Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois
I have a website with a domain name that this company is saying that I am infringing on their trademark. They have requested that I give up the domain to their company or they will sue. I had explained to the company that I have a lot of money invested to Search Engine Optimization for this domain and I am willing to change all corporate docs, signage and advertising but let me keep the domain name and I will just have a re direct for the domain name and the customer will end up on the new site, they quoted some internet eminant domain and said I need to give this name up.
2 Answers from Attorneys
I'm sorry to bear bad tidings. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you invest in a name without first having a trademark search, as well as a corporate name search, done. If you infringe someone else's trademark, no matter how much you have invested in a name, you're likely going to have to relinquish the infringing name.
Next time, please have your IP lawyer do a trademark search for you BEFORE you invest heavily in the name. I would be happy to run one for you: feel free to contact me offline at 518-371-4599 at your convenience.
THIS POST CONTAINS GENERAL INFORMATION AND IS INTENDED FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, NOR DOES IT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. FOR LEGAL ADVICE ON YOUR PARTICULAR MATTER, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.
Several months ago, I had a client with a similar problem to yours. The other party had a federally registered trademark and now the parties are involved in expensive litigation in federal court. I recommend that you retain an experienced intellectual property attorney to deal with this matter further, assuming that you do not intend to comply with their demands as they request.
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