[thelist] Domain Name Problem - OT

David Lloyd Parker david at image2image.co.uk
Wed Jun 12 03:33:01 CDT 2002


Sorry list - this is OT, but would very much appreciate any feedback on the
following from any learned colleagues in the UK that may have come across the
following problem -

I've been in business as 'Image 2 Image' in the UK for about 5 years,
and have the .co.uk and .net names registered. The .com address was not
available when I started, and in any case was registered to a US company selling
Christmas products, so no problem. I've kept my eye on the domain but never seen
it for sale. I've just had an email:

"Dear David, (I assume)
   have just been browsing the net, and came across your site.my interest is
that i've just started up my own web design company, which happens to be
image2image.com.I havn't come across any people going to each others sites by
mistake yet, but if they do start to do so,perhaps we can arrange some kind
of mutually agreeable arrangement.Don't ask me what, but i'm sure that as our
fields cross and we do diverge in some regards.We may be of use to each other
in the future.
I'm not in any way 'testing the competion' or anything other than friendly
contact with a company that may share some traffic!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours"

and I responded with :

"I have to say I was pretty annoyed about this! I've been Image 2 Image for
around 5 years now, and image2image.com was a US based christmas shop when I started. I
periodically checked the domain but never found it for sale. My old site clearly
showed that I did web stuff, and my new one even more so. Surely you checked for
other Image 2 Image sites before you set up?"

and they responded with:

"  Thanks for replying so soon,I understand your feelings about this.When we
registered this domain, it was initially for the propmaking /scenepainting
business that my wife and I set up. We eventually changed the name of that
company though and image2image was left sitting idle.When we decided to
branch out into the web area, it was only sensible that we used this domain
name that was going to waste!
  As I said I understand your feelings on this, and if there is some kind of
soloution for any mistaken traffic, then I would be willing to
participate.The danger of course is losing business to each other which we
obviously both wish to avoid.
If you have any ideas then please don't hesitate to contact me.
yours"

My company is 'sole proprietor' only.

If anyone has any practical legal advice on this I would very much appreciate an
email off-list. Thanks in anticipation.





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