need an urgent help about a TM issue please help!!

I need a pro's opinion about an TM issue that a company sent me an email saying that I infringed a TM issue. I need urgent help please reply me so I can email the the email they sent to you so you can help me. Thanks.

Hey mole are you there?

 

[mole]

someone called

Hey, hero. Just paste that email here, blank out the domain name if you must, but it would be helpful.

 

[email protected]

just sent email to me so I reply you with the email they sent. Thanks in advance

 

[mole]

Hey hero, hope others see this and I sure ain't a tm expert. You can mail me at [email protected]

Straight off, not sure whether this is the typical c&d that bullies send out. You would just send them a polite letter asking them to bugger off if you feel you weren't in bad faith.

It may be good to post an edited version of the email on this board, so that people can comment. A lot have experienced those dang c&ds.

 

[mole]

Haven't got your email, but one of your names appears to a sensitive issue to the World Wrestling Federation. But then again, they lost WWF.com :laugh:

 

To whom it may concern:

It has come to our attention that your web site is utilizing the trademark teensteam.us. This letter is to advise you that RJB
Telcom/International Web Innovations Inc. owns rights in the trademark teensteam.com, for an oriented website. RJB Telcom/International
Web Innovations Inc. has been continuously and exclusively using this trademark and has filed a trademark application for Teen Steam with
the United States Patent and Trademark Office in connection, in part, with its internet web site. In addition, we have secured the domain
name teensteam.com on or about February, 1998 and since that time have continually used that domain in connection with its business.
Because of the continuous use of the mark and domain in commerce and our success in establishing our presence with the Internet
community, our mark has become widely accepted and well known, and consequently constitutes a very valuable property right.

This letter is written to advise you that your use of the domain "teensteam.us" conflicts with the same services carried out by RJB
Telcom/International Web Innovations Inc. under the name RJB Telcom/International Web Innovations Inc. and its domain name
teensteam.com. Due to the striking similarity of the marks and your use of the domain "teensteam.us" is likely to cause consumer confusion
and create the false impression of affiliation with RJB Telcom's/International Web Innovations Inc.'s trademark as used in connection with
Teen Steam services. Thus, regretfully, we must inform you that we believe that your use of this mark and the domain name infringes our
rights.

Further, we have been advised that an unauthorized registration and use of a domain name teensteam.us may constitute a violation of the
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (codified as Section 43(d) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(d)) which provides that a
person shall be liable in a civil action by the owner of a mark, if, without regard to the goods or services, that person has a bad faith intent to
profit from such mark. It is our understand that the remedies available to a plaintiff pursuant to the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection
Act include statutory damages of up to $100,000 and attorney's fees.

We demand that you cease and desist from any use or intended use of the trademark teensteam.us and any other similar name
in connection with your business, including metatags, to direct network user traffic to your website.

We also demand that you cease and desist from using or intending to use the domain teensteam.us. Further, we demand that you make
arrangements to transfer the domain name teensteam.us to RJB Telcom/International Web Innovations Inc.

Demand is hereby made that all unlawful uses of teensteam.us be removed no later than June 11, 2002, and that you e-mail us prior to this
date to discuss a settlement of this matter.

If you fail to remove all infringing uses of our trademark by this date, we will seek all legal remedies available to enforce and protect our
rights,
including, the recovery of your profits from your use of our trademark, damages sustained by RJB Telcom/International Web Innovations
Inc., attorney fees and
costs.

We reserve all rights, causes of action, and remedies we may have in this matter and nothing herein should be considered a waiver of any
rights, or any admission of fact. We look forward to hearing from you on this matter.


Alyssa Smythe
http://www.maxcash.com


Alyssa
http://www.maximumcash.com

AOL mail users - please include a copy of our last correspondence when replying

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[mole]

What utter rubbish!

A trademark to teensteam.com does not constitute tm rights to every other ccTLD in the world.

They were too lazy to register it themselves, had an afterthought that it may be valuable, and then decide to send out this template c&d email in hopes of intimidating and stealing it from you.

They don't even have teensteam tm'd. And you will note the USPTO application was ONLY filed this year in Feb, and is not a registered tm yet.

I would get a lawyer friend to reply to this bad taste reverse cyberjacking attempt. Intimidation is a criminal act.

 

[mole]

You may want to email Garry Anderson at [email protected] for advise. He is a helpful guy.

 

They have a TM on teensteam.com. It says word mark : teensteam.com. So this does not mean they have a TM on teensteam?

What is your final advice?

Want some money and settle,
Do nothing,
Transfer

Thanks

 

sero best advice you're going to get is do nothing for the moment, give it a few days at least to do some research so you know where you stand and can respond appropriately. It could cost you if you say the wrong thing now.

Feel free to email or om me if you wish.

 

so didn't see that you put up the letter now, Ill have a read through it

 

I ll send you the reply email when I prepare it. Thanks Snoop

 

[mole]

er... how would I know?

What I know is, they don't have the legal right to teamsteam.us, and they should stop intimidating people because that is a criminal act.

How could teensteam.us confuse if it isn't even up yet??? The .us extension only came about for the public a month ago

If I had the name, I would write them back explaining why they are wrong to assume they have god-given rights to the name, but if they really want it (although I know you were going to develop it into your own business which is very different from theirs) you may want to consider discussing this amicably with them so that it is a win-win for both parties.

Remember you don't want to give them the excuse that you are showing bad faith, which you aren't. These vultures are always looking for such low down opportunities to bully you down.

Transfer will show you admit you are in the wrong. Which you aren't. Those jokers are so intimidatingly rude, they didn't even offer to help you for the cost of acquisition of the name.

Don't worry such things are very common (sometimes a downright laugh) in this game.

Anyone challenges my names, and I send my lawyers straight up their arse.

 

Hmmm,

According to the USPTO they have NOT been granted a tm yet:

"Current Status: A non-final action has been mailed. This is a letter from the examining attorney requesting additional information and/or making an initial refusal. However, no final determination as to the registrability of the mark has been made."

They only filed for a tm on 15th May 2002.

You can view this by going to tess.uspto.gov, (click "check status" when you've pulled up the record)

 

[avs162]

greetings,

in the event that you are actually infringing and they have a strong case:

tm actually reged
pending aplication
using mark continious considerable time
you reged post usage
similar or limited use

and if name not tremendous value

send letter stating that if what they claim is true and that is not given you would be willing to consider stopping development and changing directions with that project if you would like to settle the alleged mark infringement amicably please reimburse you for expenses to date (less than wipo udrp ) you would consider relingishing the name.

and so on

unless the company your dealing with has bored lawyers on retainer and hasnt been beat up to bad you should have some success.

if the claim is not ironclad and they are just trying to bully you
you can hold out and see if the suit comes at which point you can decide whether or not to fight


just my opionon


could be wrong

spelling errors included
its early
sean

 

[avs162]

another good idea is to check their history of udrp filings and decisions to see how agressive they are

a may 5th mark dosent sound like they have much of a leg to stand on

sean

 

mole,

I wouldn't neccessarily agree, I wouldn't take it for granted that a trademark over a ".com" domain would be insufficent to prove t/m rights over a ".us" domain.

The "win-win" sounds nice but could easily be construed as "I want to sell the name for a pile of cash" so I'd be cautious about it.

It is intereting that they send the letter themselves rather than through a lawyer, suggests they may be sending them "on mass".

 

Originally posted by safesys
Hmmm,

According to the USPTO they have NOT been granted a tm yet:

Nicely spotted safe, looks like they may be flexing their t/m muscles a little prematurely. The company in question has an interesting history btw, especially with past litigation.

 

the fact the uspto has initially refused and the domain reg is so close to the tm reg timewise (maybe even predating - can't tell as .us whois is offline) suggests they don't have any case whatsoever.

I've had people pull this stunt before.

 

[mole]

Originally posted by snoopy

The company in question has an interesting history btw, especially with past litigation.

Really snoops, pray share what you managed to snoop out