Photo: RJ Shaughnessy (public domain)
You may have heard by now that Lil’ Wayne is facing a lawsuit against the original owner of the youngmoney.com domain. TMZ reported that, in 2011, the rapper purchased the domain from it’s owner for a whopping $600,000. According to TMZ, the agreement provided that Lil’ Wayne must make regular payments towards the purchase price, or he would forfeit his ownership to the website – he allegedly still owes approximately $250,000, has stopped payments, and began ignoring the other guys.
Now, now Wayne.
As much as I would love to make this post all about Lil’ Wayne and his Young Money matters…
iCant.
I prefer to spend my time giving you the scoop on domains and trademarks. This is a common question that I receive from creative biz owners…
Someone owns the domain that I want. What do I do?
First, let me be super clear on something. If your trademark is not registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) then you are wasting your time. Stop reading this post, and take care of your own legal ish first.
Assuming you listened and now own the federal trademark, then you have grounds for recourse through ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) where you will file your complaint.
However, you must prove the following:
- your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which you have rights; and
- the other person has no rights or legitimate interests in respect to the domain name; and
- the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.
The other person will have an opportunity to respond, an administrative proceeding will be held – and decision made, usually within 30 to 45 days. If your claim is successful, then the other person’s domain will be cancelled completely, or transferred to your name.
The process does not allow the complaining party (you) to recover fees from the process. You would have to go one step further, and file a federal lawsuit, based upon the Anti-Cyberquatting Consumer Protection Act – but this, dear friends is beyond the scope of this post.
Now, let’s talk money…
It’s a whopping $1,500 to pursue the UDPR process, and no…that doesn’t include attorney’s fees. It’s for the one person panel that will review and decide your case. Yep.
Want a three person panel? $4,000.
So by now, you are probably pissed. Steaming mad that it costs so much to get back the rights to your cyber property – some ish that is rightfully yours (if you met the criteria above)…yep, it makes me mad too. Unfortunately, it’s the cost of doing business.
You may also want to consider working with the website owner directly to reach a “settlement” before moving on to formal proceedings. Depending on how strong your position is, they may be willing to work with you you never know– It’s a crap shoot, actually.
Cheers to owning a micky-friggin business, peeps.