Trademark infringement claim?

What is the name of your state? FL

I was recently in the process of being certified to perform a certain service by a small company. I decided to create an email address with the name of the service in it, and notified the president of the company that I was doing so.

The president responded by threatening to sue me for trademark infringement, which surprised me considering I was being certified in this service, and the president of the company was helping me to find clients for his service (and in other similar certifications I took part in, the right to use the company trademark to attract clentele was included in the certification).

In any case, not wishing to offend him I immediately (after receiving his threatening response to my email notifying him of my new email address) apologized and sent him the password to the offending email address, notifying him that I would not be using it in the future (i.e. I voluntarily relinqueshed the infringeing email address at his first request). I had not notified any potential clients of this email address, or used it yet in any way.

The president of the company has nevertheless remained very belligerent and accused me of trying to steal his company name in front of large numbers of prospective clients. (for which I will be posting a related thread in lawsuits and litigation forum)

Does this person have any further legal claim against me for infringing on his trademark in this case?

"Does this person have any further legal claim against me for infringing on his trademark in this case?"

If you are not still using the offending email address, then probably not. Doesn't mean he still won't threaten you, but he is unlikely to have a claim.

Well, that is somewhat reassuring. This 'offending email address' was only ever used once - to email the president of the company in question.

Does anyone have an idea if this really was trademark infringement in that case?

I mean, is it theft if I go into a store, pick something up, and walk up to the cashier and tell them, "hey I'm gonna just take this, ok?" They say, "um, sir you have to pay or it is stealing..." so I say, "Oh, I guess you're right, I won't take it then." and hand it back.

Maybe a bit silly and oversimplified in this example, but it is the same sort of case, I got the email address and emailed the president of the company first to notify him, after which he indicated his displeasure so I immediately relinquished ownership of the address. Is it still trademark infringement if it was never presented to anyone but the owner of the trademark?

Of course I am perfectly aware that a rich person can always sue a poorer one just to destroy them, even if it is largely baseless

"Well, that is somewhat reassuring. This 'offending email address' was only ever used once - to email the president of the company in question.

Does anyone have an idea if this really was trademark infringement in that case? "

Was the email address a hotmail account or similar, or did you register a domain name?

In either event, if you used his trademark in such a fashion that a consumer would be confused -- even just once -- then that is most likely trademark infringement. Now, unless he has some damages associated with the infringement, it is unlikely his claim would go anywhere. But if you used his trademarked name to represent your company\qualifications, etc. then it is likely trademark infringement.

It was a hotmail account thing, not a domain name.

It was never used to contact any client or prospective client.

Apparently there was some confusion on my part (due to the rather garbled documentation that accompanied the certification) I thought it was granting permission to use this name, as is normally the case with such certifications, but apparently this company president didn't intend it that way.

Unless HE has told someone else, no outside of him, myself, and presumably the email account administrators ever knew about this email address, or who it was associated with, so I suppose there aren't any damages he could claim.

I guess I will have to look into the law further (maybe post on another forum) to determine if he has any liability for telling numerous prosective clients that I had stolen his trademark (since although I did create the email address, I never used it with any prospective client or in any fashion that might have brought it into contact with the public (like making up business cards or whatnot)) Is that correct?