Cease and Desist letter by email - valid?

[Azam.net]

Cease and Desist letter by email - how to respond?

Just received a Cease and Desist letter saying we have to stop using a .eu domain name (just a landing page at the moment - and gets about one visitor a month). Even though it is two generic words and the case is arguable, I haven't got the money or time to take onboard their nasty-sounding lawyers. Still, I think they are idiots for not bothering to apply for any .eu domains they feel they had rights over when the mechanisms were in place. I acquired the domain name in Landrush.

They are only agreeing to pay the transfer fee. There was so much competition for .eu domain names, I had to sweat so hard to get the ones I did. I only got about 0.1% of the domains I tried to register. Do you think it's worth asking them for something above and beyond the transfer fee?

I thought of doing this by telephoning them, so that they don't have any written documention which they can present and say we are CyberSquatters.

I am in no position to fight them in the arbitration court over control of the domain and realise I will lose it, but obviously want to make some money for the time and hassle.

If they take it to the Czech .eu arbitration court, it will cost them about €2,000 + fees for their lawyers.

Say I didn't agree to transfer the domain name to them for just the transfer fee and they took me to the Czech .eu arbitration court. Is it common for companies in this position to try to recover their legal fees from the party they acquire the domain name from?

Thanks a million.

 

[Azam.net]

Thanks a million for your help; I don't have much experience with these things.

 

[grandin]

two word generic

Can you clarify...Are they asking you to stop using it in a certain manner OR stop using it and hand it over?

Lee

 

[retired_member11]

A little more info would be helpful to advise you. What links are on the landing page vis-a-vis the commercial interests of the other party? Do they have rights? Have they registered the same domain .com, .co.uk et.c.?

 

[Azam.net]

Thanks for the responses.

They are asking us to stop using it completely and also to hand it over.

The domain is redirecting to a Sedo parking page and there are various ads there. It hasn't been optimised, but looking at it now I see it includes two or three of their competitors.

They didn't have the .co.uk but did have the .com and .gr as they are a Greek company.

 

[retired_member11]

Thanks for the responses.

They are asking us to stop using it completely and also to hand it over.

The domain is redirecting to a Sedo parking page and there are various ads there. It hasn't been optimised, but looking at it now I see it includes two or three of their competitors.

They didn't have the .co.uk but did have the .com and .gr as they are a Greek company.

You could amend the parking links now and before they complain to whoever covers .eu disputes, but stand firm on the handing over demand. I would. See what they then come back with. Step by step.

 

[jmcc]

Just received a Cease and Desist letter saying we have to stop using a .eu domain name (just a landing page at the moment - and gets about one visitor a month). Even though it is two generic words and the case is arguable, I haven't got the money or time to take onboard their nasty-sounding lawyers. Still, I think they are idiots for not bothering to apply for any .eu domains they feel they had rights over when the mechanisms were in place. I acquired the domain name in Landrush.

Well it depends on many things - one of the them is in whether you have any legitimate rights to the domain compared to the Greek company.

I thought of doing this by telephoning them, so that they don't have any written documention which they can present and say we are CyberSquatters.

Don't be too sure about this. They could use your postings about domains for sale on various message boards and perhaps try to discover any other domains that you've registered in order to build a case that would show a pattern of bad faith registrations.

Say I didn't agree to transfer the domain name to them for just the transfer fee and they took me to the Czech .eu arbitration court. Is it common for companies in this position to try to recover their legal fees from the party they acquire the domain name from?

From what I can remember, (you should check though), the Czech ADR court cannot award costs. So any action for costs would have to be taken through some other court. Perhaps the upper limit for the domain is the cost of the arbitration fee. Though it may also be a good thing to establish the size and resources of the company you are dealing with first.

Regards...jmcc

 

[tifosi]

If it's an eu it will have gone through the sunrise phase and the greek company should have applied for it then.

I suspect they're just being heavy handed in an attempt to retrospectively get the domain.

Is it generic?