Comments on: Motorola resorts to reverse domain hijacking of motorazr.com

By: Harold Pick

Harold Pick — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:49:31 +0000

I have had the same problem with that compayn
and may have soem inside info for you.

Thanks
Harold

By: Balidha

Balidha — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 19:31:52 +0000

Hey Vincent, i think Motorola’s trying a real game on you because if they know they registered way after your domain. It dont matter whether they are using it as trade mark or a web domain, they cant use it while another company is in use of it. Or else, i would think Motoroala’s marketing department should have did a little research on it before they even made a final decision for the trade mark for sure. If anything, i would also think some would even out of curiosity google some thing like that just so to make sure there is no such other company with the same name for their product/web site/school,college, to mention but a few things you can imagine.

On that note, i think Motorola is very suable for using your web name for their product and then come behind you threatening you so you feel like you are in the wrong yet they are. You ought to sue them for all the damages and inconveniences done unto you establishment. I think they are being outright unfair there and they know what they are doing. Also, do not give up your domain for them especially after their sneaky approach on you.
Otherwise, i would rather they should have contacted you, appologized to that they didnt realize the RAZR title was already in use and they’d registered it as a trademark for one of their cool products and they wish to work with you some gradual process where you would actually start publishing info about their product on your site little by little while you phases yours into another closely related title. This way your site visitors wouldnt be inconvenieced as well as Motorola would eventually have the web to their related product and there would be a mutual understanding between the two of you.

By that suggestion, i dont mean you should do that with them for a small compensation. Motorola ofcourse would have to incurr all the costs of the procedure plus a formal purchase of your domain and all the costs and expenses invoved as you can figure out. That is the way to do things in a civilizes world, not grabbing from small people because they are big.

Hope this gives you some ideas to seek further legal advice on this Nguyen

God Bless!

By: steve

steve — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:46:59 +0000

doesnt seem like moto owns the mark razr - there's another company beating them to the mark:

Word Mark	RAZR
Goods and Services	IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Telephones and related accessories. FIRST USE: 20041100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20041100
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code	(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Design Search Code
Serial Number	78750841
Filing Date	November 9, 2005
Current Filing Basis	1A
Original Filing Basis	1A
Owner	(APPLICANT) RAZOR IP SUB LLC LTD LIAB CO DELAWARE 16200-A CARMENITA ROAD CERRITOS CALIFORNIA 90703
Assignment Recorded	ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record	Jane Shay Wald, Esq.
Prior Registrations	2974680;2980047
Type of Mark	TRADEMARK
Register	PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator	LIVE

Word Mark	RAZR
Goods and Services	IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Pagers, two-way radios, radio transmitters, radio receivers, radio transceivers, electronic organizers, and related accessories for the foregoing goods, namely, headsets, microphones, speakers, carrying cases, and belt clips; computer software and programs used for transmission or reproducing or receiving of sound, images, video or data over a telecommunications network or system between terminals and for enhancing and facilitating use and access to computer networks and telephone networks; computer software for use in general purpose database management; computer e-commerce software to allow user to safely place orders and make payments in the field of electronic business transactions via a global computer network or telecommunications network; computer software for training and product support for computers and mobile phones in the field of communications; computer game software for mobile handsets; computer software and programs featuring music, movies, animation, electronic books; computer software for the distribution of information and interactive multimedia content containing text, images, video and sound to users in the field of communications; computer software and programs for management and operation of wireless telecommunications devices; computer software for accessing, searching, indexing and retrieving information and data from global computer networks and global communication networks, and for browsing and navigating through web sites on said networks; computer software for sending and receiving short messages and electronic mail and for filtering non-text information from the data; analog and digital radio transceivers or receivers for data, voice, image and video communication; electronic game software for mobile handsets. cameras, namely photographic cameras, digital cameras, motion picture cameras, video cameras; systems and apparatus for electric money transactions, namely smart cards, smart card readers; calculators; cards for communications purposes, namely, data cards, modem cards and fax modem cards for communication purposes, all for use with communications apparatus; modems, global positioning units, batteries, battery chargers, power adapters, antennas, and sunglasses
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code	(4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Design Search Code
Serial Number	78750797
Filing Date	November 9, 2005
Current Filing Basis	1B
Original Filing Basis	1B
Owner	(APPLICANT) RAZOR IP SUB LLC LTD LIAB CO DELAWARE 16200-A CARMENITA ROAD CERRITOS CALIFORNIA 90703
Assignment Recorded	ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record	Jane Shay Wald, Esq.
Prior Registrations	2974680;2980047
Type of Mark	TRADEMARK
Register	PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator	LIVE

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:47:44 +0000

One thing people need to remember, You can’t register a domain and then say, “I’ll sell it to you for this much since you want it so bad.”

According to the U.S. federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, cybersquatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

By: Larry Rowe

Larry Rowe — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:08:06 +0000

re: comment about gates and microsoft

not sure they are as preditory. i know someone who owned the website live.com. MS wanted it for their product group and paid a substantial sum for the name. not sure how much because confidentiality was required. but, it wouldn’t suprise me if it was 10’s or 100’s of thousands.

By: David Stone

David Stone — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:20:25 +0000

You have obviously shown precendence. I would send them a cease and desist showing that you had already put equity into the term motorazr, which they obviously stole from you. Threaten to counter sue for diluting the intentions of your brand through their commercialization and mass marketing of your term.

I had a similar situation with a community oriented site which used the name of a local college mascot. We got a cease and desist from the state attorney general, baisically we told them to shove off and they had no specific right to the term (there were several retail outlets in the neighborhood that also used the name). To solidify our stand we took the time to trademark our domain and it just so happened the trademark for the mascot wasn’t taken so we got that too! In the end we just had to make a clear distinction on our site that we were not a sanctioned part of the university.

Pick up a book on Trademark law and talk big, but don’t jump to lawyers and an expensive defense. You got there first that is all the proof you need, any dilution of their trademark is their fault for being unoriginal.

By: M

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 22:33:10 +0000

Sounds like something Bill Gates would do….

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:56:21 +0000

Just a quick response to Michael’s posting: I’d be willing to donate $100 to your cause. Anyone with me?!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:54:17 +0000

Motorola can go to hell. It’s pretty &^%$ that a company like that would try and do something like that. AND it would be even worse if a free market economy like the US would premit this to go through. I live in Egypt, and it’s normal that crap like this happens, and unfortunately you cannot do anything. In a country like the US, people like you should be protected from companies like them. You have all the proof. They snooze, they loose. Best of luck to you!

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:51:42 +0000

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on television, but it does seem a bit unfair that Motorola would try and bully their way into a domain that you’ve owned long before it would seem that Motorola was even considering it. That said, I also believe that because you were using the domain before their registration that you retain the right to use the domain - I guess arbitration will decide whether that assumption is correct.

Best of luck to you on this, as I would like to see what “seems right” to prevail. Please be sure to let us all know if you need financial assistance to battle your case. Although frequently not rich, I believe that most of us would be willing to toss a few bucks towards defending the rights of the individual, and the blogging community is obviously quite large.

~geek