MY RESPONSE to the letter...
BODOG:
I will have no problem what so ever relenquishing the domain name over to bodog if a few questions I have can be clarified to better my understanding of the situation and help alleviate any problem I have caused as soon as possible. Here are the questions I have and would like further information and clarification on.
Operating the website would be considered me taking action to develop or further the business potential of the domain name in question which I have yet to do nor do I have any intention of doing. I have purchased the name through a domain name registration company and haven't pursued the development of the said site any further and again, don't intend to. Which, in the statement issued to me, says I have done so which is infact, false. I would like to ask that the issuing legal dept of this letter please clarify what the term "operate" is considered under law. This is due to the fact that I'm not versed in anyway in this matter or situations similar to this one at all.
What good would it be to obtain internet traffic to a domain name with not website developed in relation to it? There was no intention to devert internet traffic from bodogfight.net or bodogfight.com in the purchase of this domain name. That would be like the UFC saying UFC.net's sole intention was to direct traffic from the UFC.COM's website. Upon searching for the bodogfight.mobi domain name after I purchased it, both of your websites appeared on the found items list when the .mobi domain name was entered in the search criteria. This is what prompted the letter offering the domain name in question to the bodog company. When looking for available domain names for purchase under the fight.mobi search criteria, it came up as a name with bold red letters and highlighted "considerable marketability" beneath it. Which again, prompted the search on the web for the site. Once discovered that there are other websites with the bodog name, I immediately tried to contact bodog about it which I am sure is safe to assume prompted this letter from the legal dept. It seems the reason of this letter was to say that I intended to purchase and ACTIVELY pursued the purchase of the bodogfight.mobi domain name on the sole purpose of attempting to attract attention from bodogfight.com and bodogfight.net and direct internet traffic to MY site name in hopes of gaining off the bodog name. This is infact assumed and not proven. A PERFECT example would be the two websites with the title UFC in them. UFC.COM and UFC.NET are two completely different websites with two completely different products but the UFC name is a registers trademark that deals with the same "products" as bodog does, yet there is a UFC.net that deals with physical fitness. Same can be said with APPLE.COM and APPLE.NET, etc. Numerous sources can be sited directly from the web which is why I'm asking these questions for better LEGAL clarification. The UFC would not have a leg to stand on if they pursued the use of the UFC.NET name in civil court. Attempting to divert internet traffic is nothing beyond interpretation of any particular party.
My next question is about the said intellectual property which I am accused of attempting to profit from. Intellectual property would be defined as and I qoute " A product of the intellect that has commercial value, including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods, and industrial processes." Which would mean that I would have to have any one thing mentioned on my site which is infact NOT present on the .mobi website. There is no literary property, no pictures, logos, associated with BODOGFIGHT.COM OR BODOGFIGHT.NET on the bodogfight.mobi domain name. There is no literary works, defined business practices, patented products, etc associated directly with bodog or LINKS to said products or services ANYTHING affiliated with bodog available on the site.
The sole purpose of my purchasing of .mobi domain names was to have a domain name that a potential buyer or customer might have interest in that would want a domain name formatted to allow interested persons to access their site from mobile web browsers. The reason why this particular domain name was purchased was that once the domain name availability search was finished and options were located, the bodogfight.mobi name was flagged highly marketable and resellable as were others. It wasn't discovered til LATER that there was a bodogfight.com and bodogfight.net. As I stated, i wasn't aware of the two said BODOG SA sites til AFTER the purchase which again, is what prompted the offer of purchasability of my domain name to bodog. The same could be said about the UFC name which has been used as a previous example earlier in this letter. If UFC.com or UFC.net ,two completely different sites, wanted to have a mobile web browser compatible site, they would have to acquire the UFC.mobi name in order to develop a site capable of meeting their requirements. If infact an outside party purchased that domain name AND NAME ONLY, it would infact have resellable value much like any other domain name on the web. If UFC.net or UFC.com wanted to have a .mobi compatible site for THEIR website they would have to purchase the UFC.mobi name OR contact the UFC.mobi owner for possible purchase opportunities. If the UFC.com website wanted the .mobi browser for their site but the UFC.NET website already had it, they wouldn't have the ability to obtain it unless they bought it from them OR attempted to legal acquire in which case it wouldn't go very far because both sites have two completely different products AND aren't there to directly profit from the other's name. Internet users could easily mistake ufc.net for ufc.com when search for UFC products but that can be the case for ANY related .com, .net or .mobi website which, again, I don't see how any court of law could use that as its sole reason to demand the handing over of a domain name alone to someone with a similar domain name in another format.
So my question is, from only owning the domain name, without linking, selling products, or website development in direction correlation to bodog SA, how am I infringing on them? If this question can be answered clearly enough to me for me to understand how I've intended to harm or profit off bodog SA, then I will promptly hand any and all information and forms in relation to the bodogfight.mobi domain name over to bodog SA IMMEDIATELY without further issue or involvement. All I ask is clarification on this matter and nothing further. To say that I intended to profit directly from the bodog SA's intellectual property or site by simply owning a domain name has to be proven. As stated before, the purchase of this domain name WAS for reselling purposes but, only because it was flagged as a potentially marketable and resellable domain name. It was NOT purchased to directly attempt to profit from BODOG SA. If this was the case, ANY and ALL companies with a .com or a .net website that want a .mobi domain name can file against the owner of the .mobi domain name. The laws read with alot of gray area to me since I personally have never dealt with anything such as this.
Again I am very sorry for any misunderstanding and or problems I have caused and hope we can get this situation resolved in no time. Please feel free to contact me at anytime through this email address and I will do anything and everything I can to assist BODOG SA. Yes I purchased the domain name in hopes of profiting from it if any one particular customer or party would be interested in developing a site with it's particular name but, not at any one time during the buying of the said domain name was I aware of either of the bodog websites or was I targeting bodog directly when i made the purchase in hopes of profiting solely from them. HOWEVER, because I did buy it to sell off, once I discovered there was an actual bodogfight.com, I immediately contacted them about it in hopes of coming to some sort of business agreement over the purchase of the domain name. I never once was the purchase of the .mobi domain name intended to be a website designed to sell or profit from any of bodog's business practices, literary works, photos, retail products, etc.
I know this was a rather lengthy response but I wanted to give you guys a response in the alotted time and get things moving in the right direction for the both of us. I hope both parties can come to some sort of agreement or arraingment as soon as possible.
Ryan Johnson
