trademarks and domains - question
 

i have a domain of a singers name, his lawyer has contacted me and said if i don't hand it over they will get ICANN to take the domain from me. however since i have had this domain registered for 4 years. i believe he has only registered his name as a trademark some time in the past 2 years. does this mean that since i had the name before he registered his, they can't take the name from me? is there a database online or some way i can find out for sure when it was registered. thanks

Do you currently have material / content on the site that makes you $$$ ?

you can start your due diligence at uspto.gov and check the trademark db. if you post the domain in question, that would be helpful. your best hope is that the name is common and you are not using it for music related or whatever categories their mark is in.

nope, never tried to make a dime from the site. its just a site where fans of the guy can converse.

i couldn't find anything there in regards to the guys name. not gonna post it at this point.

just based on what you've posted so far, i would say of course to consult with an attorney and also i am not an attorney or giving legal advice, and that the attorney who contacted you is probably bluffing. udrp's are not too costly and go either way though. do not offer to sell them the domain btw.

That exact situation can go either way each time...

That happended to me once..

Registered derekfisher.com in 97 I think and then a couple yrs later a lawyer for the nba star derekfisher contacted me trying to get that domain. I told him I got it for my programmer who's name is derekfisher :)

well im not too concered about it. if he would of contacted me directly i probably would of just given it to him but since he feels he has to go through a lawyer and throw terms at me like 'violating his rights' i'm not gonna give it up for nothing if i don't have to. we'll see i guess.

ive heard some fucked up stored about domain cases like this

sorry i cant be of assistance :\