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If playunited is registered as a brand in US, EU or in other jurisdiction you are unable to use that domain name.
Keep the $600 dude and take a course of ethics!!
Ask Larry the lawyer, he does both online gaming law and online copyright law.
Did you pay for that domain, if so its’ yours period. I am no Lawyer but have seen similiar cases. Call them on their bluff! greek39
I might suggest reading the saga of Nissan Computer Corporation:
http://www.nissan.com
http://www.nissan.com/Digest/The_Story.phpIf playunited.eu & co.uk are your sites, you’re not at all letting people know that they are not on a Play United company page (in fact, you’re effectively acting as if they ARE). . . That aspect could get you in some serious trouble, and probably give them a lot of leverage in court.
Good luck, hope you get justly compensated for your efforts.
It’s simple economics… charge them exactly what it will cost them to go through with suing you. From their standpoint they will be saving time.
I’d guess to sell them for about $2000 to $3000, or at least that is what I would do.
Pay the “fair” price or “so sue me already”
Oh, but you SHOULD certainly be careful if you send them lots of players. They might kill your affiliate account. Like I said, pure economics.
dAn
When I studied branding and implied trademarks, the biggest point made was confusion.
If a visitor might come to your website, and mistakenly think they are @ Earn United, and Earn United has in the eyes of the law ‘branded’ the name or addy.. then you could be infringing.
For instance, if you owned a cookie shop, and I sold purses, we have the same URL (.com & .net) My customers are not likely to be easily confused, because cookies are not purses.
Thats just a basic overview though, and I’m by no means qualified to give advise.. just my understanding of the law
~LadyH
SEO’s say a domain name should be branding now and not keyword based. That’s why they’re pissed.
Microsoft took windowscasino.com to court and lost.
why not work with each other, have play united create a landing page specifically for you with your tracker links. That way the control what the branding is, they can keep your content current and you get your rev share. Try it, it really works.
Brian
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 $2000-3000.
Marc Lesnick
Conference Organizer
Casino Affiliate Convention
http://www.cac2006.com
Sept 14 -15
Las VegasThats correct suits cost a lot more than that, and the loser usually pays it all; so watch yourself. Plenty of domain disputes and & cybersquatting type cases on the books for you to review.
A coulple organizations to check out for research.
IMO it appears you clearly knew about playunited when you purchased those domains. You also seem to have had an intended usage or intent in mind.
Sorry, but I wish they would just stop the talk and sue you.Marc,
I think that’s excellent advise. Basically, take up the spot, but don’t use it to your own commercial ends.
A.D, I hope you’ve got some other domains and ways of making money, ’cause if suit is filed, you’ll likely be required to take down the site immediately during proceedings (unless you have better lawyers than a casino… which is pretty unlikely).
Dave
DaveAPN wrote:Marc,I think that’s excellent advise. Basically, take up the spot, but don’t use it to your own commercial ends.
Sorry, but how is that excellent advice? There’re clearly are rules of engagement here and being coy imo is not the thing to do.
Why were the domains purchased? If you really want to use them, you should get in touch with the casino/program and work out a deal to promote them. Otherwise you have no valid reason to be squatting on the domain.
dehghan wrote:Hi,Im a affiliate with playunited.com, and i own playunited.eu & .co.uk,
playunited have contacted me and wanting to buy my domain for very cheap
600$, 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.DThe .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.
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.
