A little while ago I bought a domain name which features the name of a famous web application that allows you to tell people what you are doing in 140 characters or less. My intention was to blog about applications, developments and other activities based around the service.
As with some of my other well meaning ideas, the project has never seen the light of day.
As a result of this lack of activity and a domain name portfolio that is getting a little out of control, I decided to offload a few domain names I now think I won’t be using. I have never sold a domain name before, so I thought I would play safe and go with one of the biggest players in the domaining market, Sedo.
As a tester, I placed four domains in its database to get a feel for how the system works. I wasn’t expecting the domains to be snapped up withan a day or two and I don’t want to make a ton of money from the domains; I just want to clear some of my clutter.
After the domains had been registered and on sale with Sedo for a couple of days I received the following email:
We are writing to inform you that Sedo has received a complaint of potential trademark infringement regarding the use of the following domain names in conjunction with Sedo services:
t************.***Due to the famous nature of the trademark contained in the domain at issue, Sedo is forced to remove your domain from the domain marketplace and parking program at this time. This action in no way affects your registration or control of the domain, your Sedo user account or the other domains you have listed for sale or parked with Sedo. However, due to the potential of infringement of a famous mark Sedo must do the following:
- Suspend the domain name from our domain marketplace
- Suspend the domain name from our parking programSedo takes great pains to strike a balance between the legitimate rights of domain owners and third party intellectual property owners and require verification of legal complaints before taking any action against a domain listed for sale or parked with Sedo.
If you have any questions regarding this message, or if you believe this action was taken in error, please contact the Sedo legal department at legal@sedo.com.
My very first reaction to this email was utter shock and a feeling of impending doom. But I decided to do a bit more research to see if anyone else had received a similar email. It turns out they have.
In this forum post Mr Flynn has posted a copy of the email he receieved which says basically the same thing. It cites the two domains which have infringed the trademark in question as being featurewindows.co.uk and windowspecialists.co.uk
The part of these domains which is causing the issue is the word windows.
After I read this I felt somewhat at ease and realised that it probably wasn’t the owners of the potentially infringed trademark who had raised the complaint, but it was probably an over zealous in house script at Sedo which was picking up domains which could cause trouble.
I was now once again breathing normally and had had time to gather my thoughts. I decided to query the complaint and wrote to Sedo asking to see a copy of the complaint that had been made against me. I have yet to receive a reply.
There is a lesson to be learned here: I was stupid to have included a recognised trademark in a domain name and should have opted for a variation of it. Some big players don’t seen to care too much about trademark infringement, while others take it very seriously. My tip? Steer clear, company policies can change and building up a site on the back of a trademark may be a good tactic today, but what will to happen to you and your site if the company in question changes its policy a year or two down the line?
