Madrid 2012, S.A. DEMANDS domain names from MadridMan!

I NEED A LAWYER!

MadridMan owns the following domain names:
MADRID2012.com, 2M12.com, 2M12.org, 2M12.info

The company promoting Madrid's 2012 Olympic bid
is DEMANDING them, claiming "intellectual property rights".

I NEED A LAWYER! ¡NECESITO ABOGADO!

If you happen to have any suggestions/tips/insights/helpful-contacts, please email me directly and immediately!

CLICK HERE for more details and information on the sad, sordid, subject.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The world already has ENOUGH INJUSTICE!

Saludos, MadridMan

Im not surprised that they want the domain. But considering that they are trying to get it from you with total disregard to your rights and the fact that you bought em is uterily wrong they sould offer you money at least. Demanding to get the site domains for free is obviously wrong legally and ethcily so I support you MadridMan good luck. You bought em they want em for free. Good Luck with finding a lawyer.

Hi MMan,

Wow! Just wanted to tell you that you have all my support.
Unfortunately, though JoeSambuca does call me "'abogado'" I am not. But I work at Lycos Spain and tomorrow I'm due back at the office, so hopefully I'll be able to ask some expert on these sorts of things (the bad news is they might all still be on vacation! )

This all sounds to me as a 'pez grande' trying to "eat" a 'pez chico'....

Saludos,

pim

How many domains do you own?

You really thought ahead on this issue and actually you stand to make a lot of money on your investment.

If you have no intention of giving up these URL's that you purchased, then you will need to pay a good international lawyer. (You get what you pay for in any judicial system.)

Otherwise, offer to sell them. It should finance your travels, you wise domain owner.

MadridMan,

Have you contacted the Columbus/Ohio Bar Association? They may have a Volunteer/Pro Bono section that could direct you to an IP lawyer who needs to fulfill his/her pro bono requirement for the year.

jmc

Wow! Never heard of that, but thanks for that tip, jmcarr! I'll check into it. Thanks!

MadridMan,

Important point. Did you register those names prior to their organization being started? If you did, they can suck air. They're trying to "extort" them from you, even though you owned the rights prior to their existence. You'd have tremendous leverage, and if they want one, make them pay big time, because of their actions. But, above all, make them come to you to buy it.

Second point. To insure you registered those names with creative intent, put something up on each of the names in question. That will eliminate their opportunity of saying you registered them strictly to force them to pay a large fee to you to use the names.

Just a couple of suggestions that might help you get a handle on this issue. The first point is the big one. They should have thought before they leaped.

Wolf

My two cents.

I don't think the space you're talking about matters because domain names contain no spaces hence madrid 2012 would only be able to be translated into a domain name as madrid2012.

Wolf is right you should put up some creative content. Err..however, if they look at your message board and see posts indicating intentions for monetary gain, but later see content, I think they'd be able to put 2 and 2 together.

Errrr ¿somebody could please tell me the difference between this case and the dominion "squatters" or whatever name is?

I take that MM registered his dominion with good will, but it happens that it looks like he hurried to register the names just when Madrid Olympic candidature was beginning to be raised, with only two days of difference with the Official Madrid City Olympics Committee trial to register. :p

First of all, I'd ike to say that I am in favor of the so called cyber squatters, since I believe that many times they are not stealing anything but making profit on their creativeness, like cash-card.com or yupi.com, or ole.es.

I am also for those who were inspired enough to register domains that do not belong to anybody because they are geographic accidents or names, like Madrid.com, Barcelona.com, or Canarias.com, which happens to be property of a friend of mine.

That said, although you needn't know it, this society existed by then, was legally established with that name, and, according to law, as far as I know, they are most probably going to obtain the domain. However, they can negotiate to get it sooner (I doubt it, they have lots of time ), like when Telefonica paid 2.000.000 $ for Telefonica.com that had been registered by chilean or argentinian cyber squatters.

Link about the firm\'s creation. (spanish)

Good luck!

P.D: (EDIT) Imagine I did't know that NFL had a redistered mark or was a Company, and I registered NFLchampionship2004. It's obvious they had a brand and a name first.

P.D.D.:

As for 2M12.com and the rest, that could mean anything, so you can wprobalby win.