Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 76 posts

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#51

Post by flexd »

sudonim wrote: post #21

On the converse of this, someone has been cybersquatting my last name for about 10 years. Any advice on how to get it? Details: I own the .co.uk version, but not the .com. My dad has had a company registered (not in the US) with the name in it. The cybersquatter seems to have squatted a bunch of dutch last names and isn't associated with the name at all.

I'm in a similar boat. A Norwegian name squatting company holds a bunch of last name domains not really using them for anything besides linking to their site "so everyone with that last name will be able to use it".

The problem is the they want like a dollar per month to give you one email address. I'm well aware that is not much but it's annoying that they claim to do this to "share the wealth" of that domain name with everyone with that name. The problem is they are taking money for email addresses and you can't use the domain name (or even a subdomain) for anything.

I'm more interested in having the domain for my family, I would have no problem giving subdomains and email addresses to anyone with my name contacting me.

At least according to Norwegian law (which is probably similar to International domain laws?) you do not really have a case unless you can prove you have the rights to own that domain. And since you do not really require anything but a name to own a .com you will probably have a hard time doing so :-/

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#52

Post by tomp »

sneak wrote: post #45
lacker wrote: post #27

Their initial offer was $150. I said no, that I had put way too much money into it for that low of a price. They came back with $250. Anyone who's bickering about $150 vs $250 to acquire a domain is not a "big corporation". The OP is being bluffed.

That may constitute a bad faith attempt to profit from the domain from the trademark holder, and may cost him the domain.

Why is that bad faith? He simply said that it's worth way more for him. Besides, if I were in his shoes, I would fight "bad faith" with "bad faith" - if a company would threaten to sue me, then I would certainly bump the price some 10x or so.

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#53

Post by bambax »

bambax wrote: post #36
techsupporter wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked around the WIPO site and found an arbitration case that meets the facts the reddit poster claimed. Either he found a WIPO case and decided to make it a huge "AskReddit," or, yes, the OP is going up against a quite large company. (Not linking here in an attempt to preserve privacy.)

Indeed, there is a case that seems to match all elements (domain starting with a w). If that case is indeed the right one, the complainants have had a trademark on their mark since 1953, and yet they let the domain be first registered in 2005, and then bought by the current owner in 2011. So, they could either have created the domain before 2005 or buy it between 2005 and 2011, but they chose to go against the curren…

In fact the domain in dispute is a .org, while the company already owns the .com; the .net belongs to a squatter.

I think what happened is, the company didn't care about other tlds than the .com; the .org was bought in January of this year by the current owner, legitimately, but, I presume, from a squatter (and that's why he says that buying the domain in the first place was expensive enough).

And suddenly the company decides they need other tlds; from their point of view they're all squatters; they're wrong, but their line of reasoning is not absurd.

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#54

Post by Kudos »

ajkessler wrote: post #23

Ugh, it hurts to read this kind of advice. Sue! Punitive damages! You can get costs! (btw, you probably can't get punitive damages, at least from the little info you've provided, and costs =/= attorney fees) The best advice in that thread was to seek out on-campus legal aid. At the law school I went to, there were clinics that dealt specifically with entrepreneurship and IP. Look around, I'm sure other schools run si…

I think the best advice he got was to contact the EFF, who are getting together a list of lawyers who will help him pro bono.

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#55

Post by bigiain »

flexd wrote: post #51
sudonim wrote: post #21

On the converse of this, someone has been cybersquatting my last name for about 10 years. Any advice on how to get it? Details: I own the .co.uk version, but not the .com. My dad has had a company registered (not in the US) with the name in it. The cybersquatter seems to have squatted a bunch of dutch last names and isn't associated with the name at all.

I'm in a similar boat. A Norwegian name squatting company holds a bunch of last name domains not really using them for anything besides linking to their site "so everyone with that last name will be able to use it". The problem is the they want like a dollar per month to give you one email address. I'm well aware that is not much but it's annoying that they claim to do this to "share the wealth" of that domain name w…

"A Norwegian name squatting company holds a bunch of last name domains not really using them for anything besides linking to their site "so everyone with that last name will be able to use it".

The problem is the they want like a dollar per month to give you one email address. "

That's a perfectly reasonably business model. Renting email addresses is quite clearly "using" a domain. It might not be a hackernews/startup-web-business, but they've thought of a way to try and make a living and registered the domain first - what makes you think you have any sort of claim to "have rights to own taht domain" than they do?

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#56

Post by RexRollman »

mjs00 wrote: post #34
jackvalentine wrote: post #30

This has just reminded me I need to put up a splash page with my contact information on my domain, which is myfirstmylast.com Currently there is nothing there, but I use it for email every day - it'd be a shame to lose the domain because it looks like I'm not using it to outsiders.

There's no domain registration requirement for .com (that I'm aware of) for you to have a public web page on a domain.

Exactly. A domain can be used for many things, not just HTTP.

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#57

Post by atirip »

DaveChild wrote: post #38

I have some experience of a similar situation, having at one point run a web dev blog at ilovejackdaniels.com, before the JD legal team contacted me ... and I'm on a new domain now. The problem, as explained to me by a lawyer (I am not a lawyer, so don't go taking this as legal advice, as I'm paraphrasing what I was told), is that legal departments for really big corporations just care about winning. It doesn't reall…

I'm sorry of asking, but what's wrong in the US when you go to the court alone, without the lawyer? I'm asking because I live in Europe, I did that in civil case and I did won. Actually judge in the end of the first day advised me to hire a lawyer, I said I cannot afford that and then government pointed one to me. In this case there's obviously no cybersquatting, so what's the excuse not going alone?

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#59

Post by DaveChild »

atirip wrote: post #57
DaveChild wrote: post #38

I have some experience of a similar situation, having at one point run a web dev blog at ilovejackdaniels.com, before the JD legal team contacted me ... and I'm on a new domain now. The problem, as explained to me by a lawyer (I am not a lawyer, so don't go taking this as legal advice, as I'm paraphrasing what I was told), is that legal departments for really big corporations just care about winning. It doesn't reall…

I'm sorry of asking, but what's wrong in the US when you go to the court alone, without the lawyer? I'm asking because I live in Europe, I did that in civil case and I did won. Actually judge in the end of the first day advised me to hire a lawyer, I said I cannot afford that and then government pointed one to me. In this case there's obviously no cybersquatting, so what's the excuse not going alone?

The risk is that it's not just the domain name at stake. A lost court case can result in an order to pay the opposition's costs. For a large legal team, that can be expensive.

Re: I own a domain that a big corporation wants to sue me into acquiring. Help

#60

Post by opendomain »

I have never sold a domain. I have given domains away for FREE to Open Source for 12 years, but I have been sued. It does not seem that the Big Corporation has any rights in your case, but they have Big Lawyers, who can sue you into the ground. Be VERY careful
Post reply on HN