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Domain Re-registration and Trademark Issues

Posted by Cliff on from the yet-another-abuse-of-the-legal-and-DNS-systems dept.

wonko99 asks: "Does anyone know of a legal precedent where someone owned a domain name, and then let it go (i.e. didn't pay the renewal fee), only to have it bought by someone else, and then turned around and sued the new owner? I got a nasty letter the other day telling me that a domain that I own belongs to someone else (it was on hold, and when the 'holding' period was over I bought it), and threatening to sue me for it. Any help would be appreciated. They say they own the trademark to the name... but I say they let it go because they no longer wanted it... " (Read More)

Is it just me or do other people think that this seems downright dishonest. If a company had a domain name, and then releases it, they have given up rights to the domain. As I understand it, they should not have the grounds to sue on any issue, especially trademark issues.

How does this affect the trademark aspect? Could the company lose their trademark by letting the domain go?

5 comments

  1. Re:They abandonded it by tinyuan · · Score: 1

    This sounds disturbingly familliar to a certain www.coke.com debate that took place here a while back, and since I'm too lazy to retype them all, I'll just say that any comments I made there apply here, as well.

    -Ma Tin-Yuan
    Who blames his newfound laziness on being around Americans too often recently.

  2. They're just mad. by Hal_9000@!!!@ · · Score: 1

    Send them a letter back explaining that the domain name is no longer their property, and If they wish to contact you in the future please forward their comments to a lawyer, etc.
    It usally shuts them up.

    --
    My email is real.
  3. IANAL by turg · · Score: 2

    I forgot the disclaimer: I am not a lawyer -- you need to talk to one today

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  4. It's not just you by radja · · Score: 2

    Seems dishonest to me... care to enlighten us which company? can't inform people about them if I don't know who...

    //rdj

    --

    No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
    --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
  5. They abandonded it by turg · · Score: 3
    I think the nasty letter people would have a hard time making their case. To claim a trademark, you need to defend the trademark -- which is what they're doing by writing this letter, but why on earth didn't they renew the domain name, then?

    When a domain owner doesn't pay the renewal fee, NSI puts it "on hold" -- i.e. it's out of the root servers and therefore doesn't exist online, just as though the domain was not registered. But it remains in the whois database for a few months, during which time the owner can reactivate it at any time by handing over 35 bucks. So this domain has been unusable for months -- this is not a "mistake" on the part of the previous owner, or something they didn't notice. This also hurts their argument in that it is clear evidence that they stopped using their supposed trademark. If it's not a registered trademark, they will never be able to register it at this point and if it is registered, you can prove they abandonded it.

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