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Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

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Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#141

Post by otterley »

dylan604 wrote: post #113
otterley wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three business days. The demand letter requests a response by December 15, which is a Wednesday.

granted. so if the Op makes phone calls on day 1 (a Friday), how many return calls will he receive on day 2, a Monday? Doing anything on a Friday, aka take out the trash day, is just a game move to make things harder.

Lawyers understand that it takes time to get counsel for yourself. My experience is that if OP says, "I am in possession of your letter. I am in the process of retaining counsel. Please provide reasonable time for me to hire one and provide a full response," then that should be adequate. It's a standard response to such letters.

(Not legal advice, etc.)

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#142

Post by np_tedious »

amluto wrote: post #60
theartfuldodger wrote: post #26

This has happened to me several times, I have never taken it seriously or put much effort into responding. I usually would go straight to the throat and very personal. Publish their letter on the domain they seek, capture all lawyer and company details and publish to site. Use opsec for phone numbers, call them at terrible hours ( at home) to discuss offers of payment. They are trying to bleed you with superior resou…

> Use opsec for phone numbers, call them at terrible hours ( at home) to discuss offers of payment. IANAL, but if your goal is to give the them additional grounds for suing you, you may be off to a good start.

I think the idea is that it's plausibly someone else calling, since you made the documents containing contact info public (which is legal I hope?).

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#143

Post by kingcharles »

laurent123456 wrote: post #77
otterley wrote: post #21

Every answer in this thread is wrong except for "hire an attorney and work with them to figure out what the best option for you is." Do not follow any "free legal advice" from HN -- and I'm speaking as an actual licensed attorney.

I don't know what's so special about law that it can never been discussed in any forum. You can certainly ask about other people's previous experience, possible advice or recommendations. For example for certain legal issues there are government websites that can help, etc. Saying "hire an attorney", as if it was no big deal to directly spend thousands without first asking around, is a bit strange.

I've litigated dozens of cases on my own. Law isn't that complicated, especially for the smart people on here. You can often do a better job on your own simply because you have waaay more time to spend on the issue than a lawyer would. Plus you have skin in the game which makes you motivated in a way your lawyer will never be.

The flip side to that is that it is illegal in most states to give legal advice to someone unless you are a lawyer. You can give legal information, but not advice.

[Illinois once tried to prosecute me for the crime, so I have some experience]

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#144

Post by mosselman »

spockz wrote: post #129
prepend wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t question your motives in this instance, but I always pay extra attention when someone’s advice is to hire them or someone like them. Obviously, “hire a lawyer,” is sometimes right. But if I hired a lawyer every time I was told to, I would be out hundreds of hours of billing fees. Anecdotally, I’ve never fucked anything up royally. That doesn’t mean that I made the right decision, but is something I strive for…

Usually you have something like insurance for this. In Dutch it is called “rechtsbijstand” for private persons and pretty affordable. These are not necessarily the best lawyers obviously but they are backed by huge law firms. Probably the same exists for businesses but way more expensive. So it doesn’t need to be expensive to request the support of a lawyer.

"Rechtsbijstand" is dependent on certain conditions. Amongst which a minimum amount of financial damage.

The "juridisch loket" is an organisation that provides free legal advice and is financed by the Dutch government. This is probably a better option in most cases.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#145

Post by kingcharles »

masklinn wrote: post #50
musesum wrote: post #32

I had a 4 letter domain name. A stock photo company trademarked the name and then threatened to sue to force transfer. However, I registered the domain before they registered the trademark. I looked up the ICANN rules and saw I had priority. Pointed out the ICANN rule and told to go away. They did. IANAL; this is not legal advice.

Also IANAL but these demands make even less sense due to trademarks being categorised in classes , that you own Douche® registered in rubber products doesn't mean someone else can't have Douche® furnitures, and both have a reasonable and compatible claim to the name (for instance there are at least 5 different companies or organisations called "Apple" with presence in the US). Furthermore, the USPTO allows multiple t…

Right. OP could register the trademark for his domain in another class right now and then see what happens...

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#147

Post by winterplace »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #103
nicbou wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, a lawyer will also nudge you towards whichever course involves keeping a lawyer involved. They'll never tell you "if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't keep going".

A bad lawyer will never help you get to the point, because a bad lawyer needs to milk you as they have little to no referral business. I got a semi-serious traffic ticket in Colorado in 2014, but I lived in California. I forgot about the ticket, and remembered a couple years later. I wanted to clear up the situation, but navigating the court system from a different state was challenging. I decided hiring an attorney…

What did you use to look them up?

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#148

Post by rbanffy »

masklinn wrote: post #50
musesum wrote: post #32

I had a 4 letter domain name. A stock photo company trademarked the name and then threatened to sue to force transfer. However, I registered the domain before they registered the trademark. I looked up the ICANN rules and saw I had priority. Pointed out the ICANN rule and told to go away. They did. IANAL; this is not legal advice.

Also IANAL but these demands make even less sense due to trademarks being categorised in classes , that you own Douche® registered in rubber products doesn't mean someone else can't have Douche® furnitures, and both have a reasonable and compatible claim to the name (for instance there are at least 5 different companies or organisations called "Apple" with presence in the US). Furthermore, the USPTO allows multiple t…

> for instance there are at least 5 different companies or organisations called "Apple" with presence in the US

An interesting trivia is that Apple Computer got in trouble with Apple, the record label, when they introduced the Apple IIgs, because it had a musical instrument synthesiser chip built in.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#149

Post by unfocused »

phonebanshee wrote: post #109
ksec wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As you said "solicitor" I'm guessing you're not in the USA. But then they use Pacific Time Zone.

Which makes it a very good bet that they're Canadian.

No. It looks like they live in South Australia from a previous comment of theirs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25174647

Solicitor doesn't necessarily mean Canada.

Re: Ask HN: Own .com for 7 years, a new company trademarked my name registered .NET

#150

Post by winterplace »

kingcharles wrote: post #140
nicbou wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, a lawyer will also nudge you towards whichever course involves keeping a lawyer involved. They'll never tell you "if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't keep going".

99% of the lawyers I've met are scum, and I've met hundreds. One lawyer I hired to defend me in a contractual pay dispute said to me on the first meeting with both sides "Do not let this get to court. If this goes to court the only people that will win are me and the other lawyer. We'll both get to take an extra vacation this year." So, 1% of lawyers are not scum. Luckily it didn't need to go to court. I walked into…

Which one was it and how did you find that person?
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