discoveryresources send a cease letter to e-discoveryresources.com

[Administrator]

I received this letter of intent to prosecute me for violating a common law trademark of "discoveryresources" that is used in the domain name here as the firm of Pear Sperling Eggan & Daniels, P.C. seems to not understand the requirements of a "common law trademark"

Attached is the actual letter sent from discoveryresources.org, In it they claim they will suggest to the parent company FIOS to seek "recovery of profits and damages arising from your improper use, as well as out client's attorney fees and costs". This statement usually goes hand and hand with a federal registered trademark not a common law servicemark.

ICANN guidelines for this type of matter are very clear and to be in violation I would of had to registered the domain name e-discoveryresources.com in bad faith. This of course is not the actions taken by e-discoveryresources.com as we are here to provide an open community for individuals, corporations, consultants and lawyers to interact. This domain was registered originally to support a small consulting group in OHIO that plans to offer services to examine policies within corporations to protect and prepare for E-Discovery instances. Only after the suggestion the group will not be ready to proceed any time soon did I change this into an open forum format.

I first became aware of discoveryresources.org while searching for contact information for e-discovery consultants offering a discussion space here for interaction. Shortly there after I received this letter attached below.

Items concerning the basis of the common law servicemark of "discoveryresources" that Fios has not displayed.

- Service mark has been in use since 1993 by discoveryresoucesinc.com
- Fios did not to the best of their ability insure the term "discovery resources" was not being used as simple web search return thousands of results.
- term "discovery resources" is at best a descriptive name, more likely a generic name that would not be protected as a trademark.
- Fios registering the domain name in 2003 is years past the following registrations:

http://www.discoveryresourcesinc.com/
http://www.discoveryresources.com/
http://www.discoveryresources-inc.com/
http://www.discovery-resources.com/

- Common law servicemarks should be marked with a trademark icon to convey the notion the holder sees the name as such (this is not then or currently done as of 11/02/2007)

I have to assume Fios has an ongoing standing to protect against trademark names with the firm Pear Sperling Eggan & Daniels, P.C. as required by Trademark guidelines but the notion discoveryresources is such a mark is simply not appropriate.

I had no intention of using the domain in bad faith as I do not plan on selling this name nor giving it up on a $5.50 letter sent to my home. I was unaware of the services offered and quite frankly still am not understanding exactly what paid services discoveryresources.org offers as it appears to be mainly links to blogs and the parent company Fios.

To say discoveryresources.org has made themselves the distinctive source for all that is Discovery Resources is proven false by both traffic statistics of discoveryresources.org as well as the numerous sites returned in a search and of course the mass usage of the term in the industry as well as online.

I plan to continue to build a useful community with this exact domain name and will keep this topic updated as any news appears. As I feel Fios would agree with my findings I will of course remove all this with a simple explanation, apology and signed document this was in error.

I have been led to believe the best route is to either get a new name, return a letter via an Internet domain law firm, or to file a declaratory judgement but for now I will await a responsible solution from Fios.