Trademark letter

IT.com

Will

Active Member
Country flag
Hi guys,

I recieved a letter from a company in France today claiming I had registered a trademarked 3 letter .co.in domain in bad faith today (they own it in .fr but not .com or many other extensions). It all seems a bit far fetched to me and at present I have no interest in giving it to them as they have requested. One of the claims they have made is that the parked page is pointing traffic to some of their competitiors websites. This is not in the slightest bit true but as a precaution I have removed it as a parked page.

What i wanted to know is should I contact them disputing it and telling them if they want the domain they can do the right thing and buy it off me, or should I just let them take it to a WIPO decision (as they have threatened). Also if it were to be taken to a WIPO decision what is the worst case scenario? They win the domain? Would I incur any financial charges?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Will
 
I wont return this name to them.. will simply ignore responding to them. If you see the value of the name is too good , I will suggest you to put a mini site with some useful content or at least under construction page. As long as you dont have a bad faith for a registration or in legal terms if its not established in indrp dispute, I feel no financial charges can be charged to you, Maximum the domain can be taken away..

All the best.

P.s: I am not an expert on this matter.. its just my opinion out of my experience.
 
do they have presence in india?
stop parking, make minisite for such cases as mentioned by DP
 
Hi Will,

Be Strong nothing is going to happen to your domain. If it is 3 letter it is more difficult to prove their point. If every company out there starts doing this we as domainers and developers will be left with nothing.

Fight for it to your hearts content. How many domains they(Companies like this one who have no or enough regard for other businesses always try to steal domains under the trademark law. They had sunrise period. They are reckless that they took it for granted and then come back later and threaten!) will steal? 1, 2, 3? you will remain the winner over all.

Whatever the domain in question is based on your OP, I wish they loose the case if it goes to WIPO and waste their money.

Also parking is not SIN it is a viable business, It will never be possible to make productive websites on all existing domain names. To sustain and excel parking is needed when you are talking 100's of domains. That is not the idea also, look at the fortune 500 companies and the number of domains they bought, they are either 404 or forwarded. I think instead of F'ing around people these companies should try to make an offer if they are concerned(When a corporation with huge resources can overlook their TM as they say and come back at their leisure, how the hell a small guy self police himself and run away from opportunities?) How come a random 3 character is TM unless it is a big brand!(if it is, unfortunately we are on the losing end but that's alright this is not the only name you own!)

In my opinion TM on Random and generic domains should be limited to TLD or CCTLD, the corporation or the individual owns. It is not like you go get a domain in one extension, show it or try to make it a brand and then later F*ck everybody else(Owners of the same domain in other extensions). This is Crazy and not right. It might have worked when people are semi dumb without Internet. With the advent of Internet everyone is an intellectual in their own sense and they must remain free to do anything under the Fair Law(law should be more fair to startups and beginners)

If this Company is too concerned why not they do pay per click advertising? like their competitors? and show up on your parked page, so that the People visiting your parked page have choice to click on which ad. Instead of doing that they are whining like a Baby :) PITY. This is an age of Technology where everyone can be productive and can make fortunes. Why should this opportunity be wasted for a Crooked Corporation. All I am trying to say is If you are a Corporation compete, don't whine and try to find loop holes in the law to F*ck us(yes that is derogatory but why the F*ck are you trying to loot a small guy?) Law will catch up to these companies, already WIPO is framing tight IP laws for both sides it is a matter of time.

It is nothing new that they make Laws 1000's of pages worth, how in the world I interpret all of it? The guys who interpret it(dispute panel members, most of them think they are living in 1920's, when I say that They really live in 2012 with all the comforts nice car, big house, cushion bed and smartphone; but when it comes to dispute resolution they are vintage antique style old timers! they can't do good to us in general) I know most of the decisions are fair but why even few should loose? They should know what goes through a persons brain when he looses to some Corporation all while being honest. It may put a person in depression for life. This is serious issue.

You didn't mentioned the name you don't have to, I myself own 2 TM domains. One is mayspace.com and the other is tmz.in(I am aware of only these 2, I don't care what anybody claims I will fight it out and remain a warrior even I loose, I will remain a proud man). I learnt over time I am not a saint and I have not seen a real one. tmz.in in my mind means, "Times we live in and Time Zones" so let's see what future holds. AOL registered TMZ.co.in after me. So don't worry, just chill and carry on :) by God's grace we have enough that one or two issues are like dust.

Good Luck,
Nanda.
PS: Will, I expanded on your issue a bit because the issue came up. Hope you understand thank you. Also I am upset for quite a few days now, unhappy about facebook trying to TM BOOK, some already took some words that are universal human assets, I can fight but this kind of issues where common sense should work is not working :( 90% of the time, sad because I am a human too, they are my kind portraying themselves as innovators but behaving badly; part of life it is :D
 
Thanks everybody for your input, especially Nanda.

The domain is c i c dot co dot in and it is a f r e n c h banking group who have a presence in New Delhi. I had never heard of them but of course their aggresively written letter said I had undoubtedly registered the domain so I could take advantage of their brand etc etc.

I will ignore the letter and see what follows. Unfortuantely the deadline is 8 days from receipt of the letter and I am off on holiday soon so wont have time to develop a minisite. It is, however, no longer parked.

Thanks again for everyone's advice and input and I will keep you updated on how it pans out.

All the best,

Will
 
This french company is lazy and cheap. Lazy because they didn't do what they needed to do to protect their "brand"....and acronyms can mean multiple things. WHo said CIC is especially for their business? this isn't msn/in or aol/in! this is a generic LLL.co.in domain name.Cheap because they are a bank and they have money, but they instead spend their time bullying and intimidating people who got to the domain party before they did. Main issue seems to be corporate entitlement. THis is abig isue in our day and world since Corporations now act like powerful individuals, but they are hide behind their logo and brand.I agree with nametrader that you should fight it! You end up getting more in the long term by resisting. THis WIPO is actually evidence they are desperate end users,so make sure you pitch it to them for $2-$6K. If you fail to prepare, be prepared to fail. this banking group should accept they have failed themselves and negotiate with this domainer.
 
Thanks Warbux, My initial instinct was the letter was an attempt to bully me into handing it over, and the more I read about trademarks and various cases, the more I think I will win the case if it is taken to WIPO. It's silly really, because it would have cost them a lot less to have just approached me direct or even via sedo. But now, provided WIPO is decided in my favour, they will have to pay a very large sum if they want the domain! Watch this space...
 
C I C is also a very common acronym used in Canada for "Citizenship and Immigration" Canada Even their website is www.cic.ga.ca This french bank is not the only one CIC in world, may be in france. So at most they have rights to CIC.fr, not any other cctld. Why dont they go after CIC.COM? it is owned by Communication Intelligence Corp, from US.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
C I C is also a very common acronym used in Canada for "Citizenship and Immigration" Canada Even their website is ga.ca This french bank is not the only one CIC in world, may be in france. So at most they have rights to CIC.fr, not any other cctld. Why dont they go after CIC.COM? it is owned by Communication Intelligence Corp, from US.

Good points Daver. They can also go after CIC.in which is owned by a South Korean trading company. This bank is pathetic and they are riding this new wave of "drop the domain before you receive the WIPO" that is meant to scare domainers and smart speculators.
 

whois



Forums dedicated to Indian domain names, including buying, selling, appraising, developing, and monetizing.

About Us

Threads
29,388
Messages
76,792
Members
7,945
Latest member
nilamburfurniture
Top Bottom