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I. If they own the trademark, you are in the wrong. All you did was change the country code extension on the domain. Furthermore, you are using the same name for the same type of business. Look up legal cases and you’ll see how you will lose.
II. If they don’t own a registered trademark, they still own a common law trademark. It’s less powerful, but it still exists.
III. Don’t try to get smart. If they take you to court, and win, you will end up losing the domain. You will get nothing. On top of it, you will be out money for your own legal defense and you will also have damages assessed against you, which will include their legal defense. $600 is going to seem like a mountain of cash when it’s all over.
IV. If you don’t like their offer, ask them for something else. While you are at it, hire an IP lawyer. Following some of the advice you find in forums is going to get you in plenty of hot water.
Quote:Microsoft took windowscasino.com to court and lost.That case is not even close to being the same issue here.
Quote:I think that’s excellent advise. Basically, take up the spot, but don’t use it to your own commercial ends.That’s one way to give them even more favor with the court. Not a good idea.
Market Junction wrote:That’s one way to give them even more favor with the court. Not a good idea.
I completely disagree, on the exact point Marc made in his post. Fundamentally, the OP is trying to make his site look as if it is run by play united, where in fact he is an affiliate of theirs. Go look at his sites compared to their .com – even I’m hard pressed to find a difference and I’m looking for it. The courts will judge their decisions primarily on intentions, and in this case the domain owners’ intent is to act like play united. He’s even using popups that link to playunited.com!Look, if he owns the domains and uses them to host a website about writing poetry, play united’s case for trademark infringement would probably not go very far. If he owned the domain and didn’t do anything, he’d probably be able to get a pretty good value out of it and not be liable for trademark infringement.
Fundamentally, they want those domains (and shame on them for not grabbing them when they had the chance) because what if the OP decided to promote another program? He has the capability of doing significant harm to play united’s brand name simply because the domain is obviously being used & promoted as a gaming website. By completely eliminating that relationship, either by totally changing the content or removing the sites entirely, he gains himself far more legal ground to stand on.
They entered their low offer. I’d suggest you counter with a high counter-offer, and eventually you’ll likely meet in the middle. They don’t want to go to court any more than you do.
Dave
what court? Where are you and where are they?
Amateur wrote:what court? Where are you and where are they?
Heh… good point. I’ve been assuming this whole time this was happening in the UK, which has similar trademark laws as the US.DaveAPN wrote:I completely disagree, on the exact point Marc made in his post. Fundamentally, the OP is trying to make his site look as if it is run by play united, where in fact he is an affiliate of theirs. Go look at his sites compared to their .com – even I’m hard pressed to find a difference and I’m looking for it. The courts will judge their decisions primarily on intentions, and in this case the domain owners’ intent is to act like play united. He’s even using popups that link to playunited.com!Dave,
Either you misunderstood me or I am misunderstanding you. Let me try to clarify. Just because someone is an affiliate doesn’t mean they can use the company’s trademark, content, etc without permission. Play United will have favor with the court, because he is using their trademark and trying to get visitors to think he’s Play United.
However, let me back up. I am just talking about USA law. UK can be similar to some degree, but who knows.
Market Junction wrote:Either you misunderstood me or I am misunderstanding you. Let me try to clarify. Just because someone is an affiliate doesn’t mean they can use the company’s trademark, content, etc without permission. Play United will have favor with the court, because he is using their trademark and trying to get visitors to think he’s Play United.
We’re on the exact same page. I don’t think the OP would have a snowball’s chance of winning any sort of trademark infringement fight.Dave
He wouldnt stand a chance of winning any domain fight. :fencing:
Registrar companies have their terms and conditions. Their customers must comply with trademark and copyright laws. Therefore, we’re not talking about a lawsuit, but a simple procedure. playunited will complain to the registrar and probably get the domain for quite a low fee.
Laurent
That is true Laurent, but in the US for instance, they would also have the right to sue for damages, profits lost, and legal fee’s.
~LadyH
laurent wrote:Registrar companies have their terms and conditions. Their customers must comply with trademark and copyright laws. Therefore, we’re not talking about a lawsuit, but a simple procedure. playunited will complain to the registrar and probably get the domain for quite a low fee.Laurent
If they complain to domain authority it would cost them at least
6K, so please get your information before replying something you
dont know much of.Thanks for the concern though.
dehghan wrote:If they complain to domain authority it would cost them at least
6K, so please get your information before replying something you
dont know much of.Thanks for the concern though.
Is there a reason to be so rude in your reply to Laurent?
When it comes to threads involving legal questions, every reply will basically be opinions based upon a combination of knowledge, experience, supposition and conjecture. YOU asked the question to begin with, so clearly you are not well-versed on the subject, so to tell another that they should not reply is not exactly fair, IMO.
Bottom line: If you are looking for legal advice, contact an attorney. If you’re simply looking for input, that’s exactly what you’re getting.
Clearly you should sell right away. Why risk any legal trouble. And, what would be the purpose of holding out when they can just close down your affiliate account. What are you going to do with the domain and a site that looks just like Play United when you don’t make any money from promoting it. On another note, you should not be putting all of your eggs in one basket and only promoting one casino program anyway, it just doesn’t make great business sense.
greedygirl wrote:Is there a reason to be so rude in your reply to Laurent?When it comes to threads involving legal questions, every reply will basically be opinions based upon a combination of knowledge, experience, supposition and conjecture. YOU asked the question to begin with, so clearly you are not well-versed on the subject, so to tell another that they should not reply is not exactly fair, IMO.
Bottom line: If you are looking for legal advice, contact an attorney. If you’re simply looking for input, that’s exactly what you’re getting.
Well said!
Here is the way I look at it …
What was the “intent” behind you buying those domains?
I beleive that it was to maximise your affiliate relationship with PlayUnited – by scoring great search engine results through the name of the domain.
Now like it or lump it – THAT PROBABLY IS INFRINGING ON THEIR RIGHTS – unless they give you the OK to do that.
However, their threat to “get legal” with you is a lot of bluster – they probab ly don’t want to do that. But what they will do is terminate your affiliation – leaving you with no reason to own the site.
That’s lose / lose … so we need to avoid that.
So my approach would be …You could try and get into a friendly discussion with PlayUnited about :
– what a great affiliate you are
– how the site has been set up for the pruposes of getting them new customers
– how it is a win/ win scenario for them to allow you to continue.You never know – this approach might actually work !!
:notify:Failing that (if they knock you back) …
You could tell them how hard you’ve worked on the site – all the planning that you’ve put into it – and how there is a lot of sweat equity in there from you.
Add that you’d be willing to forego the site (and future earnings) if they want to make a reasonable purchase offer for the site and content that reflected all the time that you put in as an affiliate of theirs.
Now the key here is to not be too eager or too greedy – you’ll know how much money that you are making off the site in affiliate referrals … and a reasonable price might be 12-18 x monthly earnings.
They get a great earning site with no referral hooks, you get 18 months referral fees in a lump sum …
Again that’s just my two cents on how I would handle this situation …
Good luck mate.
:satisfiedDid you not see my post? Just make a deal and promote the site you intended to profit from in the first place, this is not rocket science.
Brian
