Comments on: I Lost a Site Due to DMCA Violation – Trademark Infringement! http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm Learn How to Build and Market Niche Websites Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:32:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: steven sherin http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-19149 steven sherin Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:13:01 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-19149 I just went through a similar circumstance. Recently I bought an aged domain harley-davidson-motorcycle.org thinking it would make a great Harley accessory site. I actually looked it up on TESS and it is not branded but would be easy enough for them to shut it down.I was using WP Robot but Amazon would not let me pull up any data up for some reason. I contacted them and was informed of the trade mark issue. They actually took some time to go over it with me. They were even kind enough to tell me, sure you can put our stuff on your site, we just wont pay you for it. Ha ha. From what I hear about EPN, I'm sure they would be a lot less friendly. Since I just got accepted, I'm really not ready to get bounced. So now I have a useless domain. The scary thing is right now there is a very popular program out there that teaches newbies to build E- Commerce sites and they are advising them to buy domains based on product names. Well I have tried that and it does get targeted traffic but what's the point putting all that work into building a site that can be shut down at any time? To me that's not how to build a real online income. So I'm swearing off anything even close to a brand from now on. By the way,love this site Steve<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('19149','steven sherin'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('19149','steven sherin','I just went through a similar circumstance. Recently I bought an aged domain harley-davidson-motorcycle.org thinking it would make a great Harley accessory site. \r\n\r\nI actually looked it up on TESS and it is not branded but would be easy enough for them to shut it down.I was using WP Robot but Amazon would not let me pull up any data up for some reason.\r\n\r\nI contacted them and was informed of the trade mark issue. They actually took some time to go over it with me. They were even kind enough to tell me, sure you can put our stuff on your site, we just wont pay you for it. Ha ha. \r\n\r\nFrom what I hear about EPN, I\'m sure they would be a lot less friendly. Since I just got accepted, I\'m really not ready to get bounced. So now I have a useless domain. \r\n\r\nThe scary thing is right now there is a very popular program out there that teaches newbies to build E- Commerce sites and they are advising them to buy domains based on product names.\r\n\r\nWell I have tried that and it does get targeted traffic but what\'s the point putting all that work into building a site that can be shut down at any time? To me that\'s not how to build a real online income. So I\'m swearing off anything even close to a brand from now on.\r\n\r\nBy the way,love this site\r\n\r\nSteve'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I just went through a similar circumstance. Recently I bought an aged domain harley-davidson-motorcycle.org thinking it would make a great Harley accessory site.

I actually looked it up on TESS and it is not branded but would be easy enough for them to shut it down.I was using WP Robot but Amazon would not let me pull up any data up for some reason.

I contacted them and was informed of the trade mark issue. They actually took some time to go over it with me. They were even kind enough to tell me, sure you can put our stuff on your site, we just wont pay you for it. Ha ha.

From what I hear about EPN, I’m sure they would be a lot less friendly. Since I just got accepted, I’m really not ready to get bounced. So now I have a useless domain.

The scary thing is right now there is a very popular program out there that teaches newbies to build E- Commerce sites and they are advising them to buy domains based on product names.

Well I have tried that and it does get targeted traffic but what’s the point putting all that work into building a site that can be shut down at any time? To me that’s not how to build a real online income. So I’m swearing off anything even close to a brand from now on.

By the way,love this site

Steve

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]]> By: KeyWestDan http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17938 KeyWestDan Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:11:45 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17938 A couple of comments. DMCA does NOT cover trademarks. It has been abused in use of trademark complaints and things like libel/defamation. Sites hosting third party comments are protected from libel actions by the CDA. There is no safe harbor for trademark violations. My one big complaint about alleged trademark violations is that trademarks are registered in particular classes of goods and services, and often times trademark holders try to enforce their marks in classes where they have no rights. For the most part all of my domain names are generic or my trademarks. In one case I wanted to do a telecom site and there weren't names available. I registered phonebell.com which is certainly a generic use of the word "bell" and not the use of the proper name "Bell". Ameritech said it was an infringement, even though they didn't really use that mark anymore. They spent $65,000 on attorney fees. There was never a hearing, it was all paperwork. Funny thing is it was held by a dissolved corporation so they could do nothing to me but I fought them until they figured out I wasn't an attorney. So they got the name, but it cost them 65k. I would have sold it to them cheap had they asked. What I thought was funny is that all their trademarks, like Wisconsin Bell, had NEVER been used in interstate commerce. Wisconsin Bell had never been advertised outside of Wisconsin for example. All of these trademarks were invalid.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17938','KeyWestDan'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17938','KeyWestDan','A couple of comments. DMCA does NOT cover trademarks. It has been abused in use of trademark complaints and things like libel\/defamation. Sites hosting third party comments are protected from libel actions by the CDA. There is no safe harbor for trademark violations. My one big complaint about alleged trademark violations is that trademarks are registered in particular classes of goods and services, and often times trademark holders try to enforce their marks in classes where they have no rights.\r\n\r\nFor the most part all of my domain names are generic or my trademarks. In one case I wanted to do a telecom site and there weren\'t names available. I registered phonebell.com which is certainly a generic use of the word \"bell\" and not the use of the proper name \"Bell\". Ameritech said it was an infringement, even though they didn\'t really use that mark anymore. They spent $65,000 on attorney fees. There was never a hearing, it was all paperwork.\r\nFunny thing is it was held by a dissolved corporation so they could do nothing to me but I fought them until they figured out I wasn\'t an attorney. So they got the name, but it cost them 65k. I would have sold it to them cheap had they asked.\r\n\r\nWhat I thought was funny is that all their trademarks, like Wisconsin Bell, had NEVER been used in interstate commerce. Wisconsin Bell had never been advertised outside of Wisconsin for example. All of these trademarks were invalid.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> A couple of comments. DMCA does NOT cover trademarks. It has been abused in use of trademark complaints and things like libel/defamation. Sites hosting third party comments are protected from libel actions by the CDA. There is no safe harbor for trademark violations. My one big complaint about alleged trademark violations is that trademarks are registered in particular classes of goods and services, and often times trademark holders try to enforce their marks in classes where they have no rights.

For the most part all of my domain names are generic or my trademarks. In one case I wanted to do a telecom site and there weren’t names available. I registered phonebell.com which is certainly a generic use of the word “bell” and not the use of the proper name “Bell”. Ameritech said it was an infringement, even though they didn’t really use that mark anymore. They spent $65,000 on attorney fees. There was never a hearing, it was all paperwork.
Funny thing is it was held by a dissolved corporation so they could do nothing to me but I fought them until they figured out I wasn’t an attorney. So they got the name, but it cost them 65k. I would have sold it to them cheap had they asked.

What I thought was funny is that all their trademarks, like Wisconsin Bell, had NEVER been used in interstate commerce. Wisconsin Bell had never been advertised outside of Wisconsin for example. All of these trademarks were invalid.

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]]> By: Dave C. http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17551 Dave C. Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:20:38 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17551 When I first started using BANS, I registered the URL usedrolexshop.com. It had started getting some decent traffic and made a couple sales. I then got a letter from their attorney about the copyright infringement. I actually got them to send me a check for the cost of the 2 year Domain Registration (like $15 or so) before I transferred ownership of the domain to them. LOL Lesson learned.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17551','Dave C.'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17551','Dave C.','When I first started using BANS, I registered the URL usedrolexshop.com. It had started getting some decent traffic and made a couple sales. I then got a letter from their attorney about the copyright infringement. I actually got them to send me a check for the cost of the 2 year Domain Registration (like $15 or so) before I transferred ownership of the domain to them. LOL\r\nLesson learned.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> When I first started using BANS, I registered the URL usedrolexshop.com. It had started getting some decent traffic and made a couple sales. I then got a letter from their attorney about the copyright infringement. I actually got them to send me a check for the cost of the 2 year Domain Registration (like $15 or so) before I transferred ownership of the domain to them. LOL
Lesson learned.
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]]> By: Mark Hansen http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17498 Mark Hansen Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:59:51 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17498 <a href='#comment-17497' rel="nofollow">@Mark James</a> - Not yet... BUT... I do continue to drop the name in different areas where it would be relevant. :-) (Band message boards, Guitar forums, etc)<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17498','Mark Hansen'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17498','Mark Hansen','<a href=\'#comment-17497\' rel=\"nofollow\">@Mark James<\/a> - Not yet... BUT... I do continue to drop the name in different areas where it would be relevant. :-) (Band message boards, Guitar forums, etc)'); return false;">Quote</a></div> @Mark James – Not yet… BUT… I do continue to drop the name in different areas where it would be relevant. :-) (Band message boards, Guitar forums, etc)
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]]> By: Mark James http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17497 Mark James Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:05:51 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17497 Did you receive a reply from Gene Simmons? Sounds a good name for a band to me!<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17497','Mark James'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17497','Mark James','Did you receive a reply from Gene Simmons? \r\n\r\nSounds a good name for a band to me!'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Did you receive a reply from Gene Simmons?

Sounds a good name for a band to me!

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]]> By: Ottidid http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17482 Ottidid Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:14:23 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17482 Yes it was the purse site... it was only make 100 to 300 a month and the came the letter... The only thing that bothered me was that it did not have the brand name in the domain just a variation(coapurse). I guess they have the money and the power to make us run for the hills if we see lawsuit claims. Thanks for the post. I hate you lost one as well as others here, but with all that we do it is bound to pee someone off....haha<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17482','Ottidid'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17482','Ottidid','Yes it was the purse site... it was only make 100 to 300 a month and the came the letter... The only thing that bothered me was that it did not have the brand name in the domain just a variation(coapurse). I guess they have the money and the power to make us run for the hills if we see lawsuit claims. Thanks for the post. I hate you lost one as well as others here, but with all that we do it is bound to pee someone off....haha'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Yes it was the purse site… it was only make 100 to 300 a month and the came the letter… The only thing that bothered me was that it did not have the brand name in the domain just a variation(coapurse). I guess they have the money and the power to make us run for the hills if we see lawsuit claims. Thanks for the post. I hate you lost one as well as others here, but with all that we do it is bound to pee someone off….haha
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]]> By: Mark Hansen http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17480 Mark Hansen Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:18:43 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17480 <a href='#comment-17478' rel="nofollow">@Ottidid</a> - I hear ya Otis - sorry to hear you lost one. Was it the "Purse" site? If so, I had actually wondered before how long it would be. I saw on another site this week where a site was launched around a VERY popular product. The site owner chose the domain: "[brandedname]deals.com" and it was apparent he put a LOT of work into the site. I just didn't have the heart to tell hm about the wasted effort. M<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17480','Mark Hansen'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17480','Mark Hansen','<a href=\'#comment-17478\' rel=\"nofollow\">@Ottidid<\/a> - I hear ya Otis - sorry to hear you lost one. Was it the \"Purse\" site? If so, I had actually wondered before how long it would be.\r\n\r\nI saw on another site this week where a site was launched around a VERY popular product. The site owner chose the domain: \"[brandedname]deals.com\" and it was apparent he put a LOT of work into the site. I just didn\'t have the heart to tell hm about the wasted effort.\r\n\r\nM'); return false;">Quote</a></div> @Ottidid – I hear ya Otis – sorry to hear you lost one. Was it the “Purse” site? If so, I had actually wondered before how long it would be.

I saw on another site this week where a site was launched around a VERY popular product. The site owner chose the domain: “[brandedname]deals.com” and it was apparent he put a LOT of work into the site. I just didn’t have the heart to tell hm about the wasted effort.

M

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]]> By: Ottidid http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17478 Ottidid Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:01:13 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17478 I also lost one that did not have the name in the domain, just a close to it name and the company then sent me the same reg letter from their attorney and said It was copyright infringment. I then took down and it was kicking the crap out of their own keywords in Google, and I did very little work with. It was a bans site.. Really surprised me...<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17478','Ottidid'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17478','Ottidid','I also lost one that did not have the name in the domain, just a close to it name and the company then sent me the same reg letter from their attorney and said It was copyright infringment. I then took down and it was kicking the crap out of their own keywords in Google, and I did very little work with. It was a bans site..\r\n\r\nReally surprised me...'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I also lost one that did not have the name in the domain, just a close to it name and the company then sent me the same reg letter from their attorney and said It was copyright infringment. I then took down and it was kicking the crap out of their own keywords in Google, and I did very little work with. It was a bans site..

Really surprised me…

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]]> By: Mark Hansen http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17473 Mark Hansen Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:47:25 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17473 <a href='#comment-17468' rel="nofollow">@Mark</a> - This wasn't from eBay, it was from a Law Firm that represented the company, based out of California. eBay had never said anything about it... and I really doubt they would have, since the word the dispute was about, is a generic word. It just happened to be in violation due to the way it was presented on the site. I HAVE for sure heard many horror stories from ePN account holders though and I feel for anyone who has had their ePN account frozen over a dispute like this.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17473','Mark Hansen'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17473','Mark Hansen','<a href=\'#comment-17468\' rel=\"nofollow\">@Mark<\/a> - This wasn\'t from eBay, it was from a Law Firm that represented the company, based out of California.\r\n\r\neBay had never said anything about it... and I really doubt they would have, since the word the dispute was about, is a generic word. It just happened to be in violation due to the way it was presented on the site.\r\n\r\nI HAVE for sure heard many horror stories from ePN account holders though and I feel for anyone who has had their ePN account frozen over a dispute like this.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> @Mark – This wasn’t from eBay, it was from a Law Firm that represented the company, based out of California.

eBay had never said anything about it… and I really doubt they would have, since the word the dispute was about, is a generic word. It just happened to be in violation due to the way it was presented on the site.

I HAVE for sure heard many horror stories from ePN account holders though and I feel for anyone who has had their ePN account frozen over a dispute like this.

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]]> By: Alice http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/i-lost-a-site-due-to-dmca-violation-trademark-infringement.htm#comment-17472 Alice Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:38:51 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1353#comment-17472 Thanks for the info Mark! I had this happen to me a while ago with a cosmetics site. The company's attorneys contacted me directly with a cease-and-desist letter, including a request to transfer the domain name to them. This turned out to be a major hassle, since it was with a registrar I no longer dealt with and it took forever for it all to happen. I was bummed because it had a 5 year registration! At the time there wasn't a lot of info out on this subject, so I'd done it innocently. But I learned my lesson, and your guidelines are a good resource for anyone who wants to play in the niche game. It's not always obvious what is considered a trademarked name, so it's good to check before you spend the time and money on a site that you just have to dump. Fortunately in my case eBay never got involved. It would be terrible to get dumped for something like this.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17472','Alice'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17472','Alice','Thanks for the info Mark! I had this happen to me a while ago with a cosmetics site. The company\'s attorneys contacted me directly with a cease-and-desist letter, including a request to transfer the domain name to them. This turned out to be a major hassle, since it was with a registrar I no longer dealt with and it took forever for it all to happen. I was bummed because it had a 5 year registration! \r\n\r\nAt the time there wasn\'t a lot of info out on this subject, so I\'d done it innocently. But I learned my lesson, and your guidelines are a good resource for anyone who wants to play in the niche game. It\'s not always obvious what is considered a trademarked name, so it\'s good to check before you spend the time and money on a site that you just have to dump. \r\n\r\nFortunately in my case eBay never got involved. It would be terrible to get dumped for something like this.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Thanks for the info Mark! I had this happen to me a while ago with a cosmetics site. The company’s attorneys contacted me directly with a cease-and-desist letter, including a request to transfer the domain name to them. This turned out to be a major hassle, since it was with a registrar I no longer dealt with and it took forever for it all to happen. I was bummed because it had a 5 year registration!

At the time there wasn’t a lot of info out on this subject, so I’d done it innocently. But I learned my lesson, and your guidelines are a good resource for anyone who wants to play in the niche game. It’s not always obvious what is considered a trademarked name, so it’s good to check before you spend the time and money on a site that you just have to dump.

Fortunately in my case eBay never got involved. It would be terrible to get dumped for something like this.

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