UKNM: Circlemakers.com

[Howard Hill]

ON June 29, 1999 John Lundberg <

johndevelopmental [dot] co [dot] uk

> wrote:


> I run http//www.circlemakers.org the home of England's crop

> circle makers which has been online since 1995. I need some advice about

my legal

> position re the domain name http://www.circlemakers.com which

> has recently been registered to promote a book about crop circle makers

[that's us!].

> It's just a holding page at the moment but I was gutted when

> I found out as I was planning to buy the domain, but this guy got there

> before me. I've offered to buy the domain back off of him but he doesn't

want to sell.


snip...


> Do I have any legal recourse to reclaim the domain? Obviously

> I don't own a trademark for the word but I think I could put up a very

> strong claim for the domain.



John,


I'd guess that at any given time there are four or five people who think

that they have claims to a particular domain for whatever reason. The best

way to lay a claim to a domain is to register it. The system works on a

first-come, first served basis so it is easy to register a domain once you

see the need to do so. The cost is low as well - only 70 dollars.


So, you should have bought your peace of mind a long time ago by registering

the circlemakers.com domain. You'd also be in a better position to fight

those three or four others who think that they are entitled to your domain.


Having failed to do so, you must live with the consequences. Without a

trademark in "circlemakers", you cannot go to Network Solutions and ask them

to put the domain on hold. You could go to court and claim that

circlemakers.com are passing themselves off as your organisation but this is

costly and is likely not a strong case anyway, given the facts.


Sorry. As they say in America "If you snooze, you lose".


Howard


=============================


NOTE: the above is not intended to constitute legal advice and should not be

used as a substitute for consulting a Solicitor.


Howard Hill

howardnetnames [dot] com

NETNAMES/IPR * INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS


New Office!

879 West 190th Street, Fourth Floor

Gardena, California 90248


Tel: (310) 217 4001 or (310) 493 0561 (Mob.)

Fax: (310) 388 1175  http://www.netnames.com


Our office, at Andrex Point in LA's South Bay area, is near the 110, 405 and

91 freeways


Map: http://www.andrexpoint.com/sitemap.htm 

********************

UKNM is sponsored by Excite UK, visit us at http://www.excite.co.uk.

Email Khalil Ibrahimi

khalilexcitecorp [dot] com (mailto:khalilexcitecorp [dot] com)

 to advertise on Excite.

********************

Change your UKNM subscription use http://www.chinwag.com/uknm.html