dzaslavets
New Member
Hello
I need somebody's advice on domains infringing trademark issue:
My wife and I are wedding photographers and own wedding photography studio. In 2004 we wanted to expand and open a wedding portal. We decided to call it Wedzilla and we registered domain name wedzilla.com and DBA in Los Angeles County "Wedzilla" so we could operate under this business name. During same time we created business plan, designed a website and technical requirements for web portal development. We requested several estimates on the project, started working on it, but did not launch.
In the middle of 2009 we decided start working on it again and launch it in late 2010 or so. In the January 2010 I bought a book about SEO, and there was an advice to put relevant content on a website even before it is launched. I put placeholder in place describing future website, and in few days got a message on my answering machine, from a guy who is doing SEO for another company, and he demanded to turn our website off or and threatened that his attorney will sue us for trademark infringement.
Apparently there is another website WEDDZILLA.com (extra letter D)
which was registered in 2008, it did not launch yet, , but they plan
to do it soon. Looks like they have a lot of money behind it. And
apparently the guy who called me, is the guy who's SEO advice I
followed - Aaron Wall , who is the big shot in SEO industry. they also
registered a trademark in 2008 , which is WEDDZILLA, not the same as our
WEDZILLA. We do not have a trademark, just DBA and domain.
We put a lot of energy, time and resources into our project and I would hate to give up our dream, just because big company wants us out of the business. I believe we should have enough rights for our domain - we have history from 2004 - business name, domain, plans, designs etc. Those guys could choose other name when they started 2 years ago, they never contacted us and asked about our plans.
Please, advice what we can do and whether those guys have a chance of pushing our business down. I do not like small businesses to be pushed around.
Thanks
Denis
I need somebody's advice on domains infringing trademark issue:
My wife and I are wedding photographers and own wedding photography studio. In 2004 we wanted to expand and open a wedding portal. We decided to call it Wedzilla and we registered domain name wedzilla.com and DBA in Los Angeles County "Wedzilla" so we could operate under this business name. During same time we created business plan, designed a website and technical requirements for web portal development. We requested several estimates on the project, started working on it, but did not launch.
In the middle of 2009 we decided start working on it again and launch it in late 2010 or so. In the January 2010 I bought a book about SEO, and there was an advice to put relevant content on a website even before it is launched. I put placeholder in place describing future website, and in few days got a message on my answering machine, from a guy who is doing SEO for another company, and he demanded to turn our website off or and threatened that his attorney will sue us for trademark infringement.
Apparently there is another website WEDDZILLA.com (extra letter D)
which was registered in 2008, it did not launch yet, , but they plan
to do it soon. Looks like they have a lot of money behind it. And
apparently the guy who called me, is the guy who's SEO advice I
followed - Aaron Wall , who is the big shot in SEO industry. they also
registered a trademark in 2008 , which is WEDDZILLA, not the same as our
WEDZILLA. We do not have a trademark, just DBA and domain.
We put a lot of energy, time and resources into our project and I would hate to give up our dream, just because big company wants us out of the business. I believe we should have enough rights for our domain - we have history from 2004 - business name, domain, plans, designs etc. Those guys could choose other name when they started 2 years ago, they never contacted us and asked about our plans.
Please, advice what we can do and whether those guys have a chance of pushing our business down. I do not like small businesses to be pushed around.
Thanks
Denis
