I use the term typosquatting, because I cannot find another term for the legal mess I'm dealing with.
After I left a company, I was looking for a job and wanted to work on my IT skills a little bit more. So I registered a domain that was one letter off of the former company I worked for. I only used it for person testing and job skills. The only time there was a website (for about 5 days) it only had the name of the domain listed on it. The domain was never used for business, never interfered with my former employers business, never made profit from the domain, did not hold it for ransom, did not offer it for sale, did not redirect to any other site and did not post any slander. The only thing I did do was email a former co-worker. It was not a threatening email, I was only asking questions about a particular situation when I worked at the company.
I immediately got contacted by a lawyer from my former employer stating that they were filing a restraining order and injunction against me. They told me to stop using the domain and they accused me of interfering with their company business. And that I must have registered the domain in order to interfere with the company business.
I have since turned over the domain to my former employer. I only needed it while I was looking for a job, so I have no need for it now. Can they really claim civil damages for interfering with their business when I have not done anything? I owned the domain for 4 or 5 months and did not do anything malicious with it.
I have research all the WIPO and ICANN rules relating to this and I cannot see where my former employer would have a leg to stand on. The only WIPO rule they have to prove is that I registered or used the domain in bad faith. Bad faith has to do with competitive business. Since I was a former employee, would that be considered bad faith? ICANN does not have any rule, but just things that relate to copyright infringement. The domain was one letter off, so it was not an exact name of the company. If you were to look up the domain name, it only showed myself as the contact and that I was not a business.
Any thoughts?
After I left a company, I was looking for a job and wanted to work on my IT skills a little bit more. So I registered a domain that was one letter off of the former company I worked for. I only used it for person testing and job skills. The only time there was a website (for about 5 days) it only had the name of the domain listed on it. The domain was never used for business, never interfered with my former employers business, never made profit from the domain, did not hold it for ransom, did not offer it for sale, did not redirect to any other site and did not post any slander. The only thing I did do was email a former co-worker. It was not a threatening email, I was only asking questions about a particular situation when I worked at the company.
I immediately got contacted by a lawyer from my former employer stating that they were filing a restraining order and injunction against me. They told me to stop using the domain and they accused me of interfering with their company business. And that I must have registered the domain in order to interfere with the company business.
I have since turned over the domain to my former employer. I only needed it while I was looking for a job, so I have no need for it now. Can they really claim civil damages for interfering with their business when I have not done anything? I owned the domain for 4 or 5 months and did not do anything malicious with it.
I have research all the WIPO and ICANN rules relating to this and I cannot see where my former employer would have a leg to stand on. The only WIPO rule they have to prove is that I registered or used the domain in bad faith. Bad faith has to do with competitive business. Since I was a former employee, would that be considered bad faith? ICANN does not have any rule, but just things that relate to copyright infringement. The domain was one letter off, so it was not an exact name of the company. If you were to look up the domain name, it only showed myself as the contact and that I was not a business.
Any thoughts?