Last week I got notified that one of my domains (twittersa.com) has been flagged with a “Trade mark Infringement”, and subsequently had to be handed over. I don’t think that this is uncommon, as I’ve had other domains ripped out from underneath me.
Wogan and me teamed up last year and created a streamlined Twitter site for South Africans. It was somewhat successful, but as of today we’re closing it down.
It was a good run, and if you pay good money to trademark your brand, you retain that right to sue. No hard feelings.
Digged this site, look forward to what’s coming next.
ps. I now have a spare tab open.
@myphotographer
Haha, thanks for the support. We’ll have to see what happens next.
I believe they take issue with the word “Twitter” being used.
You could rebrand as “tweetsa” or similar.
@micflan: Twitter is hard at work to Trademark the word “Tweet” too. (If not already.) So I guess it’s just a matter of time before that too is infringement.
Heavy man. I’ve had a couple mails of similar nature but most of it ppl trying their luck. This, the real thing tho. You think I’ll get nailed for bandsontwitter.com ?
@Rob: Good question, it might just be a matter of time.
I was thinking that they would have a much harder time contacting me if I had my WHOIS Gaurd running, but that was not to point, now was it.
You knwo what is funny.. twitter.nl was registered before twitter.com, so it’s pretty funny they cant sue (and win) from this .nl owner. Actually I wonder if she can sue them and get the .com domain! (probably not anymore since the brand has become so big)
Ah man, that’s sad to hear!
Was rather pleased to see a local Twitter “version” pop up .
Good luck for the future.
That’s a great shame, it’s was a good initiative – I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
@imod: Agreed!
@biz posted on the blog about this, they have an issue with “Twitter” in the name. since it causes confusion (i.e co that launched in uk Twitter solutions), ppl think its official. Thou they have no prob with using tweets.
Really sorry (and sad) to see Twitter SA go but this is a very mature response to the situation.
Did they actually sue you?
or sent a cease and desist-type letter?
Cease and desist type.
Same happen with my site, engadgeteer.com now I’m turning it over, just sent a mail to confirm transfer to complainant. And it hurts, when you give it a decent time to be visible in the web.
Yeah, I feel for you. It must suck when you have to turn something over that you spent LOTS of effort on.