Legal Question in Technology Law in North Carolina

Re: Internet Domain Name Dispute

I echo the prior two posts as to the strength (or weakness) of your position. Trademark rights are established by use, registration or both. It is often critical who came first and whether there is actually confusion and what your intent was in adopting the domain name.

My best guess, based on the limited information you gave, is that you have the upper hand in this if you adopted the domain without any intent to generate confusion. However, I think the proposal from the other side shows that it may be possible for both sides to come out a winner in this dispute and that a settlement may be the solution of choice even if you are in the winning position. Your position determines whether or not you can realistically demand much more than you have already been offered.

I would suggest you contact a lawyer who is expert in domain disputes. Having handled many of these domain name disputes, I can tell you that the location of the lawyer's office is probably not near as important to you in this dispute as is expertise in these kinds of disputes and internet expertise. To determine my level of expertise, you can refer to www.burdlaw.com my popular intellectual property law website or the 300+ answers I have posted on lawguru.

You should NOT be posting any more detailed facts on lawguru, as your posts could give away your legal strategy and could jeopardize your position. Your next step should be to call or email the lawyer you choose to handle this, so you can go over the specific details. In your dispute the answer depends on the facts of the case.

Thanks for presenting an interesting situation on lawguru.

Re: Internet Domain Name Dispute

If you acquired your domain name legitimately (meaning for your own purposes and not to pre-emptively deprive another entity of a URL you should have known they would want) then you may have a good case to keep your domain -- or, if you prefer, to negotiate a better deal from the other side.

There are a lot of questions I would want to ask you before I could comfortably offer an opinion about your rights, but you may very well have the stronger position here.

Re: Internet Domain Name Dispute

I would add that the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution process is "quick" only in a relative sense: it is faster than court, months rather than years, but it is not fast in the sense that you and I would think things are fast.

I would also need to know how long you have had your site, how long the other party has had their site, if they have a federally registered trademark, and the goods or services the two sites purvey.

Thanks.