Thread: Help!! Threat of lawsuit for Brand Infrigement - Page 2

When it comes to certain domain names, my lawyers advises me to own the domain (preferably through an offshore company), point the DNS addresses to NOWHERE (so that no site appears typing in the domain name). This means you are not making money on the site.

Then, sit and wait. They will make an offer to you. Lawyers start by being threatening with gestures. In the end, they are pretty rational people that negotiate business.

Lawsuits cost much, much more than $2000-3000.

Marc Lesnick
Conference Organizer
Casino Affiliate Convention
http://www.cac2006.com
Sept 14 -15
Las Vegas

Thats correct suits cost a lot more than that, and the loser usually pays it all; so watch yourself. Plenty of domain disputes and & cybersquatting type cases on the books for you to review.

A coulple organizations to check out for research.

ICANN

WIPO

IMO it appears you clearly knew about playunited when you purchased those domains. You also seem to have had an intended usage or intent in mind.
Sorry, but I wish they would just stop the talk and sue you.

Marc,

I think that's excellent advise. Basically, take up the spot, but don't use it to your own commercial ends.

A.D, I hope you've got some other domains and ways of making money, 'cause if suit is filed, you'll likely be required to take down the site immediately during proceedings (unless you have better lawyers than a casino... which is pretty unlikely).

Dave

Originally Posted by DaveAPN

Marc,

I think that's excellent advise. Basically, take up the spot, but don't use it to your own commercial ends.

Sorry, but how is that excellent advice? There're clearly are rules of engagement here and being coy imo is not the thing to do.

Why were the domains purchased? If you really want to use them, you should get in touch with the casino/program and work out a deal to promote them. Otherwise you have no valid reason to be squatting on the domain.

Originally Posted by dehghan

Hi,

Im a affiliate with playunited.com, and i own playunited.eu & .co.uk,
playunited have contacted me and wanting to buy my domain for very cheap
600$, else they are threatning with lawsuit.

They are threatning to sue me for brand infrigement. However, as far as im
concerned, i dont see any basis to their claim, does any know better?

Any suggestions?

/A.D

The .eu and .co.uk will look like the casino in question to a an average punter. Is that allowed without permission?

The best advice I saw was sell the domain for as much as possible.

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.

Microsoft took windowscasino.com to court and lost.

That case is not even close to being the same issue here.

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.

Originally Posted by Market Junction

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?

Originally Posted by Amateur

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.

Originally Posted by DaveAPN

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.