What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
I am a college student and have been operating a small computer repair company locally to make ends meet. I have a few small offices as clients, several individuals, and some occasional new work that pops up. I registered as a sole proprietorship and filed a fictitious name about three years ago for my work.
Recently I received an email and letter from a lawyer representing a company with a similar name that is demanding that I cease operating under my current name and let my domain expire. My company is *blank* computer technologies (I don't want to share the exact name for anonymity's sake, but its a common noun, I've seen dozens of other businesses with it). The company with the trademark is named *blank* electronics. I do PC and laptop repair as well as regular networking, they are an international provider of cables and high end server infrastructure equipment apparently. My domain is *blank*computertechnologies.com and theirs is *blank.com. I am in Florida, they are located in Colorado.
They claim to have had their trademark since the 40's.
As our names are significantly different overall, our business types and scales are completely different, and considering that I have no resources worth suing for do they have a significant case against me?
Would contacting their lawyer and explaining my position and intent benefit me or weaken my position? Should I offer to sell the name and domain to them for a few hundred dollars?
I named my company after my dog, who is in turn named after a character in a movie from the 80's (again its a common noun, not a proper noun). I had no idea this company existed. They claim my similar name was deliberately intended to obstruct or steal their business.
I can provide more information or excerpts from the email. I appreciate any information that you can provide, this is a stressful occurrence for me, and I feel like a big company is just trying to bully the little guy.
Thank you in advance for any that reply.
I am a college student and have been operating a small computer repair company locally to make ends meet. I have a few small offices as clients, several individuals, and some occasional new work that pops up. I registered as a sole proprietorship and filed a fictitious name about three years ago for my work.
Recently I received an email and letter from a lawyer representing a company with a similar name that is demanding that I cease operating under my current name and let my domain expire. My company is *blank* computer technologies (I don't want to share the exact name for anonymity's sake, but its a common noun, I've seen dozens of other businesses with it). The company with the trademark is named *blank* electronics. I do PC and laptop repair as well as regular networking, they are an international provider of cables and high end server infrastructure equipment apparently. My domain is *blank*computertechnologies.com and theirs is *blank.com. I am in Florida, they are located in Colorado.
They claim to have had their trademark since the 40's.
As our names are significantly different overall, our business types and scales are completely different, and considering that I have no resources worth suing for do they have a significant case against me?
Would contacting their lawyer and explaining my position and intent benefit me or weaken my position? Should I offer to sell the name and domain to them for a few hundred dollars?
I named my company after my dog, who is in turn named after a character in a movie from the 80's (again its a common noun, not a proper noun). I had no idea this company existed. They claim my similar name was deliberately intended to obstruct or steal their business.
I can provide more information or excerpts from the email. I appreciate any information that you can provide, this is a stressful occurrence for me, and I feel like a big company is just trying to bully the little guy.
Thank you in advance for any that reply.