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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

#171

Post by mindslight »

chrisseaton wrote: post #139
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…

> call them at terrible hours ( at home) This is a really nasty idea. You’ll be bothering their family who have nothing to do with it. Sounds like you’re advocating harassment of people’s families.

They're already harassing you under the guise of a legal process. A clock punching attorney won't be emotionally invested in the details of a matter, but the victims of such nastygrams are - the main goal of such letters is to make you stressed and worried so you just cave - hence the corollary of hiring a professional who will handle it impersonally

Two wrongs don't make a right, and it certainly may be imprudent to escalate. But there's no moral ground for them to stand on here - they're in the same category as any other spammer. Furthermore nowhere did OP advocate deliberately expanding the scope to their family. If phone calls at inconvenient-to-them times end up bothering their family as well, it's because they didn't do the work to separate their family from their ugly business.

In general I don't buy into the idea of declaring some times as off limits for phone calls, since society has never given me the same courtesy in the early morning. I'd much rather get calls at 10PM than 10AM, and yet it's somehow acceptable for businesses to return an afternoon call at 9AM sharp and pretend they're doing their best to communicate.

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

#173

Post by emteycz »

throwawayHN378 wrote: post #34
Shamu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (in particular they could sue you in a location where the cost of travel would be expensive and if you ignored it they get a default judgement, or sue you in both state & federal courts for slightly different things and drown you in legal costs) "This past June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs cannot sue companies in a state where they may do business, but do not have significant connections to that st…

If I’m not mistaken the lawsuit can be filed but you can win a challenge to jurisdiction. But in order to challenge jurisdiction you need to hire a bar certified attorney in that jurisdiction… thus defeating the point

Huh, you can't defend yourself?

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

#174

Post by emteycz »

justinc8687 wrote: post #170

On a semi-related note, I registered a trademark for my company and the .com is just domain squatting. The .com preexists my trademark however. Do I have any grounds to try and claim it or am I SOL. I know if they were actually using it for a business, it'd be one thing, but it's a generic domain-for-sale page instead.

Have you asked them to sell? Usually the price is not even that bad - especially in comparison to any legal fees this endeavor might cost you.

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

#175

Post by xivzgrev »

Sounds like they always wanted your domain, and this was their attempt to get it. Their big scary letter is basically a bunch of “give up your legitimate rights for nothing”

Consult with a lawyer. Intuitively their case makes no sense, but actual law is not always intuitive

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

#176

Post by justinc8687 »

emteycz wrote: post #174
justinc8687 wrote: post #170

On a semi-related note, I registered a trademark for my company and the .com is just domain squatting. The .com preexists my trademark however. Do I have any grounds to try and claim it or am I SOL. I know if they were actually using it for a business, it'd be one thing, but it's a generic domain-for-sale page instead.

Have you asked them to sell? Usually the price is not even that bad - especially in comparison to any legal fees this endeavor might cost you.

They wanted like $80,000. My company makes that in annual revenue, so it's a nonstarter.

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

#178

Post by chrisseaton »

mindslight wrote: post #171
chrisseaton wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> call them at terrible hours ( at home) This is a really nasty idea. You’ll be bothering their family who have nothing to do with it. Sounds like you’re advocating harassment of people’s families.

They're already harassing you under the guise of a legal process. A clock punching attorney won't be emotionally invested in the details of a matter, but the victims of such nastygrams are - the main goal of such letters is to make you stressed and worried so you just cave - hence the corollary of hiring a professional who will handle it impersonally Two wrongs don't make a right, and it certainly may be imprudent to…

A lot of words to justify that you know you’ll likely be impacting someone who did nothing against you.

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

#179

Post by otterley »

gitfan86 wrote: post #165
otterley wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not legal advice, but I don't recommend waiting until a suit is filed. Hiring counsel early and figuring out how to respond to the initial notice can be important: it might keep the courts out of the dispute altogether (especially if the other side is on very weak grounds) and might increase the settlement amount (if any) should OP choose to settle and transfer the domain. There's more to this issue than just…

But at what cost? 200/hour to navigate a situation that is easily winnable? Also if the other party knows that he has a lawyer they can use that to run up legal fees, making a settlement seem like the cheaper option.

You are assuming "easily winnable" without knowledge of all the facts and the law. The whole reason to hire an attorney is to get an informed opinion about where you stand in the first place.

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

#180

Post by justinc8687 »

justinc8687 wrote: post #170

On a semi-related note, I registered a trademark for my company and the .com is just domain squatting. The .com preexists my trademark however. Do I have any grounds to try and claim it or am I SOL. I know if they were actually using it for a business, it'd be one thing, but it's a generic domain-for-sale page instead.

Also related, there's a "tv" domain, registered after my trademark that serves porn. Same question.

For this one, I've taken the general position that as long as they don't show up in the first 3 pages of google results for "company", I don't really care, but same question.

For context, my company is a saas booking platform for outdoor recreation businesses.

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