I own a domain name, registered in good faith before a trademark was reg'd. Must I relinquish the domain?
In 2005, I designed a product that has not yet launched, and gave the product a name. The domain name for that product was taken, so I "backordered" the name through GoDaddy. It actually came up for auction several months ago and I purchased it.
AFTER I purchased it, another company obtained a trademark. Their use of the name only goes back a few months.
I did not cybersquat and my registration was in good faith. I have not put anything on the site for fear of infringing their trademark. Do I have any legal obligation to surrender the name?
Answers:
I'm not a lawyer either but unless you have money to burn to fight a potential legal battle, don't fight over it.
Let me preface this by saying I am not a laywer, and that you should get one's opinion.
My understanding of the trademark law is that if you can prove that you were using the name for your business prior to the trademark that not only are you entiled to the domain, you may be able to get them to have to drop the trademark.
No. You may, but need not, negotiate with the trademark holder for them to purchase the domain name from you.
If you can prove that you had the domain name beforehand, then it shouldn't be a problem. Do a search on the net to see if there were any public records alluding to the other company obtaining the trademark. If not, you should be good to go.
IANAL - see a lawyer.
Calif Deputy
You can fight it, but it's gonna cost you. Leave attorneys out of it and see if you can't make a deal with a reasonable request. A lawsuit would cost them, too.
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