Domain Name Dispute - Help Anyone?

(In California)

Hello,

I hope someone can give me some peace of mind. I received a letter from an attorney on behalf of Spun.com (they sell cd's, dvd's etc.). They say I am infringing on their trademark. My domain is cdspun.com and links to my CDNow affiliate account (they also sell cd's, dvd's etc.). They want me to transfer my domain name to them or they may take legal action. I chose my domain name based on letters from my name and my girlfriends name (Christine, Damian, Spooner, Ferguson - not to mention that I used to have a hyphenated last name of Spooner-Upton) trying to keep it as short and memorable as possible, hence cdspun. I have not submitted my domain name to search engines, nor have I advertised it. I did not know there was a Spun.com. Their domain name is older than mine. Their attorney told me that Spun.com was informed by a third party of my site, when they typed in the wrong domain name, so I am accused of trying to mislead (trademark dilution, infringement and unfair competition). From research since receiving the letter I found out that Spun.com is an idealabs company (www.idealabs.com), this scares me, they have plenty of money to sue, I don't even know a good attorney, let alone think I could afford one. I would attach their
letter but have not yet received the e-mail because they sent it to the wrong address. I have requested that they send it again.

I sincerely hope someone can shed some light on this. No-one seems to know a clear cut answer, and from what I understand, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of November 29th 1999 (under which they say I would likely be liable) is not all that clear either.

Thanks for any assistance or suggestions as to how I should pursue this matter.

I just want to be able to keep my domain name.

Damian J. Spooner (one of the little people).

PS. From my affiliate account with CDNow I have made practically nothing, and the few dollars that I have made were made prior to using my domain name of cdspun.com (registered April 2000 - not linked until about August or September 2000) I leave the money in my account so that I can purchase cd's, etc. Thanks again.

[This message has been edited by DSpooner (edited November 08, 2000).]

If you tacked on "my" to amazon.com I'd bet the owners of the site would sue you, and they would win. They have a Federal trademark and adding things to the front of it could dilute that trademark. Firms monitor their trademarks and can easily track who is using their name on a site.

While you say you were innocent, that's not the legal test and they do not know the difference betwen you and a person whose intent was to sow confusion and benefit from the value of their name.

With ideaLab! companies crashing and burning, they may not want to spend good money unless it gets results. And it costs very little to send a lawyer's letter.

But if this domain is not valuable to you I would not make a Federal case out of it, or want them to do so.