yourself. Finally, make sure you ask for and, if necessary, pay for a panel of 3 experts. You get to pick one of them and it's far more difficult to get 3 people to agree to lynching! In this case only, you get your money back if you win. I'm not a lawyer so this is only opinion. Best Regards, Loren Aaron Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Well, I'm being dragged into an official ICANN domain name dispute... Can anybody recommend a decent Intellectual Property Law firm? preferably with an office in Seattle? Anybody on this list gone through this?
