Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California
Domain name dispute with wholeseller
We registered a domain name with the trademark name of our wholeseller.They have dotcom and we registered with dotbiz as it was available in 2005. We redirect the dotbiz trademark name to our company's site, and it clearly shows our company name on each page. Our Company name is not at all close to our wholesellers trademarked name.
Our wholeseller has been in business for over 100 years, but they have allowed us to use their logo, sku's, clip art, and other intellectual property on our site to sell their merchandise (without written permission). We clearly state on our site (numerious pages) that we are an ''authorized online dealer'' for this company. They do not dispute this fact. We only sell their merchandise, no one else.
At this point, we have taken down the redirect per their cease and desist request, but we refused to transfer ''for free'' the domain name to them.
Two questions, one, can we utilize the wholesellers name in our domain name and two, if we can't, our we in our legal rights not to transfer the domain name to them ''for free?''
I feel this is ''unfair competition'' as the wholeseller sells direct to consumers. Also, there are other dealers like myself, that have the wholesellers name within their domain.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Domain name dispute with wholeseller
I would refer you to MTV v. Curry. 867 F.Supp. 202 Good Luck
Joshua D. Hale
619.866.3535
Re: Domain name dispute with wholeseller
The essence of MTV Networks, Inc. v. Curry is that web surfers are likely to think that the web address is also the company's name, and hence if it is someone else's site, that constitutes trademark dilution and cyberpiracy, This was a 1994 case in New York Federal Court. More recent cases have amplified on the doctrine and there is a federal law against cyberpiracy,
I don't see what the wholesaler is doing as unfair competition. I'm more inclined to think that if you are sued over this, they'll win.
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