Help a brother out...

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bam bam

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Oct 9, 2007
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One of my Clients has discovered that someone owns the typo of their domain (Which is their trading name and TM'd).

Just wondering if there is anything i can do as surprise surprise they are taking up alot of our links and potential revenue, (it's a common misspelling), yadda yadda yadda.

Should i email them and offer to buy it or go down the legal route?
 


With mispellings theres abit of a gray area. Does the target website relate to the company trademark? If so the legal route would provide the best solution - a well written writ is usually enough to run them off scared.

If the site has a legitimate purpose - act like a 12 year old, write a poorly written email asking to buy the domain: they will not hike the price up and you will know straight away how they feel about the domain.

My 2 cents!
 
At the minute it's parked. So i'll go with the legal route first, failing that i'll wait a while and email them offering to buy it.

Cheers dude.
 
Domain name misspellings and abbreviations with the intent of diverting traffic intended for a trademarked/ branded site are a clear violation of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999. The difficulty in the legal route is that if the cybersquatter does not acknowledge or submit to the Cease and Desist/ Demand letter your attorney sends, then you are facing an uphill battle of litigation in a still grey-area of the law.
The courts (if it came to that) would consider 5 factors in settling domain disputes.
1. Did the squatter register the name in bad faith (e.g. did they knowingly reserve a trademark as a domain name with the intent to profit)?
2. Is the squatter trying to benefit off the trademark/ domain name?
3. How similar is the domain name involved (this, obviously, is already met in your case).
4. How unique is the domain name (e.g. prove distictiveness- you have no case if you offer cheaptoys.com and they offer bargaintoys.com). The issue of distictiveness can be proven based on how much has been spent, for example, on advertising/ marketing etc. efforts and over how long a period of time.
5. Whether or not the sale of goods are involved (e.g. can you prove loss of your primary revenue stream because of the cybersquatter?)

 There is a third way out- if buying it doesn’t work (per the recommendation of the above poster) and the squatter doesn’t respond to a demand letter from your friend’s attorney – consider arbitration through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). They are the cheapeast, fastest procedure resolve bad faith registration of domain names as long as you/ your friend can meet the above factors.
For more good, general information around trademarks and domain registration, check out:
http://www.jaredmore.com/internetlaw/trademarklaw.html
 (Completely informational- and I have no relationship to whoever this guy is).

BTW: I am a complete newbie here, but I’m an Intellectual Property paralegal by day (for the last five years) / new affiliate marketer by night for the last 6 months.
 
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bam bam, don't be cheap, give her rep for that.

::emp::
 
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