Urgent advice needed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nameable]

Cool I just 'stole' two of your high scores :-D

Congrats!

Look out, though - now that you're on top, everyone else is gunning for ya :wink:

 

[Bionic]

Your response to this guy should be something like:
Dear sir:

Your attempt to intimidate me with legalese is disgraceful.

Ms. [blank] and I never reached an agreement. I told her that I would talk her offer over with my wife. She responded that I should send her an email confirming my acceptance of the offer. I never sent any such email. I never accepted any offer.

that bitch wouldn't get any name here at DNF with her imaginary sales contract! she's in a spot not wanting to make an offer, she says ...only dealing with you because you're using it for a family name, and 'cybersquatters do that!'. basically she doesn't want to make an offer because she doesn't know if she's been taken. MTV must be living in the 90s they can't come to a deal.

 

[dosoqi]

My advice to you is either to sell them for $5000 ($2500 each) - that's a fair deal imo.

OR

Creat a very simple website and to put some of your kid's photos with some text.

Hmm.. add a "Guest Book" as well, let the family memebers post some "Great Site Nick" .. "Lovely Photos Little Nick!" or whatever of a FAMILY stuff.

Stand for you rights!

 

[sjp]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Well I am going to shoot them out a email today.

I really do not see my self selling, Just because of the fact they are trying to scare me into selling.
I fowarded the letter to my attorney and He should contact me today.. I will keep you abroad on what is going on with them.

I do appreciate everyones advice to the fullest.

 

[stevey]

keep us updated, very intresting thread. and good luck to you, should never let big companies try and scare you, esspecially if they have no right to

 

[Theo]

Typical example of sticking it to the man Best of luck

 

[Nodnarb]

Did you contract with that lady at MTV for dental work?

I would think that their attorney would know that our court system dismiss "oral contracts" as hearsay... (Or maybe they expect you to be ~totally~ uneducated in our country's legal system.)

At this point however, you haven't maintained integrity in your negotiations. First you agree to $100 and back out. Then they crank it up to $1000 and you balk. A key component to any negotiation is decisiveness. Perhaps some of your indecision can be based on your family involvement. However, at this point, to them it looks like they will continuously have their offer "accepted" and then when you get the paperwork, you try to jack a higher offer out of them.

If I were you, I would stick a photograph of your son Nick on that web site, with a nice little story about how you call him that nickname, and just move on.

By the way - the best advice in this thread is for you to contact jberryhill for legal advice. We've all been there, done that - but this forum is more like chewing the fat with friends at the corner bar, versus sound legal advice from an attorney. Maybe send him a PM to review this thread, and ask him to advise you if he feels that your case needs legal support based on your options from the info in this thread...

 

[Dave Zan]

By the way - the best advice in this thread is for you to contact jberryhill for legal advice. We've all been there, done that - but this forum is more like chewing the fat with friends at the corner bar, versus sound legal advice from an attorney. Maybe send him a PM to review this thread, and ask him to advise you if he feels that your case needs legal support based on your options from the info in this thread...

Uh uh, jberryhill's sig file says it all:

"John Berryhill Ph.d., esq.
John-AT-johnberryhill.com
Please do not send private messages via dnforum.com, email me directly."

It's good you consulted your attorney, though. Just hope he/she either has
experience with this, or knows whom to approach if the going gets tough...

 

[sjp]

The thing that bothers me the most, Is that I did not make a oral agreement.
Here is the letter the guy sent me today.

dear Mr.

I have received your e-mail and look forward to your response. By way of clarification, if my prior message was too lengthy, it is our position that we made a deal for $2000 in return for transfer of the domains. And it is our hope that you will honor that agreement. There is no difference from our perspective if you demand $20,000 in cash or $20,000 worth of plane tickets and hotel rooms (for which we would pay $20,000 cash) - it's still a breach of the contract you made.

A name can serve as a trademark, and we have a large series of federal registrations for NICK and its variants (such as NICK JR., NICK AT NITE, NICK IS KIDS, etc.), including Reg No. 1390284 issued in 1986 for NICK alone. It is not necessary for us to own a registration for "nickkid.com" to assert our rights where there is confusion between your domain and our registered trademarks. While you may or may not have been trading on the name when you registered the domains, attempting to sell them for a profit based on their similarity to the NICK trademark is an infringement and a violation of the ACPA. Transfer of the domain to us would not create liability to the other company you mentioned, as we are a legitimate rights holder (as opposed to someone named Bob Smith who wants to use the domain for adult banner ads).

Also, for your information, Buy Domains is often regarded to be a cybersquatter and/or operating in league with cybersquatters <for example: http://www.amerindianarts.us/amerindianarts.html>. So they are not the best model to follow and do not establish a legitimate market price because we would never do business with them. Also, Julia Roberts actually won her case for juliaroberts.com <http://www.breese.fr/guide/img/julia.pdf>.

Please let us know of your decision.

This message is not intended to be a complete recitation of all relevant facts and/or law, and is written without waiver of any rights MTVN may have, all of which are expressly reserved.

Sincerely,

What do you think.> Thanks, I am going to try to find jerry hills email.

Can anyone pm me jberryhills email?

Also, can I sell the name to my brother for $1.00 and tell them I sold it?

Or could I get in trouble for that also. These laws seem to be geared around these big companies or people with lots of money. Some of these laws suck to me. I am pretty upset that this company is trying to do this to me.

 

[mark]

See my previous suggestion: Accept their offer and get on with your life.

 

[sjp]

See my previous suggestion: Accept their offer and get on with your life.

In this case it is not about the money.. It is about the point.. That is why these companies are walking all over us, Simply for the fact that they scare you enough for you to give in..

If there is not a legal issue here, Then I am going to hold out and I am not going to sell.
If there is a legal issue here, Then I am going to do the smart thing and let them have the names.

That is why I need to speak with the berryhill guy to ask him.

If I was broke like most the world is, Then I would of already sold. However I dont need the money but I dont want to be sued.

Thanks

 

[mark]

Understand. But there is an old expression that I believe applies here:

you may win the battle, but you will lose the war

by publishing this whole thing in this forum, which will soon be indexed on google if not already, i think that they too will proceed against you on the basis of principle; you have given them no choice.

although i don't know him except thru his responses thru this forum, berryhill is probably the best attorney to help you out in this instance.

i wish you and your family the very best in whatever decision you decide to make.

 

[Nodnarb]

jberryhill is his user name. Search is your friend...

I am of the opinion that you have talked yourself in circles, and now you must either accept their 2 grand or decline and never develop the names. Your style of negotiation has obviously caused them to stop making offers. So, your emails to them are counterproductive because they are filing those emails to establish you as a cybersquatter. Even if they double the current offer, they risk getting jerked around even more.

The one thing that is continually annoying me about their emails to you is that there is no such thing as an oral contract in a matter of property. Domain Names are considered property in the United States based on previous court rulings.

Prior indecision has ruined your negotiation. I believe you're in a take it or leave it situation. I think the lesson learned for the rest of us is to have a 3rd party broker conduct the negotiation and complete the sale. Then all you have to worry about is approving a transfer, and receiving a check.

 

[sjp]

You are right. That is a great point. So I guess monday I will go ahead and take the money and run.

However If I ever get contacted by a company of this nature again, I will indeed get a broker to do the work, You can not kill the messanger unless it is YOURSELF.

Thanks for the adivce.. At least I have the weekend to think about it. I did not know the stuff we talk about on here gets indexed in google.

I have a lot to learn still.. Well I guessed I screwed this one up bad.

I still have this one question if anyone can answer it.

If I sold it to You for $5.00 can I get in trouble and still be liable?

And

Would that now make you liable?

 

[jberryhill]

there is no such thing as an oral contract in a matter of property.

No.

Domain Names are considered property in the United States based on previous court rulings.

No.

 

[Bionic]

Here is the letter the guy sent me today.

dear Mr.

I have received your e-mail and look forward to your response. By way of clarification, if my prior message was too lengthy, it is our position that we made a deal for $2000 in return for transfer of the domains. And it is our hope that you will honor that agreement. There is no difference from our perspective if you demand $20,000 in cash or $20,000 worth of plane tickets and hotel rooms (for which we would pay $20,000 cash) - it's still a breach of the contract you made.

Look forward to your response!!
we would pay $20,000 cash!!!

Read between the lines! You have nothing to lose by asking for $20,000 at this point. If that fails. then you're just 1 step back to where you are now.


Try something like this.


Dear xx,

thank you for your reply clarifying the situation. It is fruitless to argue whether a verbal contract was reached when you phoned me, however considering it was your phone call and you are professionals in legal matters it is unfair to claim that I did agree to sell, I said I would discuss the issue with my wife.

I registered the names for my son Nick and obviously I consider them more valuable than the registration fee that I paid. I have shown you what reseller prices for similar names are, in excess of your $100 and $1000 offfers. This would be typical of the expense to reimburse me with similar names.

When a name is for sale on the open market the prices are usually from $100 to several thousand dollars. However when a person or company wishes to puchase a particular domain that domain has unique value, often 5 to 50 times reseller price. This is nothing to do with using your trademark, this is a facet of domain reselling, this is why 1000s of people online trade in domains because a sale to an end user can reimburse them for dozens of names.

I do not think that $1000 is sufficent reinbursement or will allow me to replace kidnick.com with a short catchy memorable 'Nick' domain for my son Nicks website. If you can find me a similar domain to kidnick.com for $1000 then I will consider selling to you for that price.

I will accept an offer from you of $20,000 for the domains, I hope we can come to an agreement.

Thank you


:-D

 

[Domagon]

What contract?

An offer was made, the buyer accepted the offer ... but does that really constitute an agreement of sale?

Especially since it sounds to me that the sale is *still being negotiated* ... if the buyer countered with a higher offer, any previous agreement of sale, real or imagined, is meaningless.

The seller has become aware of facts they were not aware of previously and thus are asking for more ... a very reasonable scenerio that's quite common when one is dealing with a large company that's very experienced in negotiations; intimidation. That's why the MTV folks sent the paperwork express, overnight mail ... until money exchanges hands they have no deal.

On a related topic, if the MTV folks had much legal standing, they'd likely done a UDRP as opposed to offering $2000; URDP only costs $1500 and the odds are very much in their favor - most respondents never respond, and attorneys who file them know that.

At this point, as others have pointed out, you need to come up with a number in your mind that you want ... while it's reasonable for you initially to be unsure of its value, now that you have additional information from many others here and some time to think it over, you really need to peg a price ... and then stick to it.

Totally unsure ... $2K for both is a pretty nice amount of money. If you're thinking more along the lines of $5K ... that should be simple to get ... say you've thought it over, but that after taxes you're not really getting $2K and really need a little more - make up some sob story or whatever ... and additionally, offer to sign an agreement and fax it back right away; you'll still have to send some paperwork in later ... they're likely go for it.

If you're seeking something like $50K or whatever, then you really need to contact an attorney who is familar with domain names *and* is good at negotiations; you may need to bring a broker, etc into the picture. Expect to spend $5K minimum if you go that route.

Lastly, I am *not* an attorney and *none* of this is legal advice, but rather all of this post is my layman's opinion based on my experiences; like many of the other posts here. Please keep us informed along the way and hope it all works out for you ... hope to see your domains on the DNJournal Top Sellers list soon

Ron

 

[Bionic]

I dont think this case has a precedent because the trademark is just a common persons name.

RAMBLE DELETED :blush:

 

[Domagon]

I'll keep it short ... trademark law isn't that simple nor that straight forward.

Ron

 

[Bionic]

just meandering if there is a way around the 'confusing similarity' between
NICK IS KIDS (TM) and nickkid.com, which is evident from the traffic.

The only option is the fact Nick is a common name and "kid" next to a name is like
"Jackie san" in japanese, just a way to address someone by the name.

cheers Ron we'll see how it unfolds