A organization is trying to take away my domain name help

[yowow]

Hi
I know how big companies are always using their power and money to squash little guys like us.
Now the problem I have....
I am not goin to reveal my domain name
GOTD is fake name
lets say my company domain name is
GOTDjob.com (its website which services for a "occupation" where employers and jobseeker can post resume message board live chat etc)
i describe GOTD on my website as Gems of Traders Division
Now "GOTD" is a short name for a organization which own TRADEMARK for GOTD for this "occupation". They describe GOTD as Gold of Traders Division.
Again GOTD is fake name

Now the problem is their lawyers send me a letter today saying i can't use word "GOTD" on my website because the organization GOTD owns the trademark for GOTD.
OK i never knew such a organisation existed and they have a trademark for GOTD. I can understand may be upon receiving this letter i shouldn't use "GOTD" on my logo etc but can i use smaller case "gotd" on my logo????
And now second problem their lawyer in letter is saying to me to transferred my domain name to gotdjob.com to them or cancel it.
I was like wtf they have a trademark for only GOTD how can they tell me to transferred domain name or close my website????
Also upon investigation they don't even own gotd.com or gotd.net (a video game company own gotd.com and a milk association farmer owns gotd.net). This organization own and have only gotd.org as their organization website.
I think they want to squash competition because when i went to GOTD.org (their officailly website) they also have employement section for this occupation.
And basically they don't want to me have a website for jobseeker for this occupation.

So here is my question...
>What are the ICANN rule for this type of situation?
i mean since they own a trademark for GOTD can they force me to give up gotdjob.com???? even tho they don't own GOTD.com or GOTD.net
>I am not rich since i just developed this website a month ago and the website is picking up slowly and i am started generation small revenue for me, but i don't want to give up my website because i know i can make more $$$ in the future.
>Lawyers: I can't afford to hire or spend money and since they are big organisation with 50,000 members their lawyers looks hotshot. So any website or lawyers can help me for free??? :(
Any other suggetion or comment
Please post them.

[jestep]

I think you're ok on this one.

My company has the trademark NBS - (National BankCard Systems),

Another company has the trademark NBS - (National BankCard Services)

Yes, NBS is the same and is registered to both companies, but neither company has rights over NBS over eachother since its name has a different meaning.

As long as GOTD for you is not the same as GOTD for them, then I can see no way that they can win.

Unfortunately it may come down to them taking you to court, and from what it sounds this would not be a good thing for you financially.

I would research trademark rights and regulations as much as possible on google and other places to find more info. But, from the way that I understand trademarks, you have perfect righ to use it.

[TLDTrader.com]

First, without knowing the exact domain I can't give an exact answer :)

But I agree with jestep that you should be alright.

An acronym will be hard to contest in any court battle. GOTD can mean anything. I can even brand it as "Get Out The Door" :)

Good Luck.

[loseriam]

I ahve a post on here how I paid big money In the Thousands an dhave my domain name taken away from me. I bought FDNY.com and the best part is they didnt take my site it was FDNYfirezone that took it away. But I also owned several other FDNY anmes like
FDNYfireman.com FDNYfiremen.com FDNYfirefighters.com FDNYcalendars.com 4FDNY.com and FDNYfiredepartment.com now what happened is they went through ICANN's domain name dispute I would say court. And they made me transfer over FDNY.com 4FDNY.com and FDNYfiredepartment.com but said that just because they held rights to FDNY service mark doesn't give them the right to everything preceding or suceeding the Mark FDNY. This is wher you would win your case. Now if I was using FDNY.com and not using it at all for aything associated with The FDNY then I may have retained it as well. You can have an identical name if you can prove that you are not trying to use it to capitalise on another buisnesses sucess. And that may be your sticking point if you are copying another buisness and just useing a slightly altered domain name. They may consider that wrong and take it away. We all see big companies like AOL, GM, Google and others they need to protect there names and to be able to just add a name like boss after them to capture people looking for the accual boss of the company is wrong. But to be a fan of a football team and say Miamifan or to say JamesMcdonalds.com would be perfectly legal and accepted.
Hope this helped you a little
Kevin
FDNYfirefighters.com

[TLDTrader.com]

Now if I was using FDNY.com and not using it at all for aything associated with The FDNY then I may have retained it as well. You can have an identical name if you can prove that you are not trying to use it to capitalise on another buisnesses sucess

Exactly what I said in my reply to your thread :)