Domain Dispute
 

I registered a domain that was expired and went through the 30 day grace period. Now the person who had it registered before wants it back. They offered to consider buying it back or take legal action to get it back. This is not a trademark and I want to keep it for certain reasons. What should I do?

I had a guy do that once. One polite "fuck off" email got rid of him.

it's yours man, keep that shit

they forgot so it's their own fault

What's the domain name? ;) I'd ignore them and see what happens. We had someone write us a letter one time telling us that "due to a clerical error, we neglected to register this domain name, but already have a business plan, website design, etc etc. We're very sorry, but we are willing to re-imburse you the $70 for domain registration"

We got a good laugh out of that one.. ;)

A swift "get fucked" should do the trick.

If the domain is owned by a legal US company
with a tradermark or incorporated business they can
force you to give it up, especially if they owned it before.

how do I know that, I called my attoreney in LA.

they are pretty much fucked, unless they have a trademark or copyright claim

if I were you I would put the site into use immediately.

put something up

make sure to put up some logos - something simple that you create that is original

put a notation on the bottom of the page with something to the effect that

thissite.com Copyright ? 2002 All Rights Reserved.
thissite.com in any form whatsoever appearing on this site and throughout the internet are service marks of thissite.com

Also, contact the registrar, and have them "lock" the registration to protect yourself. It is easy to do, and will save you from a headache in the future.

If they give you a hard time get a lawyer.

Suuuure ya did buddy. :winkwink:

The law on this is not clear cut.

For example:

kathleen kennedy townsend (running for gov in MD) lost her bid to get domains with her name back:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...&notFound=true

while Madonna wins.

The difference?

Madonna makes money off her name.

Usually they need a trademark, but not always.

If you want to know - call up Ari Goldberger. He is honest and will tell you the deal with the name you have. He practice is almost all domain law as far as I know.

www.esqwire.com

His fees are very reasonable and will let you know up front if you have a good claim to the name.

I have probably gotten dozens of letters threatening me with lawsuit/udrp. Only one has followed through (pending UDRP action).

Hey Gator..

Nice try..

I will see you in court now that I know you
more or less grabbed our name up!

www.cyberworldmedia.com

visit my site.. www.wantboobs.com

we are a legal trademarked and incorporated company
and we will take you to court in order to block or take
back this domain..

We have been using Cyberworldmedia.com since
2001.. plus we have business cards as proof as such.
Contact my attorney Ken Braun in Los Angeles at
310-772-0100

huh?

what did i miss jr? didn't follow this part of the thread at all

CyberworldMedia.com is scheduled to come online in 153 days!

when Jesus returns!

Okay, so why let the domain run out? why not re-register it? Why wait and have to call your lawyer about it?

someone grabed the domain up after we had an
error on renewing it on our end.

pisses me off.. oh well, attorney's says it may be
expensive but we have a good solid case since
we have first claims through various protections
under former and current new laws

unless you have an actual mark on the name and they use it in the same category as your mark.. you lose


how do i know?

someone tried to take one of my names claiming the same thing..
they lost

there is more too it then just that..

The domain dispute system is fucked. You might as well roll a set of dice to find out if you'll win or lose in arbitration.

The big question, can they afford it..?


I can afford the court costs...

I would give them a few bucks out of courtesy, just
to make them happy.

find some way to work this out, otherwise you will both end up spending thousands on lawyers for a nasty fight

remember, if you sue, your chances are really only 50/50

I have seen it over and over and over and over

resolve it now before it blows up and costs you an arm and a leg

if you don't you will both regret it

then again, I have to laugh because it was absolute stupidity to let the domain lapse (shit, they give you a million reminders, so you must have been fucking lazy)

and at the same time I have to say to Gator, I don't know you, but it seems to me that if (and I say "if" because I don't know) you did this intentionally to cause problems, then you deserve to be sued and I hope you lose because it is just bad business to intentionally try to hurt others

I don't understand exactly what's going on, and how it ended up here on GFY. Why don't you just pay them $1000 for the domain and get it over with. You're talking about some strange coprorate domain that will get no traffic on its own, right? They get a free $1000, you get your domain, and everyone is happy.

What's a $1000 between GFY friends? :)

Not a thing, I'll send you my mailing address. :)

Do you take Pay Pal?

I offered to buy it back..
what do they have to loose

they can contact me at [email protected]

Absolutely! I'll even cover the processing fee for you, no sweat!

You're suing HIM, but HE needs to call YOUR attorney??!!
LOL, OK. Wait on that call. LOL :ak47:

LOL.

I am always willing to work this out if he
contacts me,

My email about the attorney refers to the fact
if he thinks I am bluffing like so many do about
anything in life.

The domain lapsed since it went to a friends
domain that moved out of the usa. We did not
know this domain had lappsed until today.

Tell the orginal owner:
You snooze you lose, end of story.

Something to consider (imho) Gator, would be the reputation of the person who previously owned this domain.

I don't know J.R. so I can't comment on him personally.

However, if Shemp had a similiar problem to the one J.R. is claiming to have and you didn't give him that domain back (perhaps with some small compensation), my guess would be that you would quickly become one of the most despised webmasters in the business. Thus, any trades or favors you may have received from any of his connections would be non-existent. The money you may make from simply owning this domain would pale in comparison to what you might have made with him on your side.

On the other hand, if this happened to someone with the reputation of an asswipe, perhaps nobody would give a shit(Although, everyone here has people they do business with).

Do your research and see exactly who your dealing with and if it's really worth the trouble.

The connections you make in this business will FAR outweigh ALMOST any domain that would become available.

Now, if you were talking about sex.com, well then I'd tell him to go fuck himself just out of principal, because nobody that stupid should own that domain. :)

Again, just my :2 cents:

heh, it all depends. I had a domain that VERISIGN fucked up BIGTIME on. Somehow my databse showed that the domain was purchased via a wholesaler and they had control over it. When I came to renew, I wasnt allowed. This is after 2 years. The investigation and all the Bull Shit took well over 2 months of faxing emailing phone calls and escelations. It was too late. Someone registered the domain.

I sued. I won. I got my domain back.

$1,000 would seperate you from the bluffers!

Joel,

I don't know WTF you are talking about. I don't have your domain.

The name I got, I did not get it to be an asshole and screw someone over. The name/site have been dead (404's) for well over 30 days after it expired. It might have been dead before it expired, I don't know. The guy wants it back and would probably rather compensate me than go through the expenses/hassle of the legal system. So I guess I will quote him a price and take it from there.

www.cyberworldmedia.tv is available:1orglaugh

Wahahaha :1orglaugh

Then its a pretty strange coincidence then. More then
just a simple similarity especially after every fact you named is
dead on with my issue at hand.

Not to mention comments to do certain things on this boad have been done on the site.

If it's not you then fine, best of luck. If it is, then
you should contact me asap.

Thanks,

why don't you just identify the domain gator?

and if it's not him, don't you think you owe him a better apology j.r. for your accusations?
:2 cents:

If they lost it because someone at the registrar fucked up, they may have a case against THEM, but a case against YOU? I don't see how. WTF did YOU do wrong?

I will surely say I am sorry once I am convinced..

at the moment, I am not.

you accused him without even knowing for sure it was him? :1orglaugh


this happens online tons of times a day..

You seem to be convinced it is Gator that snatched the domain, what convinces you?

List the evidence.

i like snatching domains... !

i like snatch...

How many domains are registered every day? Yet the one Gator got <i>must</i> have been JR's domain! It's just not possible that someone else registered it. :eek7

Gator , what is the fucking domain name ?? If I have to read thur all this crap, at least you owe it to us to tell us the damn name now :BangBang:



Tim
:Graucho

Please do, if it's not my former domain.. by all means
tell us what it is then!

If it is, then contact me otherwise you will be
hearing from our attorney's.

Whether we win or loose is irrelevant at the moment.

Joel,

I said I don't have your domain. Over 5,000 names expire every day.

The name is http://www.fantasyx.com

I offered to sell it back to the guy and he is probably going to take it back. There are thousands more names I can get so it's alright.

You want a fucking cookie or something? He said this was not a trademark domain.