Lawyer Contact?

[nicpal]

I have been acquiring professional athlete's domains over the past few years and have sold a few and relinquished a few at an athlete's request usually for an autographed item or whatever. Recently my partner and I have received and email from someone claiming to be This athlete's attorney and demanding that we relinquish the name:

"Pls be advised that I am atty for XXX XXXXXX. It has just come to
my attention that you carry XXXXXXXXX.com as domain name, without his
knowledge or permission. Pls contact me re this wrongful use, and cease and
desist further use of name. Tel xxx-xxx-xxxx"

Any legal correspondence I have ever received from an attorney regarding a domain name has been via certified mail and then I would make arrangements via phone or email to turn over a domain to them, but never for an athlete's name as of yet. What makes this more hard to believe is the fact we are only selling the domain for a couple hundred dollars and find very improbable that Mr. XXXXXX would rather his attorney go after the name than pay the meager fee or even negotiate with us regarding this name.

So, should I believe that this is a scammer and how do I go about finding out if this guy is a legitimate attorney in the state of Florida or just some jerk trying to get the name. And what legal rights could XXX XXXXXX actually have over this name as we have found that there are over a hundred peeople with the same name living in the continental United States? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[boychik]

Don't have an answer for you, sorry.

But I would edit above and place xxxxx everywhere you mention that name.

Good luck

 

[INFORG]

Try looking up the phone number on the net. Usually, I just put a business number into a Google search and something pops up in a legal directory somewhere. I had a similar email that WAS an actual attorney - many don't handle this type of thing often.

 

[HOWARD]

If the Google Search doesn't work, email me at [email protected]. I am a Florida attorney and have access to the Florida Bar licensed lawyers list.

 

[boychik]

Originally posted by boychik
Don't have an answer for you, sorry.

But I would edit above and place xxxxx everywhere you mention that name.

Good luck

 

[nicpal]

Thanks to BoyChik for helping me cover any additional issues and thanks to everyone who posted here thus far. I did look up that number in the Google phone look-up and it resolves to a Miami DUI Attorney. I just really find this hard to believe that I millionaire would not spend a measley couple hundred of dollars for a domain name. Does he really have any rights to this domain name? I have sold many names to athletes so far and even have gotten Thank You letters and memorabilia from these guys.

 

[INFORG]

Nicpal,

No offense to any of the fine attorneys here, but some can be jerks - especially those that represent celebrities. They can tend to threaten first and reason second. I have had a couple less than pleasant dealings over celeb related names (even though like you, all I figured to get when I regged it was an autographed 8X10)

In his defense, I am sure they read all those cybersquatter horror stories and asume everyone who regs a name for resale is vermin.

Email or call him with the "I'm a big fan and will help you out any way I can" speech and educate him on how he is lucky that you got the domain and not one of those porn redirect guys, etc.
I'm sure you have overhead for snap scripts, software, hosting, etc. that makes $200 a break even point for you.

Good Luck.

 

[nicpal]

After getting on the phone with this "Sport Star's" attorney, I actually called his bluff and a let him know that he nor his client had any legal precedence over this domain and I would gladly relinquish it to him for $200. He agreed right away stating that this was a field that he was unfamiliar with and he would get the transaction processed right away. It seems that since it is very hard to trademark a name right now, we should be safe in this area as long as we aren't redirecting it to any adult or slanderous websites that might bring a defamation suit. Thanks to everyone who posted back to me. It is a great relief to know that there are others who can provide guidance in this area!

 

[actnow]

Nicpal,

I think the key words are

"stating that this was a field that he was unfamiliar with".

I think you were lucky this time. And, the lawyer had bigger problems to work on.

 

[timechange.com]

Indeed a lucky strike; just don't push your luck. Domain squatting is the type where names of real people are involved.

 

[pljones]

Nicpal,

I think you might want to read http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions/154595.htm or some of the many UDRP decisions involving sports personality names. If you are offering to sell the domain name to a well-known athlete, that's a sure way to lose one of these cases.