A few months ago I bought a domain name from a friend, the domain is a french word, a popular search engine is claiming that its a typo of their name and that I have no rights to use it, Im really confuced on what to do!

Is their name a trademark? Could it be argued that the word is too common to be trademarked?
Just how similar is the misspelling?

It might be easier if you tell us the name in question.

:)

Tell them "merde" with it ! :D

I'm no expert at this - but here's my 2 cents:

If your plans for the domain includes it being a French search engine, then you might have trouble with the domain. If you use it for something else and totaly related to the domain then it's probably safe.

I have a small problem with one of my domains too, and have a post up here that describes it:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66000

There is a link in there to an org that mediates many of these situations. You can check the list out for similarities.

But as one of the posters in that thread mentioned, it's a subject that is very important to see a lawyer about, if the domain is one you value.

Check out my thread. The poster took a lot of time out to write it out.

-Wc-

I'm dont want to elaborate but heres a clue if you guys know what mongol means in french, its the other slang word of it in french also. check it out in the french slang dictionary.

what do you guys think of this lawyer, im in asia not a lot of people know about this. I'm thinking of this guy. esqwire.com