barney

Someone with a brand new Yahoo account trying to remain anonymous wrote:


>I am wondering if anyone can help me, or point me in the right
>direction.


It depends on if you give us enough information to be able to figure out what
you're talking about.


>I am currently in dispute with somebody,


Already I'm not sure what you mean.


By "currently in dispute" do you mean a) you've brought court charges, b)
initiated a request for arbitration through ICANN's Universal Dispute
Resolution Process, c) gotten into an argument with this other company so that
they know you are upset with them, or d) are so far silently stewing away and
they don't have a clue that you feel this way?


If it's a, b, or c you may as well not post anonymously and tell us what the
domain name in question is so we can help you, as trying to hide that
information doesn't do you any good. If it's d, well, OK, but you'd still
probably be better off telling us what the names are.


>who has stolen what I believe is my domain name by right.


By "stolen" do you mean they a) snuck into your account for the name and
changed the registration information, b) bribed someone at the registrar to
change the ownership information, c) pointed a gun at your head and forced you
under duress to send in a request to change ownership, or d) paid for a domain
name that was available to the public at large to register at any time?


If it's a, b or c, call the police as well as the registrar and a good lawyer.
If it's d, I don't really call that stealing. It's possible that they may be
infringing upon a trademark of yours, but without specifics I can't jump to
that conclusion.


>I live in the United Kingdom, and there is a company with a very
>similar name to us, but they purchased our domain name,


Meaning, what, exactly? If they own it, how is it "yours"?


>but we have
>our company registered as a company with the companies registrar.


Companies registrar? I've never heard of that. Is that like a trademark? Or do
business where you live not have official legal business names until you
register one somehow?


>Do we have a right to our domain name


If it is yours you not only have a right to it, but you already have it... if
you don't have it, it is not "yours."


>because we are the exact domain name,


Do you mean the name is "Word for word verbatim of your company name".com? Or
"Not exactly word for word but pretty close".com?


Or .net? .org?


Or is it a co.uk name? That would put you under different regulations.


>or does he have a right, because he owns a similar name?


He owns the name or a similar name? Here do you mean the name of the company or
the domain name?


>Can I claim, that if my domain name,


If it were your domain name then you wouldn't even be having this conversation
because you'd own it already...


>was so important, then why did he not purchase that
>exact company name, (they were around first),


So, wait, from what you said before, you are saying there's something called a
companies registrar to which you have to pay in order for your company to have
a company name? Or do you mean "domain name" when you say "company name" and,
if so, if they *didn't* purchase that exact company domain name, then what's
your question?


> and therefore, He is doing it deliberately to net my response.


Not following.


>Because of the sensitivities of the case, i have set up a yahoo mail,
>so no one can identify me,


The paranoia of people posting on this newsgroup never ceases to amaze me.


>But i would greatly appreciate any help, I
>hope someone can decipher my case,


Not having much luck deciphering it.


>because i am afraid to go into detail.


Without that detail we probably can't help you at all.


>I have approached Nominet in the uk,


So presumably this is a .co.uk then? They don't do anything else, do they?


>and we are now at the stage of a meidator,


If you are at mediator stage then the other company knows you are in dispute so
there's no reason at all to try to hide anything from us. What are we going to
tell them, that you think you deserve the name? They probably figured out this
out already when they learned they were going to mediation over it.


>Can anyone advise me what to do now.


If you are already in mediation, the answer is probably to see what the
mediator comes up with as an answer... right? I mean, you're already in
mediation, what else is there to do?


>I will greatly appreciate this help.


>Thank you,


[but no name follows the comma because the poster is anonymous]


OK, I would love to help you out. Lord knows I'm the kind of compassionate
sucker who wastes time I could be using to earn a living or something, just so
I can post an opinion formed from way too much reading about domain names and
trademarks and such to try to help out some person I don't know. But there's a
problem here....


How can I phrase this...


Are you familiar with the Plato's cave allegory? He postulates that most men
are chained in a cave and never actually see real objects or people. They only
see shadows on the cave wall formed when real objects pass in front of a
distant light. Thus most people are doomed to never truly understand the world
as it is and are stuck forming ideas and making decisions based upon the
misleading distortions of blobs of light and darkness as they dance across a
slab of rock.


You, my friend, aren't even letting us see the shadows.


So you stand on the other side of a wall, blocking the light with a slab of
rock, and you look at the shadows falling upon your slate, and want to ask us
to answer questions about them, but refuse to describe them for fear that the
information may identify you -- yet you are already in dispute with a company
so they must have already identified you.


If you won't let me out of this stupid cave, at least stop blocking the light.