I recently got an e-mail where somebody has somehow managed to get by me and purchase a “domain name” that I had wanted to get for a long time. I don’t know how I missed it but this guy was saying that if you will make a bid I’ll sell you the domain.
The bottom line is that since I’ve used my “Label Name” for better than 15 years, whomever he sells it to as long as they are in the business of selling songs, CD’s, Records, etc – they are going to infringe on my mark.
What really got me upset is that he found an obscure “sub-domain” that had a friend of mine’s E-mail address and started to hit my buddy up for MONEY as well even though I just used that Domain and hosting with a sub-web that had our own little personal website on it for our hunting camp. I didn’t really want to buy a domain and hosting for just about 15 pages of stuff that’s posted there that sort of tracks via pictures and text the past 10 years of us building the hunting camp, pictures of our fields, etc.
Anyway, I digress – I found a very interesting article on this subject which is linked here:
http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain/faq.cgi
This is pretty much dead on. Gone are the days of an individual buying up a ton of domain names and then trying to sell them back to REAL company that should own that name. But like everything else, the law takes time to catch up. In fact, you used to be able to do this and make a LOT of money but some company with deep pockets went ballistic and took some people to court and WON big time! So the legislature eventually enacted some law that say “cyber-squatting is NOT LEGAL” – so if somebody tries to hit you with a scam to try and sell you a domain name that should be yours – you CAN get it. But it will cost a lot of money. Your best bet is to wait it out until they give up as these squatter can’t hold on to these names forever and will eventually give up. Conversely if they sell it to someone else and that company/person start to use it – and it violate your TM right – then go to court, get an injunction and they have to stop using that name and then make an offer to buy the domain at FAIR MARKET PRICE!
Remember if another company is using your name and they got there first - First is time is first in right. So you're going to have to CHANGE YOUR NAME especially if they are offering similar services or selling similar goods in the same class as yours! Which means, get another name, logo, business card, letterhead, new website design, etc, etc - VERY COSTLY so choose your name wisely! But on the other hand if YOU own the name (even if you haven't filed for TM protection) you still have injunctive relief and you can make the OTHER company stop and start all over again!
SM @ MSO
