Where do i stand?

DingleBerry

DingleBerry

DingleBerry

Associate
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
1,731
Location
Cloud Cuckoo Land
I do a bit of freelance webdesign under a name, say for instance bubblepond.com and I own bubblepond.com and bubblepond.co.uk. I have just had some emails from bubble pond ltd (who didn't initaly identify themselves) asking if I wanted to sell my domain. I mentioned I used it for buisness contacts (fishing for a higher price :P), to which they identified themselves as Bubble Pond Ltd and asked if I present myself as "Bubble Pond" obviously hackles being raised.

Now...Bubble Pond Ltd is different to bubblepond.com BUT they are registered and did it first but are (I presume) in a different line of buisness. They clearly want bubblepond.com (and probably .co.uk) and to be honest I could live without them for adequate recompense.

The question is am I in a leagal bind as far as Bubble Pond being similar bubblepond.com. If so I cease using that as a "trading" name. i take it I can leagaly retain my .com and .co.uk and use them for a personal website should that take my fancy.

Bear in mind i turn over less than £1000 a year (told you it was small scale!) and I had no idea this company existed (and perhaps didn't when i registered it) nor do they have the trademark (by the sounds of it).

its not bubble pond by the way
 
Last edited:
ooo interesting. An update!

The tight wad has offered me £100 pounds for the pair!!! A shocking lack of grasp for their worth and how stuborn I can be.

He has told me to stop representing myself as bubble pond....which I'm not. I am bubblepond.com there is never a space and the .com is never missing. Plus he is a ltd and I am a sole trader in different buisnesses and areas of the country. He does not own the trademark either.

To be fair there isnt a website on that address, only a holding page...but that is largely irelevant.

£100 is taking the urnine though!
 
I would have problems with cadburies for instance because of the trademark issue which these people don't own.

The domain is this. They are the Ltd version of the name without the .com.

They are not in the buisness of web design (admittedly I barely am). They only show up as registed at companies house, and as an agent for someone on imdb...thats it. And he emailed from a framestore cfc address (his employer i assume) so they are undoubtedly small.
 
Splendid. I'm going to ignore them then. This will either get them over excited or make the offer me more cash. I liked the way he justified the £100 by saying that I'm not really using it. Completely missing the point that its value is determined by how much he wants it rather than how much I use it.

Its not actually bubble pond by the way. I just used that just in case it was supposed to be a secret (considering the emails came from a film studio...might have been the next film or something) and so google might not find it. Its actually Thousand Monkeys Ltd for them and thousandmonkeys.com for me.
 
Last edited:
yes but it means its a different name! plus the lack of space. As slime pointed out there are buisnesses which have the same name +/- Ltd I don't see .com as being any different.
 
Jet said:
 a new business is using the same or a similar name (or copies product, packaging, etc);
 so as to cause confusion between the businesses (area, type of business, etc);
 with potential damage to the established trader.
Click to expand...

That makes me the winner then does it not. PLUS they are hardly established...in fact I might almost win that one.

Borris said:
I still see no reference to Bubblepond, however. As I said, it's your trading name, so register it as a Ltd company too.
Click to expand...

You've missed the part where I said that was an example :)

Freefaller said:
Why don't they just buy the .ltd.uk domain then if they are a ltd company?
Click to expand...

because its not as good :p
 
tenchi-fan said:
Trust me on this one. It's a poor argument. By all means, emphasise that you run a business called "thousandmonkies.com" but as soon as you start bickering that you're ".com" and he's "limited" you have already lost your case.

Simply say you have a different client base, different industry, and have been legally using the domain name since before the internet was invented.

By darting back and forth poorly thought out correspondence with lame arguments, you'll come across as an amature, and he'll put together a correspondence file, bring it to his solicitors, and say "get this domain name for me."
Click to expand...

But if you are right my dad would have been (and still would be) in grave trouble for using his company name, which is infact identical to many others they just happen to be in different buisnesses. And he isn't. He checked.

Surely the best they can do is tell me to stop using it as a company name. They have no claim to the domain.
 
I am webdesign. They are (as far as i can tell from this result here agents. For one person...ever. They were registered in 02 but don't appear to have ever done anything and havn't filed acounts since 04 (according to the link further up the page).

I have done 4 or 5 websites under that name since 03ish. But several before that. Its all very small scale but thats not the point.

sara said:
Your website also has "Thousand Monkeys" as the title (what appears in the title bar of the browser), and that is also what Google sees. So you'll have to change that to continue with the difference of name argument :p
Click to expand...

true true...i shall change it....FIXED

I told him I was only willing to sell it if he gave me an offer I can't refuse...he didnt so I'm not interested.
 
Last edited:
I said (before I had any idea who he was) to justifty the disruption I would only be willing to part with it for an offer I can't refuse. Which is the truth, it was to say that I wasn't activly interested in selling it but I would consider it for the right price (something I did say when I knew who they were). At this point I couldn't be scalping because I didn't know they existed at this point. AND I've been using it, so i clearly didnt register it to steal their name.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom