Where do i stand?

maddad68 · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:25

adequate recompense.

How much would be right then ?

The £100 is as you say " a joke " but i often wonder after the big boom of .com's .. How much is a name worth now ?

If i was in your shoes i would stick a nice big gay

chatrooom applet on the site and see if he ups the cash abit

Borris · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:26

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

taliesyn said:
He was just using bubblepond as an example Borris. It's not the name he's talking about

I knew that.

/backs away.

[Edit]

/and registers Bubblepond Ltd.

DingleBerry · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:27

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."

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.

tenchi-fan · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:29

maddad68 said:
How much would be right then ?

The £100 is as you say " a joke " but i often wonder after the big boom of .com's .. How much is a name worth now ?

If i was in your shoes i would stick a nice big gay chatrooom applet on the site and see if he ups the cash abit

Actually (a more reasonable idea) put a slick website (containing product descriptions, contact details, etc) on the domain. The homepage could say "ThousandMonkey.com have been serving the South-East of the country since 1998."

Borris · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:31

I'm sure that there are plenty of cases where some trading names are the same as other limited company names (or other trading names).

Unless there is a conflict of interest, or you are capitalising on their name (for example, iTunes.co.uk), I doubt there is much they could do, short of tie the name up for a bit.

Jet · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:32

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

What does your business do? Edit: Web design What do they do?

Are they internet only? Or do they have stores?

How long have each of you been established?

tenchi-fan · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:34

DingleBerry said:
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.

Any one can use a business name, but as far as I know companies usually have preference over .com/.co.uk.

All I'm saying is be careful not to come across as simply trying to "scalp" the domain name (after all, that isn't your "Business"). You might not be willing to go to court, but he might be willing to drag you there and I'm sure it's a headache you could do without.

If you want to sell the domain name, be subtle. If you want to keep it, simply say straight out you have no intentions of selling it.

Of course, if your business pre-dates theirs, go nuts! Say what you like!

Dinomania · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:35

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

DingleBerry · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:36

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

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.

tenchi-fan · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:43

DingleBerry said:
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.

Please tell me you didn't phrase it like that!!!

Jet · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:45

DingleBerry said:
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).

Well if they aren't active on the internet, with few customers and nothing to do with web design you have a good case

DingleBerry · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:48

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.

Slime101 · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:49

You dont need to change anything - it matters not if they are a ltd and you are a .com

You've broken no rules. Do nothing and get on with your business. Like i said earlier, there are thousands of companies trading under the same or virtually same names and they never come to conflict because there is no problem. This bloke is pulling your plonker!

DingleBerry · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:50

I shall...I've got some new products to get working on

who said webdesign was limited to websites

Treefrog · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:50

tenchi-fan said:
The fact that they contacted you anonymously in the first place did not mean they were interested in buying the name from you. They were meerly trying to see if the domain was in use AND if you were just holding it to sell it. As it happens, you said you have a customer base.

If they threaten legal actions, simply say you are "eager to avoid any action which could adversely affect your company, however, the offer of £100 barely covers admin costs of transferring the domain, let alone lost revenue from changing the website address and the costs of informing your customers of such a change."

They'll take the hint.

This sounds like the most promising way forward (IANAL btw). Possibly giving a figure for transference, time spent in development, costs that would be incurred in informing your customer base of a new web address, charging for your time you've spent/will spend in doing so at the standard rate for the job, plus a bit on top for profit and say that if he would care to make a reasonable offer that takes account of these points, you may consider the matter.

Be careful on that score though; there was a chap called Mike Rowe who set up a website called mikerowesoft.com, Microsoft offered him a derisory amount for the name, he replied saying make me a decent offer, and Microsoft took him to court claiming he'd only set up the name in order to make a profit on it and the court ruled in their favour!

DingleBerry · 7 Mar 2006 at 14:51

trademark though...surely