QUESTION
Clarification of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)
Asked on Sep 22nd, 2014 on Patents - California
More details to this question:
I'm trying to purchase a domain name, to host my company's website. The domain name is "KDProductions.com". I checked if it was in use, and it was, but it was being held by a company that buys domain names only to sell them (with no intent of using the domain as a functional site). Is that even legal to begin with? Neverthless, I contacted the company and their offer was well out of my price range (they were asking $10,000). For the record I did make a counter offer of $300 that would more than cover the price they paid for that domain and the labor that went into contacted me. And at this time, I am in the process of (but not finished) getting my LLC name registered. My question is, if I have a registered LLC for "KDProductions", do I have grounds to sue the company for the domain name that they bought with no intention of using? (I'm putting this in the "Patent" category as I assume that would also cover trademark issues, and I didn't see a "cyber law" section). THANKS!
1 ANSWER
I am sorry to report that neither Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d) or the ICANN Domain Name Dispute procedure (UDRP) will be of any use to you since you have no rights that pre-date the domain name registration and the domain name holder clearly could not have had knowledge of you at the time he registered the domain name. Also, company names are not trademarks unless used as such so the mere registration of an LLC with your state corporation agency would not give you any rights in the name as a trademark. In fact, there are 100 federal trademark registrations or pending applicaitions of which the letters "KD" form all or part of the trademark including at least one for "Entertainment services" (I have assumed that "productions" involves services of this type) so that I suggest that you find another name, especially if you want the name of your company to be the domain name of your website.
Answered on Sep 23rd, 2014 at 12:34 PM