I have, but that hasn't stopped people from not doing a proper search to find out if the company that they have named is indeed already registered business. I recently had to send this letter out.
"Please cease and desist your representation of the company name of Frozen Moments Photography as I own the trademark and rights associated with the name. The Trademark has been registered since 2001. An attorney will be contacted in 72 hours from this notice if the representation is not changed."
This person has been in "Business" since 2006 and is 12 hours from me. Recently I have started getting bookings in Sacramento, Myrtle Beach, L.A. etc. And some of them are with high profile people. Now without going into a huge legal battle I haven't gone into getting my web name. case in point micheal jordan had to pay millions in the www.michealjordan.com battle.. Nissan still doesnt own nissan.com. so thats a different battle.
Now, lucky for me my brother in law is a copyright attny, but has anyone else here ran into similiar situations, and what do you do?
When it comes to "Domain" names.... if you didnt buy it you dont own it plain and simple.... thats why Micheal had to pay out and thats why Nissan wont pay out.
I registered 3 business names with the bank and company records in 1974, I also own all three website domain names. When checking the new Yellow pages for photographers, I noticed a new studio using one of my registered names. I phoned the studio up and spoke to the owner explaining that I have on my office wall the certificate of ownership. Now although he removed the name from his publicity, Yellow Pages runs for 12 months until the new years edition, so he is still trading on the back of my business, and I cannot do anything about that even if lawyers were involved as Yellow Pages could not collect 300,000 copies from households in my area, although they have taken it off the on line version. I am in the UK so I do not know if the same rules count.
no, im not talking about website (i'd loose my azz in legal fees), its real business names. he named his business a name that I have trademarked. and it was expensive as ALL GET OUT TOO! lol.
