Hello,

I have a domain of an intellectual property. Domain is a brand of a weekly trance show.

And that company is sending me mail and want me to sell that domain to them for 300 pounds otherwise they will take legal action.

I don't have that much information about those legal things but as far as i know, first one regs domain get it first. And if there isn't anything illegal going on that domain than there won't be a problem.

I am putting their weekly shows' tracklist and i have google adsense there and earning some bucks thats all.

I am wondering if they can get the domain via legal action? Because there is nothing wrong with domain (nothing illegal or else). They are blaming me for profiting from their intellectual property.

Tell them to pi** off.

thye can probably get you to remove the content but the adsense, good luck, you might want to find other content from a lesser known source that is looking for airplay. just my 2c

Tell them to "cough" up alot more if they want and you dont mind selling.. Or tell them you will see them in court. :)

But i am not selling anything from that website. I just put an adsense there and some content.

That content is not illegal. And i don't think putting an adsense to a website shouldn't be illegal

Take nothing less then 1 million pounds.

But i am not selling anything from that website. I just put an adsense there and some content.

That content is not illegal. And i don't think putting an adsense to a website shouldn't be illegal

when they do a show is ther any type of disclaimer or are there broadcast as every few hours that say legal info for the show? Try going to their website to see if there is any info about their legal practices.

If they've taken the trouble to post all kinds of legal info and get their show branded then they will try to enfore whatever they have in place. It kind of like taping the olympics on TV, at the end of the broadcast they say that you cannot tape or record and or redistribute any part of the previous broadcast without their express written consent. Basically their way of saying that we'll sell you bits and pieces for alot of money

I made a bit googling and had a look at their own forum and this is the result

Their tracklists are not copyrighted but their show is copyrighted.

I am playing their last weeks radioshow via a music player, they are playing their show at their own website and i copied that script to my website, it is not available for downloading but i am not sure is it illegal to play their show on my website, i am not hosting any illegal content at my own site or server but i copied their music player script but it is broadcasting from their own site not mine

got any lawyer friends?

no sorry, those law things are not that much effective at my country.

That company is from UK and i am from another country, not from USA also. The worst scenario is they can go to court and send DMCA warning to domain registrar (Godaddy) and my hosting company.

Hosting is not a big deal but if i loose the domain than it will be pretty bad.

But i am pretty sure that i wont sell that domain for 300 pounds to them. At least i can sell it to someone else with higher amount and i will be out of trouble

Seems like you will lose the domain if they go with UDRP process.
1. Domain name itself - you said it's their brand. (you lose)
2. You are copying their content. (you lose)
3. You are streaming (stealing bandwidth) their content. (you lose)
4. You have adsense on it - if you make ANY money, it's commercial. (you lose)

UDRP fee is $1,500, I think, plus their legal fees.
So, seems like they know they can get it thru UDRP, but
want to use simpler, hassle free and cheaper way by offering
to buy it from you.

If you sell the domain to someone else...
You are passing problem to other person.
They can still come after You and new owner.

Be a nice person and sell it to them for $1,000?
How much do you think your domain is worth?

Seems like you will lose the domain if they go with UDRP process.
1. Domain name itself - you said it's their brand. (you lose)
2. You are copying their content. (you lose)
3. You are streaming (stealing bandwidth) their content. (you lose)
4. You have adsense on it - if you make ANY money, it's commercial. (you lose)

UDRP fee is $1,500, I think, plus their legal fees.
So, seems like they know they can get it thru UDRP, but
want to use simpler, hassle free and cheaper way by offering
to buy it from you.

If you sell the domain to someone else...
You are passing problem to other person.
They can still come after You and new owner.

Be a nice person and sell it to them for $1,000?
How much do you think your domain is worth?

100% Agree, but i would add the following

Some lawyers use to trick domain owners so they ask for money, if you ask money the lawyer will be able to proof bad faith.

If you are talking with a lawyer he may be tricking you, he wants to earn more money and want to go to UDRP, if you are talking with the show manager he will want to save money and avoid the lawyer.

You are going to lose in this game, but you can decide how to lose, take the money they offer.

Just because you buy a domain that someone else might have something for doesn't mean crap. Say I go and buy the domain colgate.com if it is available then I can buy it and do what I want with it as it is mine. It is not illegal to copy someone's content especially if you only took the player from them most chances are they even stole it from somewhere else. Now for the streaming stealing bandwidth part if the actual video or recording is hosting on your server then it is not stealing their bandwidth. I have gotten many issues like this before with all the domains that I own one even tried to take me to court but the judge laughted in their face.

Someone can not force you to sell your domain if that's what they are trying to do it is yours not theirs. Even though it might be someones name of a product, company or what ever they didn't buy the domain you did so it's yours.

If push came to shove all you might have to do it take the video or recording off of your site just to make them happy then they can't do anything.

Seems like you will lose the domain if they go with UDRP process.
1. Domain name itself - you said it's their brand. (you lose)
2. You are copying their content. (you lose)
3. You are streaming (stealing bandwidth) their content. (you lose)
4. You have adsense on it - if you make ANY money, it's commercial. (you lose)
Agreed. Plus they don't have to file a UDRP to shut you down. They can file a no-cost DMCA with GoDaddy and Google Adsense and you could lose both your domain and your Adsense account.

http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?pageid=TRADMARK_COPY
http://www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html
http://www.google.com/dmca.html

Seems like you will lose the domain if they go with UDRP process.
1. Domain name itself - you said it's their brand. (you lose)
2. You are copying their content. (you lose)
3. You are streaming (stealing bandwidth) their content. (you lose)
4. You have adsense on it - if you make ANY money, it's commercial. (you lose)

UDRP fee is $1,500, I think, plus their legal fees.
So, seems like they know they can get it thru UDRP, but
want to use simpler, hassle free and cheaper way by offering
to buy it from you.

If you sell the domain to someone else...
You are passing problem to other person.
They can still come after You and new owner.

Be a nice person and sell it to them for $1,000?
How much do you think your domain is worth?

1-) It doesn't matter if it is brand or not, it was not registered and i registered it. So if i register, xcompany.com and a year later a new company named X Company appears than does it mean i am doing something illegal ?

I have rights to register a domain if it is not registered. But it is illegal, if i damage reputation of that company or something else negative.

I don't think registering a brand domain is illegal, if i don't damage reputation of company or if there isnt any harresment etc...

2-) Tracklists are not their copyrighted material, so there is no copying

3-) There isn't any term or condition about copying that player is illegal. I don't think hotlinking is illegal. There isn't any term or condition at their website about copyrighted material or not

4-) Their tracklist is not copyrighted than making money shouldn't be illegal. I am not making money from their copyrighted material or their tracklists.

Worse comes to worse if you really still wanted to stream it you could post it up on youtube then put that code in for the player :)

but nothing states that their stream is copyrighted. It is just rumor at their forum

Well that would be what you want to find out if it is really indeed copyrighted or not. If it is not then I really wouldn't worrie about it to much. Or if you really don't want to worrie about this stuff could do what I used to do and have your own hosting company name get custom nameservers and have it hosted in a country that doesn't care about what you do with your own hosting :)

1. Domain name itself - you said it's their brand. (you lose)
I agree with bonjurkes on this point, for example:
My Name is Jasper and I would like the domain jasper.nl which currently is property of a company called 'Jasper Bril Designs' (not their brand), this doesn't mean that I can just set up a company called Jasper Inc. and claim that domain name. ( Too bad though :P )

Say I go and buy the domain colgate.com if it is available then I can buy it and do what I want with it as it is mine.

If you buy a car, can you use it to rob a bank?

In a similar manner, you can't use the domain name you register, bearing a party's trademark, to commercially ride off their mark in any way. Not even ads.

To the OP: given you're both in different jurisdictions, and if this is a gTLD like .com, then you can maybe give it to them or even do nothing. As a few stated, the mark holder can possibly file a UDRP, grab the domain name from you, and unfortunately you might be perceived as a "cybersquatter" should you have an administrative decision made against you.

Just some things to consider. It's all up to you to decide on your own what to do.

I've had that problem before, since they are offering money you could try to negotiate a better price.

But personally once someone makes a legal threat they cut off the right to communicate with me, and all correspondence from them then goes to trash unread.

If you buy a car, can you use it to rob a bank?


No, but neither can you use a domain to commit fraud.


Edit: sorry double post

If the people contacting you have a copyright for the name. Then they can get the domain name using UDRP. If there is a UDRP ruling you don't stand a chance and your Registrar will actually oblige the person winning the case.

My recommendation. Check what the domain name is worth.
See if the guys seriously have a copyright for the domain name.
Try and get the highest price for the domain name and be happy.

Else you might loose the domain name and not get a penny for it! :)

You can do a search at the USPTO.gov (http://www.uspto.gov) site for a trademark. If they don't have a registered trademark than I would guess they are just trying to bully you around. Of course without knowing the exact domain it's tuff to say for sure...