just bought a big domain

[rkae]

Hello everyone :)

Posting for the first time here.

I just bought a domain in cyrilic which is the name of a very well known international brand/corporation. I was shocked that nobody registered it before me and made me wonder should I be expecting to get some money from it in the future, if they show interest in buying the name or I should straight go out and buy some new suit so I can look good in the court? :D

Thanks.

[IDNCowboy]

Hello everyone :)

Posting for the first time here.

I just bought a domain in cyrilic which is the name of a very well known international brand/corporation. I was shocked that nobody registered it before me and made me wonder should I be expecting to get some money from it in the future, if they show interest in buying the name or I should straight go out and buy some new suit so I can look good in the court? :D

Thanks.
You might not be able to buy a suit... . However that corporation will be able to BRING you a suit (..sarcasm..) of course.

You'll have to pay a ton as it is a TM. They could sue you.

[Asiaplay]

Hi there - welcome to the forums... is always nice to pick up an IDN / domain which we like :)

However IDNCowboy is correct though... generally people here avoid IDNs they know to have potential trademark issues (as in the past others have just had to pass them over to avoid court battles, which they felt would be hard to win... on the grounds that it is hard to explain why one choose the name, apart from the fame linked to the TM party otherwise).

For this reason the guy who set up this forum decided to not allow IDNs with potential TM issues to be sold or auctioned (which is working well here at the moment).

So enjoy your new IDN while you can... and if you win that suit in your new suit one day - do let us all know... as it really will change the buying patterns of a lot of member's here.

Once again welcome and hope you enjoy the forums - cheers, Asiaplay

[rkae]

Thanks for the warm welcome and your replies! The forum looks like a great place for anyone interested in IDNs.

Okay. What if I auction it on ebay? Or I'll get into legal trouble in the future because I sold it?

Thanks.

[jacksonm]

Thanks for the warm welcome and your replies! The forum looks like a great place for anyone interested in IDNs.

Okay. What if I auction it on ebay? Or I'll get into legal trouble in the future because I sold it?

Thanks.

Sorry, but you sound like a troll straight out of the stippy tribe.

Guys, don't fall for this bait.

.

[rkae]

um.. seriously why would I be trolling? explain please. I'm just inexperienced and if I ask too much of a newbie questions just tell me and I'll resort to the search function. I already did some research but I couldn't find relevant enough posts, about the possible dangers of auctioning a trademarked domain name. also the suit possibility is very real so I prefer to straight ask just to be sure.

[jacksonm]

um.. seriously why would I be trolling? explain please. I'm just inexperienced and if I ask too much of a newbie questions just tell me and I'll resort to the search function.

One of the people who hold a deep-rooted misconception that all domain speculators are 'cybersquatters' and will stop short of nothing to gain comments to support that claim.


Some comments here:

stippy [dot ] com/japan-tech/idn-double-byte-japanese-domain-names-1/

(removed free backlink at the good suggestion from Andrew)


And my apologies if you aren't one of the stippy crew, but judging from your first post here you are straight out of their book.

I suggest you start out by reading this page:

http://topsellingdomains.com/faq.htm


In particular:

http://topsellingdomains.com/faq.htm#Number4

.

[Asiaplay]

Jacksonm...

That is a little off the edge - his question is a fair one given the comments made by IDNCowboy and myself.

You will not be in trouble for selling it - it is just a question of ethics, if you should be selling something you know is not a great buy... is all.
If trading in this forum however... I understand it would get you warned, the post closed and if repeated banned probably.

Cheers - Asiaplay

PS: Jacksonm
I think you are wrong in this case... I have already had a discussion and made my position clear with with the person you mention (and he has dropped things since our discussion - in here at least and I do not follow their pages at all)... I suggest you give people who are new here a chance before you run off on silly tangents... and this time you are annoying me (as this suggestion, suggests that my being friendly to a new member must mean something like this - which is unfair and an insult to the positive position I try to play in this forum - needless to say if you are right... I will have more to say about it than you). i.e. I think you owe whoever this new member is the benefit of the doubt, rather than attack them as they did not realise the potential downside of buying a TM IDN.

[jacksonm]

Okay. What if I auction it on ebay? Or I'll get into legal trouble in the future because I sold it?

For one thing, no person in this forum is a lawyer, let alone an International IP/TM Lawyer, unless they've neglected to tell the rest of us. Do not expect to obtain reliable legal advice for free over the internet, especially from a bunch of people who frequently try to view the applicable laws with their very own shade of rose-colored glasses.

Yes, you very well could get in trouble for selling a TM domain later on down the road. In the US, a company can sue you for damages of 3x your profits from their TM (be it domain related or not). Other countries could be the same, better or worse.

Finally, if you do not intuitively understand why registering domain names of large, international corporations with intent to resale is wrong, then frankly you have a long way to go before you can even begin to join the level of conversation at the table.

.

[Rubber Duck]

Maybe I am not a lawyer but I think the following will apply:

Domain is Cyrillic so it is dot com and probably registered in the US.

If it is registered in the US then I think US law will apply.

The fact that the script is Cyrillic will have little impact on the way that the law is interpreted.

Of course the complication comes because there are not many established TM's in Cyrillic that would be recognised in the US. Trying to sue for infringement of a TM in another territory in a US court may well prove tricky.

Conversely a ruling in a Russian court may prove difficult to enforce on a US registrar.

By the time they get it all sorted out, I guess most of the perpetrators will be resident in some offshore tax haven, which is likely to make the matter even more difficult to pursue.

I guess they will catch up with you eventually.

Personally, I don't need that level of aggravation but I am sure there will be those that will thrive on it!

[Olney]

There is not a lot of info on here about what we call "phishing domains" or trademarks.
Phishing domains are domains that just look like the domains that users want to access but aren't.
There's two things that most all of us agree on to better our investments in IDNs
& that's to minimize the sale of phishing domains & trademarks.

Most of us deal with sales by reps, & don't want to sell something that will eventually get taken away from the buyer.

[rkae]

ok, thanks for all the information guys.

jacksonm - np, no offence taken.