On Tuesday November 6th, I received an email from someone (Let’s call him “Mr. X”*) regarding a domain name I’ve owned since the mid-90s. The contents of the email were basically something to the effect of “I see you have a domain name that is the same name as my company, which operates nationally and rather than sue you I want to offer you $3000.00 now.”
Mr. X had apparently been told by his attorneys that the domain name I had owned since the mid-90s, operated a website on for most of 1995 and was planning to launch a new site on in the upcoming months was rightfully his.
My first reaction to this email was to laugh hysterically. And then I started to do some research.
I visited his company’s website. On the splash page of this website, it says that the company was founded in 1998 by Mr. X.
Next, based on previous experience with litigious domain coveters, I figured anyone threatening to sue on the first email has to have filed a trademark application sometime recently — So I visited the USPTO and found a registration submitted by Mr. X on August 15th 2007 — claiming a “FIRST USE” and “FIRST USE IN COMMERCE” date of August 26, 1999.
So, Mr. X either started his company in 1998 or 1999 depending on the source you visit.
Incidentally, I transferred the domain in question to my holding company on February 7th 1997 by changing the name on the registration. This is the current date of “Record Creation” in the InterNIC Whois database, though I have copies of the original date of registration on file.
Regardless, this would document my ownership of the domain name a good one or two years before Mr. X started his business.
Clearly Mr. X’s counsel messed up their advice. After a few back and forth emails, I apologized for my flip responses to his threats and Mr. X apologized and admitted that he had received bad advice.
Had Mr. X followed through on his threat to sue, he would very likely have been found guilty of a type of bad faith action called Reverse Domain Hijacking.
I have negotiated with Mr. X’s people to sell the domain name to Mr. X, but it would seem his efficient and authoritative legal team may wish to make a broadway production out of what is really a small transaction compared to my previous domain name sales.
* Recently, I Googled Mr. X and learned he is probably worth hundreds of Millions of dollars as a successful entrepreneur, investor and real estate developer.