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They filed for a TM after I had the Domain Name

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S

ShanRice

Guest
I started a small business last year. I came up with the name totally on my own and even checked for TM's on it before getting started with it. Even though it is an incredibally long name that is hard to spell I went ahead and got the domain name. My business is growing little by little and I have been acquiring other assets like domain names for another project that I am working on. One day I ran a report from Network Solutions to pull up a list of all my domain names. To my suprise it showed the .net version of my name registered. I was really shocked and started making some calls to find out who they were but was not successful. I checked back a few days later and couldn't find the listing in the database at all. So a week or so went by and I was pulling up another report and there they were again, only now they had purchased the domain that was the same as mine only with a dash between the two words and they had the .com address. I got their number this time and called them to find out if they were for real. They are and it sounded like they were a pretty big business. I talked to a friend about just selling it to them and changing my name. See, I would need to sell it to them so that I would be able to change all my stuff. I am getting more attached to the name every time I buy something with the name on it or advertise. Anyway, without my permission he called them the next day and asked them about purchasing it. They said they weren't interested so I thought that was good because they wouldn't try to take the domain from me later. We are in different states anyway. Last night I discovered that they have filed for the TM on the name. I am really worried that if they get the TM that I will be forced to change my business name and will have to give them the domain name and I just don't have the money to do that. It would totally put me out of business. I have been reading and think that I have community property rights to the name. I would appreciate any advice that you have before I fill out this paperwork for the Notice of Opposition. Would it hurt my claim if I just called the business and told them my intentions and asked them if they would just rather buy me out altogether? Because I don't really won't to deal with the conflict.
 



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