Recieved a letter today...

[Salient]

Well,

I received a letter from Walgreens demanding me to cancel my domain registration of walgreena dot com. It was your standard letter, throwing the possibility of violation of the Federal Anti-dilution Act, Federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and infringement of Walgreens trademark.

What does the gallery think on this one? How should I approach it, cancel or state my case? If so, what is my case? I was actaully a little surprised to receive a letter on this one. Should I be surprised?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,
Stuart.

 

[Dave Zan]

IMHO, cancel.

 

[fini]

agreed, can't really see how you could justify that name...

fini

 

[Biggie]

walgreens actively views all registrations of similiar domains!

i let go of one myself

my son is employed withr them, and i didn't wat to cause him any backlash.

 

[Theo]

It wouldn't matter much - it's an obvious typo - but your page advertises prescription drugs. In that case, the bad faith can be demonstrated.

 

[actnow]

It looks like they found you pretty quick since the domain is less than 6 weeks old.

It is a no win situation.

I don't know if it is legal.
Instead of deleting it. Why don't you push it into another acct. at Directi.
And, put their whois name, email address and net server on it.

And, when it comes up for renewal. They can pay to renew it. Or, let it drop.

 

[Dark_One]

you should cancel it.

 

[draqon]

not worth fighting, and a hopeless battle anyway. cannnnnncel.

 

[andyat11]

If your not making money CANCEL NOW if you are CANCEL

 

[namedropper]

You should have had a clear non-infringing use in mind when you registered it. You obviously didn't, based upon how you were using it and your asking for what your case should be here. Once you ascertain that they are in fact who they say they are, transfer it to them post-haste and hope they don't file to reimburse their legal costs, to recover any ill-gained profit you might have made, or to make an example out of you. You're in the US, and the US Anticybersquatting Act covers this scenario quite well. They can use that to get you for $100,000 in addition to taking the name away. Don't give them a reason to bring the club down on you hard.

 

[Theo]

You might end up visiting Walgreens to buy some medication :-D

 

[Salient]

You might end up visiting Walgreens to buy some medication :-D

Actually, once I drop the name I will spend my next few dollars at another pharmacy (I am Walgreens customer). Then at least I can say they ate the cost of the registration.

 

[namestrands]

best decision I have seen on here in a long while. I know it is a pain to receive letter like this, but as this one is a obvious typo squat, you would be hard pushed. My advice would be to delete it from your account and let it go back in the pool, perhaps they can pick it up or some other person can register it, and they can go through the whole process again.. hey it keeps the lawyers busy, and well thats good for the economy right? You see we all have a purpose in life ;-)

 

[jberryhill]

My advice would be to delete it from your account and let it go back in the pool, perhaps they can pick it up or some other person can register it

Not a good idea. If someone else picks it up, you would be amazed at how many brain-damaged trademark attorneys will assume the domain name was transferred - since they won't notice the drop and re-registration. If they get excited enough, they will sue you and the new registrant, and you can spend a ton of heartache trying to explain to an audience of morons how domain name registrations work.

 

[Salient]

Not a good idea. If someone else picks it up, you would be amazed at how many brain-damaged trademark attorneys will assume the domain name was transferred - since they won't notice the drop and re-registration. If they get excited enough, they will sue you and the new registrant, and you can spend a ton of heartache trying to explain to an audience of morons how domain name registrations work.

Im glad you brought this up! In my letter to verify the source I recommended transferring the domain to Walgreens, as to avoid any confusion after the name is dropped. We shall see how they respond.

 

[JMJ]

I had one recently and knew I didn't have a chance in hell so I responded back asking them to setup an account and send me their username and I would be glad to push. If they didn't respond back to me within a reasonable amount of time I would put in a request with the registrar to have it deleted.

I never heard anything back so it went back into the pool. I wasn't at all surprised the lawyer who makes a nice chunk of change sending out these letters didn't inform his/her client of a free domain they could have had. I guess job security preceeded ethics.

 

[Salient]

Just a quick update to close out this thread: I recieved a prompt response from Walgreens, and it was very cordial. They agree with my position, to transfer the name to them directly... Thus avoiding any confusion if someone else should scoop the name once dropped. Although I lose the name, Im not unhappy with the transaction.

 

[NexSite]

Look. This is just my opinion, but if your gonna give in like that, your gonna have to sell denial.com.