K3V HA

About 6 months ago, I, on behalf of the company i work for, bought a domain name which, just so happned to be our competetitors name with co.uk at the end. Their website is the same but with .com at the end.

We then put on a divert to our website, so when people put it in IE, it goes straight to ours. Today they've found out and have sent us a solicitors letter saying we must cease using the name altogether. or give it to them free of charge?!?

Anyone know where we stand??

Jim Galbally

unfortunately theyre in the right, and your case would never hold up in court.

Anonymous

You're fucked mate.

Blatant cybersquatting.

Especially as its a .co.uk so falls under UK law.

BlueSmoke

It's their intellectual property so they can take it off you.

Stavros

RSOC done this to PassionFord at the start too, the sad wankers

Anonymous

Launch a counter-claim and sue them for 200 camels.

It might by you some time while their lawyer works out what the fuck you are on about?

K3V HA

But would we have to give it up for free??

wayneclayden

we had a very well known competitor of ours do the same to us not the proper way to do business really........
Its actually not that simple to sort out

Stavros

Youl have to give it up for free, like your momma does

Sorry, jokes jus too obvious

Anonymous

Yes, and technically if you dont just comply straight away it might occur to them to sue you for loss of custom, including a projection forward over the next 40 years at the rate of 20,000 profit per customer for the 10,000 customers they claim you have stolen thus resulting in them sueing you for 200,000,000 pounds.

Ok, thats a bit over the top, but you see my point?

Get out now while the going is good.

DONT hand it over though if they have given you the choice, just lay it up, it take it off the web.

If you hand it over then any search engine entries that point at it will do them a favour.

K3V HA

Walked into that didnt i!!

K3V HA

Cheers folks! Its not THAT bad a way to do business, IMO, if i were starting a business up, one of the first things id look at was my web address, and make sure no one else can get it.

Anonymous

Sorry but that is like saying its not that bad to steal a car cause the first thing i would do is fit an alarm.

wayneclayden

Theres enough expense in starting your wn business -without having to register every webb addy thats similar!!

Dave Henshall

so what did the rsoc do then...?

K3V HA

How is it?? A business is expensive to start up, i know that, but the web address isnt similar, its the same, therefore i would have bought both, they only 7.50each??!?

K3V HA

I think they bought passionford.co.uk?!/??

wayneclayden

£7.50!!! where are you buying them from? we were quoted nearly £100 each

CraigN

they registered passionford.co.uk

Anonymous

What a bunch of RSholes

ProjectBobcat

every .org, .co.uk, .net and .com address is around that price. i paid £6.50 for the web address i wanted, its the hosting that costs you money.

K3V HA

freeparking.co.uk i think we got that from mate, we own around 4 or 5 so have used a couple of em. May depend on what name your trying to get??

wayneclayden

and who already owns them i guess?

K3V HA

Just checked and most are 10quid!

Doh

as stu says it isn't as straight forward as cybersquatting this applies mainly to TLD's i.e. .com .net

.co.uk has a whole bunch of different rules

check out

http://www.nominet.org.uk/DisputeRes...n/AboutTheDrs/

there gonna have to pay at least £750 plus VAT so you could offer it to then for £600 depends how much cash they wanna risk fighting for it...

gearboxman

a. A non-exhaustive list of factors which may be evidence that the Domain Name is an Abusive Registration is as follows:

i. Circumstances indicating that the Respondent has registered or otherwise acquired the Domain Name primarily:

A. for the purposes of selling, renting or otherwise transferring the Domain Name to the Complainant or to a competitor of the Complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of the Respondent's documented out-of-pocket costs directly associated with acquiring or using the Domain Name;

B. as a blocking registration against a name or mark in which the Complainant has Rights; or

C. for the purpose of unfairly disrupting the business of the Complainant;

ii. Circumstances indicating that the Respondent is using the Domain Name in a way which has confused people or businesses into believing that the Domain Name is registered to, operated or authorised by, or otherwise connected with the Complainant;

iii. The Complainant can demonstrate that the Respondent is engaged in a pattern of registrations where the Respondent is the registrant of domain names (under .uk or otherwise) which correspond to well known names or trade marks in which the Respondent has no apparent rights, and the Domain Name is part of that pattern;

iv. It is independently verified that the Respondent has given false contact details to us; or

v. The domain name was registered as a result of a relationship between the Complainant and the Respondent, and the Complainant:

A. has been using the domain name registration exclusively; and

B. paid for the registration and/or renewal of the domain name registration.

b. Failure on the Respondent's part to use the Domain Name for the purposes of e-mail or a web-site is not in itself evidence that the Domain Name is an Abusive Registration.

c. There shall be a presumption of Abusive Registration if the Complainant proves that Respondent has been found to have made an Abusive Registration in three (3) or more Dispute Resolution Service cases in the two (2) years before the Complaint was filed. This presumption can be rebutted (see paragraph 4 (c)).

K3V HA

Cheers Bernie, thats a great help, we've put it on to our solicitor now, and asked em to draw it out as long as we can.

Someone had the idea of contacting anotehr company by the same name and giving it to them.

SeanT

and then ensuring that said company recommend you on their homepage

Billabong

LOL, Bernie's post shows why you are in the wrong imo.

Unethical to say the least.

NUTS RuS

iTrader: (35)

Is that with hosting ?

I only pay £2.59 per year for my .co.uk ones, and £8.99 per year for .com's and just point them to some webspace provided free from your ISP (or use some of my mates unused space etc)

Anonymous

Most .co.uk names cost less than a tenner a year. If looking for a host, pick one that will let you host multiple domains on it.

Short version, RSOC (well, Kel) bought passionford.co.uk and redirected it to the RSOC site... (is there a childish smiley?? )

Pretty stupid thing to do when Petrucci owns an ISP..!! After various threats of legal action etc, RSOC shit their pants and gave the name up VERY quickly....!!!

Name was released back into the wild

Smit

iTrader: (5)

PSML harsh but true!

Fraz

My works competition did the same, we sued and won, got the name and a fair bit of cash aswell

saff_cossie

I would have thought you are legitimatly holding that name. It may not be the nicest way to operate but if you have bought it, I dont think there is much they can do.

Over here, to buy the domain name you must have a business name registered either with the same name or an abbreviation, hence the ones I own. When I have bought UK ones, you dont need the business name so I dont think there is much to stand on, on their part.

Would be interested to know the outcome though and if they are a UK company and daft enough to let the UK domain lapse or not buy it, then its their own fault

K3V HA

Hence the reason we're just gonna draw it out, cos we now know we're in the wrong!

ballin

iTrader: (1)

whats the website??

Doh

just settle outta court for some £££