Copyright? I am being told to shut down my site! please help!

[Nonchalant]

Right now I'm not going to say my real site, but its like this! I bought a domian name that relates to a big band! for sake of argument lets say its Beatles, but its not. Lets say the official site is Beatles.com & I bought Beatles.us ! When you go to my .us domain, I only have 1 page with 1 icon & the icon I took off of a shirt. The icon when clicked leads to my Proboards forum that is not on my site, but is linked! Here is the message I got from a lawyer but I am replacing the band name with Beatles!

"
Beatles simply cannot allow the use of its trademarked and registered name without its permission. I must call upon you to cease and desist immediately from the unauthorized use of the name "Beatles, or any name confusingly similar. Please confirm that you will comply with this instruction. Thank you for your immediate attention to this demand. All rights and remedies are hereby reserved."

Now is this right, and I cant use my domain name! I can understand not using the icon, but there are thousands of sites using them much more than myself and also are using Beatles.de, etc.

[Rev]

If you want to keep the domain name, I would suggest talking to a lawyer who is knowledgable & experienced in Internet & copyright law.

My "I'm not a lawyer" answer, though, is that there is a big difference between registering a domain such as someband.us and using that domain to run a someband fan site & what you are doing. What you are doing appears to be (though maybe it isn't your intent, but it looks like it) a shuckster method to get traffic to your other website from people who type in 'someband.us' hoping to find a site about someband. IOW, the domain name isn't being used in good faith. Rather, it's being used to trick people, especially when you have an icon to click that probably makes people think they are entering a website about someband. Seems pretty shady to me.

[i2Host]

After dealing with some similar issues with one of my clients I can tell you that you don't stand a chance. The legal system is taking these matters very serious. If the domain was your last name or if you had some other right to use the name you may have had a shot but looking at what you've described I would say no.

Sorry about that.

[OFS]

If it's that important to you. Contact other sites who might have a similar name to yours. Then tell them what's happening to you. Start a campaign.

There seems to be strenght in numbers. If it's a battle you really want to fight. Otherwise get a different domain name, start from scratch and hope for the best.

[sorted]

The only way I can see you might have a chance is IF the name you registered is also a generic word or could be interpreted as relating to something else. EG: we have "Beatles" as in the Rock and Roll band and Beatles as in the Car "the Bug" One can't take presedence over the other.

Again I'm not a lawyer, but I seem to remember a case where someone registered boots.co.uk (Boots are well know drugstore in the UK)

1) The ruling as far as the UK was concerned was IF the site boots.co.uk had related to "shoes" or otherwise related to the word boots in another obvious fashion then it was OK.

2) If the site was using the name just to get traffic to your site and the first case does not apply, then you stand to loose the domain because you are trying to spin off someone-elses branding.

[faruque]

Hi,
About three months ago I had a similar situation but instead of going all the way with a lawyer and stuff, I offered them a partnership. Now my site links to theirs, offers to sell their products, and makes money off click-thru. It something like an affiliate. This is your only hope because brand heavy companies usually end up with the upper hand of the law. If all else fails, then ask them to refund your domain registration fee.

[wowewo]

This kind of reminds me of a call I got one Saturday night. A competitor web hosting company was complaining because we had similiar keywords in our sites. he said: "Look, this is only a courtesy call, next time our lawyers will call." I think I hung up on him and haven't heard form him since.

I would definetly suggest speaking with a lawyer before taking any action. Actually I suggest speaking with two lawyers and don't give them any money until you decide what you want to do. Why two lawyers? They will have seperate opinions on the subject and as we all know lawyers don't have a great reputation. :)

It's always been my understanding that you could use a trademark as long as it wasn't identical and related to the same industry. Let's take McDonalds burgers and Mcdonalds Kilt Co. Obviously not the same and both operate.

Let's also take Sony Electronics... and Sony wave runner rental. (I belive the second Sony is spelled SOny but pronounced Sunny)

These are actual companies. Now it's also important to ask yourself... is this band going to spend thousands of dollars to make you stop using their domain name? Maybe it depends what your using it for. If you are using it to promote anti "beatles" literature and themes then expect a court battle. If this band is located outside of your state I don't know if they can force you to go to court... but these are all things to ask the lawyers.

[lori]

Maybe try to get some money from the band in question if you can't get a refund on the domain? Cuz that kinda sucks that you lose money. Cuz the whole us thing isn't fair. A good lot of the decent domains on that were taken and are currently being sold by the domain sellers even before the us domain was officially released. And as for the other domains, wow, I've been looking for a new domain and all of the one's I've tried so far are taken and for a good amount of them, they're being sold for like hundreds to thousands of dollars :( So, I would make sure you're at least not losing money in that whole thing.

[comktg]

Don't pay attention to this letter. Let him fill out a urdrp complaint against you first. As it stands now, this letter is nothing but a scam.