Domain name dispute. SEO turns into legal notification.

[NameCritic]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

I am no lawyer and please don't consider advice on forums gospel, but an IP is something controlled by the host and has nothing to do with domain ownership.

I would also guess that the domain(s) are something that should be listed as an asset.

No lawyer either hulk, but IP also means "Intellectual Property".

I think what she is asking is if a domain name is a real property asset or is it Intellectual Property.

Courts have not always agreed that it is either one. Some courts say a domain name is property, others say it is a service you are paying a yearly fee for.

I don't know of any court decisions that call a domain name intellectual property though there may be some I'm not aware of.

Thats why more weight is given to trademarks than to domain names.

However, in your situation, you may want to contact an attorney to find out what you should do. Maybe even a tax lawyer or accountant. Many companies are considering and even recording their domain names as actual property assets.

[scanmonkey]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Do they have the same problem with those that own http://www.classicmetalroof.com/?

I seem to remember a really long thread on WPW about domain ownership for a generic set of keywords. I think I remember it had the city Houston in it. Does anyone remember the thread link?

Good question. Do they have a problem with http://www.classicmetalroof.com/?

[scanmonkey]

Originally Posted by NameCritic

This is going to cost you money if you want to keep the name ...

There it is. What is the domain worth to you or what do you think it is worth dollarwise if you were to sell it on the open market.

"classic metal roofing" seems to be a generic name to me. But what do I know? Wouldn't seem that you could copyright NetQuote®

But that is another consideration. Are they claiming trademark or copyright? Anyone can claim a trademark on generic words. But will they win the case?

[NameCritic]

You brought up a good point. Geo names don't have trademarks but you can lose one of those in arbitration as well.

Look up the case of Barcelona.com The city of Barcelona had barcelona.gov and even encouraged the owner of barcelona.com to build a portal. Then they took it away in arbitration.

Unfortunately the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is anything but uniform.

[scanmonkey]

I'll agree with NameCritic anything can happen.

recent decision threads
http://listbox.wipo.int/wilma/domain...6/threads.html

interesting that no one has tried to get
classic-metal-roofing.com
classicmetalroofing.net
classicmetalroofing.org
classicmetalroofing.biz

It seems that the classicmetalroof.com site is for a company caled "Classic Metal Roofing"
http://www.classicmetalroof.com/contact.html

Sell the name to them.

[TrafficProducer]

There are some legal issue links here

Including links to:-

The Internet Engineering Task Force

(IETF) is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual. The IETF Mission Statement is documented in RFC
3935.

EFF is a nonprofit group of passionate people — lawyers, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights.

ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

ICANN Dispute Policy

InterNIC FAQs on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the Rules) (As Approved by ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) on October 24, 1999) http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm or http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm

ICANN-accredited registrars.

Considerations for innocent domain name owners.

The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Established in 1994 and is an administrative unit in Geneva, Switzerland. Its purpose is to offer arbitration and mediation services for the resolution of commercial disputes between private parties involving intellectual property. The dispute resolution procedures offered by the Center, which lend themselves also to other types of commercial disputes, constitute alternatives to court litigation.

The Center is international, independent and neutral, and is assisted in its operation by advisory bodies composed of external experts in international dispute resolution and intellectual property. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options, in particular arbitration.

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) present grave risks to innocent domain name owners. This page offers some general comments for domain name owners to assist them in avoiding loss of their domain names.

Internationalized domain name (IDN) ( Described by Wikipedia) is an Internet
domain name that (potentially) contains non-ASCII characters. Such domain names could contain letters with diacritics, as required by many European languages, or characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. However, the standard for domain names does not allow such characters, and much work has gone into finding a way around this, either by changing the standard, or by agreeing on a way to convert internationalized domain names into standard ASCII domain names while preserving the stability of the domain name system. Translation Links.

Domain Name Transfer's

ICANN Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy. All registrars in the .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org top-level domains follow the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (often referred to as the UDRP). Under the policy, most types of trademark-based domain-name disputes must be resolved by agreement, court action, or arbitration before a registrar will cancel,suspend, or transfer a domain name. Disputes alleged to arise from abusive registrations of domain names (for example, cybersquatting) may be addressed by expedited administrative proceedings that the holder of trademark rights initiates by filing a complaint with an approved dispute-resolution service provider. To invoke the policy, a trademark owner should either
(a) file a complaint in a court of proper jurisdiction against the domain-name holder (or where appropriate an in-rem action concerning the domain name) or
(b) in cases of abusive registration submit a complaint to an approved dispute-resolution service provider.

Registration web siteThis website has been established to provide the public information regarding Internet domain name registration services.

American Registry for Internet Numbers ARIN

UKReg Domain Name Dispute Policy

Nominet Disputes account all registrations in the .uk Top Level Domains.

Domain Name law (Sedo)

Also view our Scams and hoaxes. Fraud warnings. Virus Attacks.

[NameCritic]

Great links, but you can also join the mailing list for these issues involving domain names, ICANN, the GNSO, and disputes, as well as other concerns you have about ICANN.

To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the Announcement list, please send an email to <majordomo@gnso.icann.org> with the words subscribe announce (or unsubscribe announce) in the body of the message.

[scanmonkey]

I ran into this old thread the other day.

Booble Responds To Google: Read Letter
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=12837

I had to do a few searches on Booble.com just for research purposes.

[NameCritic]

I like the post about double bubble suing google.

[ctabuk]

I own a URL that will get me either sued or paid, I've had it for two years or thereabouts, I've not done anything with it, it is just parked at Verio, I have hundreds like this, but this is the most 'risky'
http://www.xbox360movies.com

When Bill Gates looks to run Movies through the xbox system, well, the sparks will fly. But I did write to them saying that we did this in a forum to see if we could get away with it. And by posting it here and other places I'm letting them know that I've got it.

[NameCritic]

I'd start selling some xboxes or games there anyway. Just a suggestion I know you had to have already come up with, but why not do it?

[freehits]

This simple, I would send an email to them sayig you registered it in good faith, unaware of any similarity, if any. You are dissapointed that they felt the need to threaten legal action before dicussing it with you directly.

You are also dissapointed that they chose to spend the money and energy on legal threats other than simply buying it for a small token amount.

Let them know you dont intent to hand it over because of the way they approached you, and if you do lose it through such crude means as they chose, you will spend your time writing and blogging online about your personal experiences in dealing with their company.
there trademark vs your free speech.

I bet they would want to find a middle ground there.
Same appraoch got me a small check from an NBA player. Too bad, I was a fan before they acted that way.