Trademarking of generic names such as 24.com

Subject: Re: Trademarking of generic names such as 24.com

Comments:
: I'm in a peculiar situation right now, but my gut feeling tells me that there is nothing to worry about. Here goes ... : I've registered host24.com early in 1999, and have been using it actively ever since. A large corporate company (very large, actually) in South Africa registered 24.com late in 2000, and they've also tried to trademark said domain (24.com). However, it appears as if their attempt to register it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office failed: : http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?...&entry=75877429 : I'm not surprised, since 24 is a very generic term, don't you think? : Ok, here comes the scary part. I've received a letter from them yesterday, asking me to either delete the domains host24.com and host24.co.za, or transfer it to them, since I'm infringing their "trademarked" 24.com! They haven't supplied any trademark references, but I'm sure they've managed to secure the local (South African) trademark. They also claim that 24.com is well known, and is being used extensively on on of their domains, http://mweb.co.za. Not true, a search on Google for 24.com merely returns one link to the url 24.com, and that redirects to the MWeb site. I could not find any usage of 24.com on the MWeb site. : Now, MWeb is one of the largest ISP's in South Africa, and they are the people that requested the corporate legal guys to get on my case. : Ok, my argument is basically as follows: : - I registered host24.com long before they got 24.com : - 24.com is so generic that they will have to approach each and every domain ending in 24.com (and believe me, there are many). : - host24.co.za has nothing to do with 24.com. : What are your views on this? : thanks, : Johan

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