Trademark Infringement - What To Do?

If you buy domains on a daily or weekly basis you are bound to get accused of trademark infringement sooner or later. First and foremost you should do an effort to stay away from trademarked domains like domains with a company name in it.

With all the many patents and trademarks out there it is really difficult to stay completely out of trouble. A couple of weeks ago I was accused of violating the trademarks of a company called “Transitions Optical, Inc. with the domain transitionglasses.com. When I bought the domain (it was an expired domain which I bought the second it dropped) I was sure I was buying a domain based on a generic term. I thought “transition glasses” meant glasses that had two different glass-power like reading and normal sight glasses in one.

In the mail they told me who they were and about their product and that I was violating their trademark. Their demands was:

1.    Immediately discontinue any and all use of the Domain Name in connection with the optical industry; and
2.     Immediately and permanently refrain from any use of the term TRANSITIONS or any variation thereof that is likely to cause confusion or dilution.

My site was only a parked site at Whypark!

I thought a lot about it, but came to the decision that I should obey. Even though they only had trademarks on “transitions” and not “transition glasses” it appeared like they were more or less the only company in that sector which would strengthen their case against me. People searching for “transition glasses” was after all probably looking for them.

My point here is simply, unless you are completely sure you would win in court just give up the domain when you receive a complaint. It is David vs. Goliath. They got all the money and lawyers you got nothing.

My reply to them:

Dear Trademark Administrator

Best Regards

I never heard back.