What do you guys make of this (legal stuff)?

eman · 2004-08-03, 09:01 PM

About 4 years ago I subscribed to a UK-based internet marketing forum which suggested that there was a profit to be made from registering creative domain names. I put on my thinking cap and registered a whole load of names, including newballsplease.com (for tennis pundits) and arolex.com (for watch retailers).

I had an offer on newballsplease.com, which failed to materialise, and received a very threatening letter from Rolex's UK lawyers regarding my inappropriate registration of arolex.com.

Rolex were not happy bunnies. They didn't want me to be associated with their business, which they jealously defend against all-comers. Apparently, Rolex watches are only available through registered retailers - never on the internet. I suggested that I transfer the domain to them, but they declined.

They forced me to pay the registrar to cancel my registration, and further required me to submit a letter witnessed by a Commissioner For Oaths (at my expense) to the effect that I renounced all rights to the domain name. In all it cost me about £80 to rid myself of the burden.

Within three days of my dissolving all links to Rolex somebody else registered arolex.com and so the whole merry-go-round started again. What a waste of time. The only winners in this are the legal people - they're laughing all the way to the bank.

<edit>
Just did a search on newballsplease.com and arolex.com and both return dns errors.
All is quiet in this corner of the speculative domain kingdom .....

2004-08-03, 09:01 PM	#19
eman Solipsists of the world unite Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: xxx axis Posts: 639	About 4 years ago I subscribed to a UK-based internet marketing forum which suggested that there was a profit to be made from registering creative domain names. I put on my thinking cap and registered a whole load of names, including newballsplease.com (for tennis pundits) and arolex.com (for watch retailers). I had an offer on newballsplease.com, which failed to materialise, and received a very threatening letter from Rolex's UK lawyers regarding my inappropriate registration of arolex.com. Rolex were not happy bunnies. They didn't want me to be associated with their business, which they jealously defend against all-comers. Apparently, Rolex watches are only available through registered retailers - never on the internet. I suggested that I transfer the domain to them, but they declined. They forced me to pay the registrar to cancel my registration, and further required me to submit a letter witnessed by a Commissioner For Oaths (at my expense) to the effect that I renounced all rights to the domain name. In all it cost me about £80 to rid myself of the burden. Within three days of my dissolving all links to Rolex somebody else registered arolex.com and so the whole merry-go-round started again. What a waste of time. The only winners in this are the legal people - they're laughing all the way to the bank. <edit> Just did a search on newballsplease.com and arolex.com and both return dns errors. All is quiet in this corner of the speculative domain kingdom ..... Last edited by eman; 2004-08-03 at 09:19 PM..