My first letter, what can i do

[carlos]

Hello,

(sorry for my bad english)

I have received a letter from a lawyer representing an big company, which
says me that his client will agree not take any legal action against me if:

1) i will not infringe community trade mark
2) i will not in the future register any domain name which incorporates certain words
3) i will immediately transfer domain to his client
4) I will immediately shutdown the website operating from domain name (sedo)
5) (here comes the trouble) i will pay its legal costs which are 1000 pounds

What can i do? If I agree these conditions i must reply in 10 days.

I agree to transfer domain to his client, but to pay 1000 pounds in concept
of legal costs? 1000 pounds for writting a letter?

The domain is a dot es. I'm from spain, lawyer is from UK, he wrote me in english,
shouln't he have written me in spanish?

Will his client going to take legal actions against me if i transfer the domain?

A lot of thanks

 

[simon]

tell them that you are ready to give the domain and see if the letter is official.
and where do they want u to pay the money?

 

[wildweb]

Yes...it does sound like a scare tactic. If it is legit, the lawyer would have sent an official letterhead document to the address on record for the domain name.

I went through this same thing a year ago. It happened to be legit and the individual and his lawyer had actually tried UDRP on several other domain names because he did infact have a US Trademark on file for a commonly used name.

I was worried at first then decided to fight back. I wrote an official response back to the lawyer after many days of research and a 30 minute phone call consultation with a trademark attorney (nice enough not to charge me).

The only thing I offered to agree with the plaintiff on was to acknowledge his trademark name in the fine print on my website.

I never heard back from him or his attorney and it's been well over a year. All this took place about two months before the domain name was to renew. Call it coincidental or not....I immediately renewed the name the day I got the letter from them.

Just my 2cents.
tommy

 

[carlos]

Hi,

They sent me letter to my mail address too.

About where should i send the money, for now they only say that if i agree i must sign, date, and reply the letter within the time limit specified.

Thanks

 

[simon]

is it on official letter head and did u try calling them and ask them personally?

 

[carlos]

It really seems to be legit. It has official letterhead.

Simon i didn't call they personally because i'm not sure to be able of understand him. (my english is too bad)
I forget a detail, the letter also says they have been sent a copy to NIC.es

The question is: Ok, I will transfer the domain, but however, can the lawyer take legal actions against me requiring the payment in concept of its legal costs or tm damage costs?

Thank you!

 

[sawan_n]

I am not a lawyer but this is what i feel about the isssue:

What legal costs? do they wish to go to some dispute settlement body?

Legally, They cant claim monetary damages if they go to WIPO or anyother settlement body except for a Court.

Out of the 4 settlement bodies available(except court), I think theres one that has a provision for monetary damages upto $100k.
But the cost of going to such a body/court may be quite more than GBP 1000. So i dont see anypoint in claiming GBP 1000.

Please do your research about it, these are my personal views.

All the best and keep us updated.

 

[simon]

Carlos, can you update on the situation?
i hope its all fine now

 

[fab]

Carlos, what happened?

 

[Leading Names]

*If* it infringes on their TM rights, tell them you'll transfer the name to them but will not pay any legal costs.

*Does the name infringe on their rights? PM me the name if you like.

- Rob

 

[saatmarket]

it's very well known advocate tactic be afraid of the opposit side. So i do not think you need worry.

 

[DNQuest.com]

it's very well known advocate tactic be afraid of the opposit side. So i do not think you need worry.

HUH?!?!?!?

 

[dotNetKing]

It's a common tactic for lawyers to scare the other party - probably.

 

[Kid Kool]

just ignore it.