|
Hi,
It’s a bit of a mess this one because by the sounds of it, neither party has any contract or any terms of business or anything signed regarding this arrangement in place. The only party here to make money will be the legal firms!
If you have documented the fact that this was the arrangement in place and have something in writing to that effect it would help your cause but I suspect that’s not the case.
The fact that he hasn’t got an official trade mark on the name is only a minor factor as his legal team would no doubt argue that it’s an implied trade mark anyway as his business itself has been using the domain name as a trading name, I,e Blogs t/a keyword-domain and as such he has the legal right to continue using that trading name. (But that doesn’t necessarily mean continue using the domain name itself)
Meanwhile you are the registered owner of the domain which helps your cause after all, it was you that paid and registered the domain in your name, your client on the other hand paid you for building a website and hosting and the rental of a suitable domain name.
It’s not a clear cut case in my mind, unless you can find any existing case law anywhere with a situation similar to this. My advice would be to investigate this first, use Google and forums where disputes are discussed and see if you can find any existing case law anywhere. If you can and it’s in your favour you can use it to defend your position and they won’t stand a chance meanwhile if you find any against your position equally that could hamper your chances of success. This wouldn’t make the outcome a foregone conclusion but it would push it a long way in either direction and you would at least have a clearer idea of where you might stand if it went all the way.
Other than that, if you can’t find any case law, haven’t got anything in writing then next step would be in my mind to try and reach mediation with this party (no matter how you feel about him) I would put it in writing (on record) that your involvement with him was in the capacity of a web designer, that you built and hosted a website for him and that you rented him a suitable domain name that you owned for that purpose (he obviously wont like that but that’s how it is). I would then go on to say that it would be better for you both to enter mediation in order to resolve the dispute rather than enter into a possibly lengthy and expensive legal battle.
Should this case reach court, the fact that you have held out an olive branch in order to resolve the matter via mediation first will show willing on your behalf if nothing else!
The next step would be to ascertain or somehow agree a valuation for the domain, I suspect at some point the legal teams would want an idea of what the disputed property is worth anyway (what a similar name was sold for). You would then need to negotiate with him a realistic settlement i.e. he buys the domain off you for X or he continues to rent it off you until Y and sell it in the open market, or you reach some other arrangement – this is only what I would suspect legal’s would try and do first.
If he remains pig headed and is demanding that you hand it over for nothing and won’t enter mediation to resolve then all you can do is instruct your own legal’s and try and resolve as cheaply as possible but frankly I think it’s a stupid route to take for both of you if it can be avoided.
As I’ve commented , it’s not clear cut as I see it, obviously you will need professional legal advice on this and they will know more about these kinds of issues to advise you better once they know all of the facts involved and what paperwork has been issued / exchanged between you and this party previously etc, but from my own experience I would say it’s always better to mediate than enter the legal route.
Good luck
Rich
|
