we have owned and operated a ecommerce website since 2007. The company who owns the trademark told us to take the site down because it is causing confusion to customers. So, in an attempt to continue doing business with this company, we took the site down but pointed the url to our other website to try and continue selling the product. Now the company is offering $1000.00 to buy the url. We sold $60,000.00 of this product last year and don not want to piss them off and have them not sell the product to us. What should we do?
Talk to a lawyer.
@reggiekaty - was the trademark filed after you registered the domain? Or did they own the trademark before you registered. Because the outcome can vary based on their trademark holding date.
Thanks for the response. I am not sure when they registered the trademark - I know that our website was created before theirs. Initially they sold only wholesale now they are selling retail on their website.
Excuse me, but the issue is not whether the company has a legal right to the URL. That’s clearly something a lawyer can advise you on. But what you really need to decide is whether your good relations with the company are more important than any benefit you might get from keeping the URL.
On the face of it, since you’ve already abandoned the URL, it looks like it would be worth your while to accept their offer in order to maintain good relations with them (I’m assuming that they are your supplier and that you are successfully selling their product). But remember, everything is negotiable. Perhaps as part of the deal, you can get them to help publicise your new URL in some way.
At least, that would be my advice off the top of my head. But that’s just based on the few details you have given. You can’t expect anyone here to give a considered opinion without knowing more of the facts.
Mike