Catching Illegal?

[Pred]

nice find Ty

tell him obviously one of two things must be up

1/ his lawyer is imcompetent and you want their full details so you can report them to the law society
2/ he's making it up, which amounts to fraud and extortion

post link Ty gave and say if you don't hear back with an apology and a retraction, it is 'he' who can expect a rat a tat from the boys in blue

finally if he continues being a pest, say 'normally we don't do refunds as it's not in our t & c, however becuase you are an unusually large arsehole, we will make an exception. transfer the domain back to us, you pay nom. , and we will refund payment'

failing that tell him to fuck off

 

[Bailey]

How Strange ! Worse case of 'buyers remorse' I have ever seen. Reads to me he was discussing the purchase with some quasi-legal friend, Who, for what ever motivation, has decided to 'Spook' this particular purchaser into this action.

I would try to be polite and request some copy of the advice given or at least a name of the solicitors concerned - At the same time reiterate the practice of catching is a bona-fide business practice and you would "Actively counter pursue any action taken against you in this instance"

 

[Systreg]

Maybe the legal friend got catching and domain squatting mixed up?

 

[newguy]

Maybe as Systreg says, something was lost in translation. If not, the guy is a joker. You've clearly done nothing wrong.

 

[namealot]

Just say you cannot comment on the allegation that he has made and it would be best that he does not contact you again until his solicitor has sent you the evidence of this alleged illegal activty.... You don’t know what sort of bull he has given his solicitor let him waste his time and money...

I bet I know the route he will try sent you a p.m

 

[aZooZa]

Maybe the legal friend got catching and domain squatting mixed up?

The most likely scenario I think.

 

[vizzo]

Keep us posted on how this one goes.

 

[Admin]

I got a reply from the Nominet Policy Director:

We don’t have a specific written policy, but I will try to explain Nominet’s position.

Domain names in the .co.uk Second Level domain can be registered by anyone on a first come first served basis. This is as true of domain names which have just expired (i.e. “dropped” domain names) as it is of domains which have never been registered.

We are not aware of any provisions under English law which would make “drop-catching” illegal or unlawful, though under our terms and conditions of domain name registration, domain name registrants must not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party in registering or using a domain name.

Similarly, trading in domain names is not an issue so long as no third party rights are infringed.

The Policy Recommendations that we have published are available at: http://www.nominet.org.uk/policy/statements/.

Admin

 

[newguy]

Thanks Admin. Look like you have nothing to worry about then, techtimmy. Not as though there was any doubt, but it's good to get nominets take on it.

 

[techtimmy]

Cool, I thought as much but great to the 'official' word on the matter. Thanks Admin.

 

[wb]

"We are not aware of any provisions under English law which would make “drop-catching” illegal or unlawful, though under our terms and conditions of domain name registration, domain name registrants must not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party in registering or using a domain name."

I think this should be publicised more. It should clear things up for anyone thinking it's acceptable to register a TM domain without using it (e.g. the P90X domain thread the other day).

 

[aquanuke]

Seems quite obvious to me def a scam

The guy has he eye on the domain for a while expecting to hand reg on drop, taken offence at you catching it. Either he intentionly bought it from you to crawl it back or he told a friend who then put him up to it.

Best way is to avoid paypal as much as possible.

 

[retired_member34]

For something to be illegal, there must be a law that does not allow it. When someone states something is illegal then the first thing to ask them is which law forbids it, particularly if the person stating it is in the legal profession.

I would guess it was simply confusion here though. The chap had registered a company name a few days before the drop, possibly thinking that he could simply hand register the domain afterwards. Finding that he had to buy it off someone else, then telling a solicitor that he had to buy the domain matching his company name would probably arouse vague thoughts of squatting and ip rights - all false in this case.

Any more contact from the buyer?

 

[anthony]

Tell the bloke to just go and register the .ltd.uk, it sitting there waiting for him!

 

[doodlebug]

As far as I know, for a trademark to be effective then you have to prove you have been trading with it, if he hasn't then you didn't breach any of his rights.

 

[anthony]

Added to that, the trademark must be defended too. Always retain visit logs, if someone visits your site in 2011, but only chases you in 2015, be in a position to prove he didn't defend his trademark if the stats show he was aware of the domain name.

 

[techtimmy]

Thanks for all the great advice and support I have received about this thread. I thought I'd wait until I got loads of opinions before I responded to him last night.

Should have taken the sensible advice about being polite and not giving any further info away but, cos i'm sometimes a bit of a numpty, took Pred's advice from page 3 and went at him all guns blazing. I know, i know, i was insulted and annoyed that my first ever decent sale in domaining was turning sour.

So I sent the buyer a message telling him he was incorrect and quite possibly a liar and he should be thankful for his purchase and grateful I haven't contacted the police as he is trying to extort money from me. I know, I know, as I said sometimes I am a numpty.

Anyways he replied this morning saying he was highly insulted at being called a liar, which I suppose is fair enough.

I counter-replied telling him I'm sorry I called him a liar but it didn't change the fact I haven't broken any laws, we agreed the sale all in good faith, and I will not refund him as per his original request.

Not heard back since this morning so I'm hopeful it's the end of that fairly unpleasant experience.

Thanks again for all the great advice even if sometimes I'm a bit too daft to take it.

 

[jasman]

Added to that, the trademark must be defended too. Always retain visit logs, if someone visits your site in 2011, but only chases you in 2015, be in a position to prove he didn't defend his trademark if the stats show he was aware of the domain name.

Interesting idea, but supposing someone does come along and claim TM infrigement today, how would you know whether any of the IP addresses that visited your site over the last 4 years came from their company. I know some large companies have IP blocks which can be traced back to that company but most companies use an ordinary ISP.

 

[anthony]

That's a fair point. I was referring to specific hostname ones, or others you can identify with known visits.

 

[retired_member16]

Interesting idea, but supposing someone does come along and claim TM infrigement today, how would you know whether any of the IP addresses that visited your site over the last 4 years came from their company. I know some large companies have IP blocks which can be traced back to that company but most companies use an ordinary ISP.

Most Micky Mouse small companies use an ordinary ISP. Most companies will have their details listed with Ripe or Arin if they are using statics.