Domain Name Question
 

I have a friend who helps me on the mainstream side of my business. He is an excellent local artist who sells art prints to local galleries.

Here's the problem, he went to register his domain name (his personal name, ie: johndoe.com) but someone with one of the art galleries had already registered it and was sending the traffic to their site. They sell his prints online as well. What can he do to get this domain name from them. He has contacted them about it, but they are "thinking" about it.


Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

A persons name may not be unique. Are there any others in the world with that name? It is difficult to get a domain from someone without a trademark. Since I would doubt he trademarked his name he would have no recourse there.

If he has an agreement with the art gallery similar to what most mainstream sponsors have then it would specify that "like domain names" and "bidding on keywords" are not permitted. Again I doubt that your friend has this agreement.

Without the agreement or trademark there is not much your friend can do but negotiate with them on a fair settlement for the domain.

If they are not will to give it up then he could just break the reseller agreement and it would become useless to them as they would not have the prints that go with the domain for sale.

Take this however you want as it is only my:2 cents: .

Thank you very much for the reply. He has made a reasonable offer and if that fails he will break the reseller agreement. He does not currently have his name trademarked. Is it too late to do so? Would trademarking the name now make it any easier to get the domain name?








Edited for spelling.

well it's obvious that they are using it to exploit your friends name so you might have a case...

That was my point to him as well. I didn't think you could make a buck off of someone else's name like that.

But he is making money everytime they sell one of his prints, right?

If he has a good relationship with the gallery hopefully they will accept his offer. He could also offer to put up a link to the galleries website on his personal site under a 'places to buy my work' section, or something.

-p

Awhile back someone bought buddycianci.com (the ex Mayor of Providence) and they threw up alot of news/info on him that didnt make him look too good. (I guess you have to know alittle about him).

Anyways, I believe they (Cianci) tried to take them to court but I think it was sold to a movie studio rather than given over to Buddy in the end.