Threat of legal action!

omnipeta

About 10 years ago I 'bought' 2 domain names, they included the name of one of the worlds biggest companies.
I received an email and letter attachment from their legal dept (I've checked it out, it is legit) saying they 'want' 'demand' that I sell them the domains, or face legal action.
I think I'm probably on to a loser here, judging by some of my friends comments, however I've paid £30 a year for each name (£60) for 10 years (£600) has anyone got any ideas what I should realistically be asking for in compensation, it that's the correct term?
*Below is a piece from the letter attachment:

*My client would, prefer to solve this matter in an amicable fashion and therefore kindly asks you to transfer the domain names
to ***** with immediate effect, and in the future, refrain from using any trademarks owned by ***** without authorization.
***** will be of assistance in transferring the domain names and will reimburse the out of pocket expenses the registrar may
charge for the transfers and the registration fees you have paid for the domain names.
Please contact me with a response within five (5) days of receipt of this letter, at this e-mail address or via postal mail at the
address stated below. We look forward to your positive response to this letter. In the absence of any such positive response,
***** reserves itself the right to take any action it deems necessary against you without further notice.
The foregoing is without prejudice to the rights or remedies of *****, all of which are expressly reserved.

blue_monkey_2

Is it an American company (sp. of authorisation)? Did the company exist when you bought the domain? And are you actually using the domain and what for?

in_the_Cotswolds

I personally wouldn't sell them. They have been registered to you for 10 years and this company "demands" you transfer the name to them at no cost!!

There was a case some time ago where someone bought a domain name and it was "parked" another company took it however it finally cost them an awful lot off money after the person proved he owned it.

fwor

Assuming the company ~did~ exist when you first bought (seems a reasonable assumption if they are one of the largest companies in the world), you probably don't have much chance of making big money out of this.

If they want to they can use ICANN's name dispute process and there's little chance you will win. However, that process would still cost them significantly more than £600, so you might as well make them an offer and see if they want to take the quicker, cheaper option.

I haven't checked ICANN's T&C's, but I've seen it suggested that there is a term that requires the registrant to warrant that the name being registered does not violate anyone else's trademark. If that's true, you can be fairly certain that you will lose any dispute.

omnipeta

It was an American company, now owned by Tata in India, I've never actually used the names, I intended to but you know things happen and the years fly by.

JJ_Egan

I would ask £5000 in expenses to transfer .Or say you will ask ICANN to rule on ownership .


jje

Kernel_Sanders

JJ_Egan wrote: »

I would ask £5000 in expenses to transfer .Or say you will ask ICANN to rule on ownership . jje

If we are assuming this is true.....

fwor wrote: »

If they want to they can use ICANN's name dispute process and there's little chance you will win. However, that process would still cost them significantly more than £600, so you might as well make them an offer and see if they want to take the quicker, cheaper option.

.....then why would they not laugh at such an offer?
And what does jje stand for?

texranger

JJ_Egan wrote: »

I would ask £5000 in expenses to transfer .Or say you will ask ICANN to rule on ownership .


jje

ICANN will tell you to use one of their dispute agents which will cost approx. $1,500.

i know this as last year i had a domain with namecheap that i renewed, but for some reason namecheap nver passed this onto the domain authority, so the domain lapsed and was then registered by someone else, but as i had the reciept etc. that i renewed this at first namecheap were unhelpful still saying i never renewed, so i contacted ICANN and was told to contact their agent who told me it would cost $1,500 to dispute the domain. i contacted the new owner who was helpful until i told him i wanted the domain back as i had a site associated and this was down. it was not until i told namecheap that i contacted ICANN that they suddently found the renewal and apologised and then it took another 2 weeks before i got the domain back while namecheap communicated with the new owners registrar to get the domain back.

blue_monkey_2

omnipeta wrote: »

It was an American company, now owned by Tata in India, I've never actually used the names, I intended to but you know things happen and the years fly by.

It might be worth seeing if you can get half hour with a solicitor who deals with copywrite infringements to see when you stand.

googler

omnipeta wrote: »

..... in the future, refrain from using any trademarks owned by ***** without authorization.

Are you using the domains, or have you merely owned them without hosting any active websites at them? If you haven't hosted any active website there, you haven't 'used their trademark' in my view.

Did you buy them with the express purpose of financial gain when the said companies wanted them, in the hope that they would buy them from you?

Spank

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

If we are assuming this is
And what does jje stand for?

As it was written by JJ Egan I'd assume that, but what would I know?:rotfl: