Re: Whose domain is that anyway?

From: Mark Bishop <markb_at_aala.com>
Date: Tue 19 Nov 2002 10:08:38 -0600

Fight the bastards. Excuse my French. Put the burden on them to prove it
otherwise. If they want to continue the fight, let them dish out the
thousands they will need to prove it otherwise. If it gets legal (don't
let a letter scare you), then find a good disputed domain name arbitrary
service and go that route. You might want to take the first steps
here. The cost is relatively affordable, from $3K-$5K. And their decision
if final. Unless this goes to a trademark court.

Of course, trademark names seemingly always win hands-down too. However,
your variation of a domain name that happens to include CREO doesn't seem
to be confusing to me. That's my opinion. I would suggest checking the
major search engines for both their domain name listing (just to see if its
heavily listed or not) and to do a search based on specific keywords
related to their site, to see again, for any high rankings. If they are
hardly listed based on domain name and keyword criteria searching, then
their claim is even weaker. If you want to write me off-line, I can do
such a search for you and provide to you an extensive report for a nominal fee.

Also, I did a quick search of domain names using the word CREO and came up
with over 143 web sites using this word, or a variation of this
word. Moreover, a number of these domains represented corporation names
using the word CREO as well. You might want to throw that back to them as
if they're going to challenge you, then they better go after those other
sites, and corporate names, actually using the singular word "CREO" itself.

Lastly, I would immediately contact your web host, and uplinks too, because
if this lawyer is proficient, he will start off next by shooting a "Cease
and Desist" letter and "Infringement of Copyright' notice to them, and that
might jeopardize the functioning of your site if your web host and their
uplinks feel threatened that this is indeed infringement of
copyright. Maybe a heads-up to them will keep them comfortable with you
and support you until a real legal decision is made. And their comment for
you to transfer the domain over to them is a joke.

Just my $.02 cents worth.

Sincerely,


Mark Bishop




Received on Tue Nov 19 2002 - 10:08:38 CST