View Full Version : Is this legal?
phillypleez
05-13-2004, 01:19 PM
I got this email today. I want to see what you guys think:
"I left you a message yesterday by phone after discovering your registration of ionoffice.com. We have owned the domain for years, and were perplexed how you were able to register it. We are the definitive trademark and domain owner of ion on the Internet and ask you simply transfer it back to us. We can only guess what your intended use of it
would be, however, we will protect our rights. I can understand if you may not have been aware of our company, and we may be willing to discuss a future relationship, but you would be ill advised to use the domain or start a site with the term "ion" in it without our consent."
I guess he's claiming that he owns every domain name that includes the term "ion".
jestep
05-13-2004, 01:36 PM
If you legally registered the domain through a registar, then it is yours. Its probably just someone trying to scare you into giving up a good domain.
Linda Buquet
05-13-2004, 02:39 PM
If they have "ionoffice" trademarked they may have a case but if they only have "ion" then I don't see how. Not that I"m an expert on trademark law, but I have been doing some research because I just found a great domain that could have tradmark implications with a HUGE company, so I have been trying to find out more.
From what I have read, if they are serious they will send you a cease & desist. I have also read to be sure not to say or act like you are planning to sell it. That gives them more grounds for a cybersqatting case.
edwinj
05-13-2004, 09:58 PM
I looked it up. There are no trademarks on "ion office." The domain is yours.
There are thousands of domains with the term 'ion' in it. There's an active ionoffice.net. (I assume they're the guys who contacted you.)
And there are hundreds of different 'ion' trademarks ~ 'ion america', 'ion engine', 'ion max'..and this guy doesn't own them all, if he owns any at all.
Linda Buquet
05-14-2004, 10:39 AM
Edwin,
I just went to try to check out your site and even though I have ActiveX set to block to prevent parasites and adware from downloading - weatherbug which includes Gator tried to get me to install. You really should remove that parasitic advertiser.
Here's more info in case you were unaware.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=weatherbug+parasite
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=weatherbug+gator
Hi Linda,
I do not have any adware or any such things on my site to harass visitors. I was very concerned to hear what you encountered.
Did you have any other Windows open? Could it have come from another source?
I have not received any other questions or complaints regd this. In fact my ebook is selling well, #3 on Clickbank best sellers list in the domain category and the site has been seen by thousands.
Would appreciate feedback from other members. Go to: http://www.OpenForSale.com or click on the link below.
Linda, I appreciate your feedback. Thank you.
edwinj
05-15-2004, 03:44 AM
Ooops....the above post was mine.
Linda Buquet
05-17-2004, 11:44 AM
Edwin,
I just went to your site again and it did not happen.
I use a popup blocker so was surprised it got through before. Could have come from somewhere else although the last place I visited was here.
Anyway did not happen again, sorry if it was a false alarm. Your ebook looks great by the way!
PitterPA
05-17-2004, 12:44 PM
[quote="Catalyst"]Edwin,
Could have come from somewhere else although the last place I visited was here.
Hmmmm, I wonder... just kidding
I got this email today. I want to see what you guys think:
"I left you a message yesterday by phone after discovering your registration of ionoffice.com. We have owned the domain for years, and were perplexed how you were able to register it. We are the definitive trademark and domain owner of ion on the Internet and ask you simply transfer it back to us. We can only guess what your intended use of it
would be, however, we will protect our rights. I can understand if you may not have been aware of our company, and we may be willing to discuss a future relationship, but you would be ill advised to use the domain or start a site with the term "ion" in it without our consent."
I guess he's claiming that he owns every domain name that includes the term "ion".
Hi there,
have a lawyer look it over, regarding the merits. It looks to me, that it is so broad a claim, that it can be dismissed by a good lawyer in an initial visit, which is often for free. But check!
K<o>
Andilinks
05-17-2004, 01:14 PM
Linda, It sounds as though you may have a parasite malware on your machine, I recently have begun using four different spyware programs when my usual two failed to find a keylogger and mysterious pop-ups that originated on my machine--not the sites I was visiting. These were pop-ups even the Google toolbar didn't stop. Malware is definitely getting more agressive and sneakier.
These are the four I'm currently running:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
http://www.pestpatrol.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://www.webroot.com/
Each of these has found mal-ware that the others have missed. The PestPatrol seems to be the most effective but the trial version will only find but not delete, so I have been deleting what it finds manually using explorer and regedit. I may buy it for 39.95 if it keeps finding stuff the others miss.
Oh BTW I think that Ion guy may be a domain spammer who sends a different version of the same letter to all new registrants hoping a few might offer to settle for cash.
Andi
I am not an attorney, but as far as I have read, as long as you are not selling a similar service, the trademark does not apply.
Check out this exerpt from
http://www.trademarkmyname.com/faq.html
1. What is trademark infringement?
Trademark infringement occurs when a business uses the same or similar name in commerce in a way that may lead to confusion with the trademark owner's service/product. Trademark infringement is based on this element of "confusion" that is a function of the mark's meaning. In general, infringement does not require the infringer to be a competitor, but infringement requires a similar product.
SymbioticDesign
05-17-2004, 04:05 PM
They are simply trying to rip-off your Domain. It is legal to try, though they are using dubious methods and are not very convincing at it. But, it's still a scam.
I am going to try to think of a Domain Name with ion in it that I like and register it. :)
janeth
05-17-2004, 04:09 PM
I would use it there is nothing they can do.
bondei
05-17-2004, 04:12 PM
Hi
even if they have the ownership of the full name they might not have the rights.
Google lost a battle a few years ago in Denmark about www.google.dk because the person using it had a bookstore.
Unfortunately he later change it into a afiliate of some other internet store and lost the right for the name.
The main issue here is that if you have the intent to make harm to the name when you bought it then you could be in trouble. if not it is yours.
It is the same thing if you try to do something that you know is wrong, either stealing, buy to extreamly low price(stolen goods) and so on, they will say you should know better.
TrafficProducer
05-17-2004, 06:00 PM
Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
If you have any more problems check out:-
http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm
davebarnes
05-17-2004, 06:04 PM
phillypleez,
IANAL (I am not a lawyer).
0. I agree with "They are simply trying to rip-off your Domain. It is legal to try, though they are using dubious methods and are not very convincing at it. But, it's still a scam." as stated earlier.
1. Do NOT reply to their email. Save all emails sent to you.
2. Do NOT reply to their phone message. Save all phone messages.
3. Do NOT offer to sell the domain name.
4. Do NOT create a website around ionoffice.com that has anything to do with whatever it is that ionchannels.com does.
5. I surmise that they are trying to own ion*.com for their ionchannels.com business and stupidly did not jump on ionoffice.com when it became available.
6. If you receive a written letter via the post from their lawyer, then you also need a lawyer.
7. If you want to spend the money ($350), then register ionoffice.com and associated business name and logo with the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO). Nolo Press (www.nolo.com) has a good book on the subject and you do not need a trademark attorney.
8. If the PTO grants you a REGISTERED trademark for Ionoffice, then you might be able to demand that they relinquish ionoffice.net to you.
,dave
Atheek Sait
05-17-2004, 11:33 PM
Hello....
Just ignore their Phone calls and emails, but try to save them. All ion*.* ID's are not their properitory concern. If case they send you a legal note, reply to them. As said by Mr. Dave, do not do any kind of business or service as offered by ionoffice.com. Big ID owners have lost their battle in such a domain name ID case, then who is ionoffice.com, if they were using this ID for a long time, they should have renewed it, or taken precautionary care in registering the ID's were ever possible. Keep the ID now with you, the law is with you.
Atheek
Hi All!
I realy don't know who the people are that you are dealing with but they might not be as bad as they seem.
I've been on the other end of a deal like this. Our finance office forgot to re register our domain name a couple of years ago. It was bought up immediatly by a business that redirected the address to a dodgy website. By doing this thet gave us the legal right to get it back.
We owned the logo, name and copyright and they were missrepresenting the company. The other way to open themselves up would have been to try to sell a similar product.
This really is a grey area within the law. Although we could have taken it to court, and won, we needed our URL back. So we created a very tough letter explaining the error they where making and bought it back off them for a nominal fee ( much less than the court case would have cost).
There are a lot of guys out there who make very large sums of money buying website names to sell back to the old owners who will pay the price for the URL rather than pay a lawyer.
So we are not all bad guys, some of us just want our identity back.
jestep
05-18-2004, 09:55 AM
So we are not all bad guys, some of us just want our identity back.
Edon, you bring up a good point here that it may be a case of someone forgetting to re register their domain, or forgetting to register their domain, but the letters that were sent were threatening from the start.
If the initial request was sent more to try to purchase the domain, or explaining the mistake then the situation would have been different. But, there was the undertone of trademark infringement from the start. Most people will react violently when they are yelled at, but if spoken to in a calm, professional, reasonable manner, anyone is willing to listen. Now they are trying to throw anything they can to get the domain back, but they probably could have had it from the start if they were reasonable about their request.
If I recieved a letter like this, there is no way that I would give up this domain, based on the initial insult and threat. phillypleez legally registered the domain, without the intention to infringe anything, and this letter came as an accusation, and demanded that it be given back. He has every right to keep it for himself and use it however he wants.[/quote]
jensor
05-19-2004, 12:44 AM
Dear All responses requested over the following issue- I brought over 2 yrs ago a domain name for an upcoming local icon attraction. I had created several pages off my tourism site explaining of the new venture. The icon openeed Dec '03 with only the local tourist bureau have the .au extension registered and re-directed to their site until funding allowed the development of their site, so far still not up! I have been building this .com site as a local community portal & infomation site for visitors & locals to use. I have requested meeting with local committee but until 1 week ago no luck, now they are putting the heavies on me about misleading, plagarism, copying etc:
They got a local lawyer to view site in Feb and advised and alot of facts are incorrect and the site has developed greatly since then. I have take on board a few comments I felt had merit and changed infomation. I said very little during the grilling as not to give them ammunition. This site has been for local benefit and now I have placed "Unoffical" site at top of page. They want me to give them the domain, what do you think?
fasterstill
07-07-2004, 03:02 PM
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=23959
Hi guys
Im after advice on a similar matter on the thread above , if any of you can offer any advice id be very greatfull.
Thanks
snowflakegirl
07-08-2004, 12:30 AM
I'e often wondered about this myself. I have aproximatly 175 domain names which are "snowflake" related.
Snowflakedecorations.com, snowflakecookies.com etc. I know there are companies out there with the registered names "snowflakeinns.com" "snowflakehotels.com" for instance. What I understand is that your purpose for owning the domain names is imperative to your rights to own same. I have a snowflake store where my goal is to offer snowflake products of all sorts of ilk. I want a page for snowflake travel, snowflake air ,snowflake hotels. In this case I believe my rights of ownership are protected and I can't be found guilty of cyber-squatting.
I could wrong...
snowflake girl
I'd be shaking in my boots if I got an email like that.... :P
Just kidding... it's clearly a scare tactic and a poor one at that... I am not a lawyer but I do OWN 3 International TradeMarks and have been through this process before... you cannot trademark anything like a color or a letter or a grouping of letters! the domain is yours and they're scared of competition :)) Have fun , use the domain and prosper...
L8 M8
NeO~1
smakyyy
07-24-2004, 05:38 AM
I am not a lawyer but am studying to be a patent agent. this is not professional advise but my opinion.
"Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 1:19 pm
Post subject: Is this legal?
I got this email today. I want to see what you guys think: "
You just received a E-mail - not a registered letter on company letterhead or from a legal office.
you do not need to worry about crank e-mails.
just do what you are doing and not worry about a thing till you see something in official writing. we are advanced with technology but without a registered mail from anyone i do not know of anything standing up in court for being sent by e-mail to initiate a contact.
it is like someone tryting to serve a warrant by e-mail - just doesnt work!!!
gemafrica
07-29-2004, 04:49 PM
If I received a mail like that, I would register all the ion* domains I can think of just to get ahead and then - being a female I can - just act totally stupid if it ever comes to the crunch. But on the other hand, I would act stupid - because I can - and visit the Trademark corporation and show them this mail and ask stupidly if it is allowed. If they do not have a registered trademark, they can get into serious trouble. Report them - I say!!!!!!!!!!