Threatened to pay 1000 USD for a domain name. What are my options?

financialjesus

financialjesus

learning shit
Oct 1, 2009
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www.financialjesus.com
I own a .org domain name for a somewhat known product and have been asked to transfer the domain over to the .com domain holder and pay 1000 dollar penalty fee.

To describe my situation better you can imagine that I own the domain name pampers.org (just an example) and the domain of the company actually selling Pampers is of course pampers.com

My website has a few articles regarding Pampers and some Google Adsense ads. The site gets a few visitors (up to 30 per day) and makes a little money.

I have now been contacted by a law firm representing Pampers, and they are basically saying that I should transfer the domain over to Pampers and pay them compensation of 1000 USD.

They also ask me what my name is - they don't know it because I have Whois Protection for the website.

What should I do?

I will not pay the 1000 USD that is for sure.

My options:
- Do as they say (I won't do it since I will never pay the 1000 USD)
- Take the website down
- Sell the website to someone else? :D
- Do nothing

What do you think?
 


Act like a idiot when you respond to them and handover the domain. They wont come after $1000. Trust me their whole motive is the domain and not your money. $1000 is just to scare you off.

If they think the domain is important to them and company is big enough, you will be in more trouble. Better hand over.

I handed over a domain a while back. Those guys were very cool though, I actually made some good money before handing it over.
 
vinnythejinny said:
Act like a idiot when you respond to them and handover the domain. They wont come after $1000. Trust me their whole motive is the domain and not your money. $1000 is just to scare you off.

If they think the domain is important to them and company is big enough, you will be in more trouble. Better hand over.

I handed over a domain a while back. Those guys were very cool though, I actually made some good money before handing it over.
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What about just ignoring them and shutting down the website and the domain? I don't want to contact them since that way there is always a chance they will learn my true identity and also sue.

Although I'm not sure if you can just disown a domain before expiry date.
 
Whois guard is no protection when it comes to legal things, they basically can just ask your registrar about your real information (if they are doing it right).
The fact that they didn't do so already makes me question their credibility.
Usually they should first come after you with a C&D letter in such scenario.

There is no law that obligates you to pay the $1,000 but they could sue you for trademark infringement (would be ridiculous though). So just handover the domain and ignore them.
 
I stopped buying domains like this for that reason. Tell them you are poor and have no money. You will give them the domain if they agree not to ask for the money.
 
From my experience I know you have no option but to give them the domain.
I have faced a situation like this twice.
 
nanexo said:
301 the site to their competitor
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Lol this is creative.

OP they don't give a shit about the domain itself. Big companies like this have in house lawyers that sit on their asses all day and have nothing better to do but brand management. It's all about their image being in someone else's hands and consumers not knowing the difference. It comes down to stupid shit like you having a blog on pampers diapers discounts and using incorrect grammar and stuff like that. Anything that shines a bad light on the company. Usually a formal DMCA notice is what comes first.

I would just play stupid and hand over the domain. The companies that put these lawyers on you aren't having to pay them anything extra so it's not like they're concerned about wasting their time and money to seek litigation if you don't comply.

Or you can play really stupid and 301 your site to the law firms site.
 
if u are very scared - transfer domain out without replyign them.

if u aint scared too much - take site down and wait if they take it or not

if u aint scared at all - move domain to other account, keep site running till court order takes it off
 
push the domain to a new VA (their registrar with private whois) in the phillipines every 1 month and pay them $50. rotate landers and monetization methods...


just to say that you've won.
 
since you said it's making some money, you may want to somehow verify this lawyer is truly representing the supposed complainant. some registrars allow you to delete domain names..
 
sheep said:
since you said it's making some money, you may want to somehow verify this lawyer is truly representing the supposed complainant. some registrars allow you to delete domain names..
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Ya I think GoDaddy does.
 
Contact a big competitor and try and sell the domain to them... profit!

That or just ditch it, because it isn't worth the headache, I'm sure your whole 30 visitors aren't worth that much.
 
Contact your registrar and ask them to delete the domain. Easiest, stops them getting your details, and also forces the company to pay to get the domain. Not a lot, admittedly, and far less than the legal fees, but still, it's a small pleasure.
 
finally I was waitin for someone to say it - @ -joe- Right on!.. Ok so we have come up against the lawyers for a few things. When you start being a bigger fish in a small pond then you will get this. My advice.

1. NEVER admit you have it. if you admit you will be liable.
2. Delete the domain from your control be it from the register or gift it to someone or just change the name to a junk yard dog.
3. Never write back, ever!.
4. Get a drink and dont worry about it.. its not worth the hassel.
 
Had this situation with a ridiculously large payment processor I'm sure you can guess which.

Told them to fuck right off.

and they did.

I get why they do it but it seems to me if you wanted to protect your brand and you have deep enough pockets to sue why haven't you paid johnny the intern $10/hour for a week to brainstorm every possible name and then just reg them all.

Laziness shouldn't mean these companies get a free lunch.
 
I think the best bet is give up the name . You could delay them getting the domain name by doing some of the tricks that were mentioned above, but in the end they are going to take it and their is a god chace that your register has already locked it so you coud not transfer it too someone ese
 
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