A couple days ago I got this email in my inbox:
To Whom It May Concern:
It has come to our attention that your company has registered docusignsucks.com (the “Domain Name”). You are currently operating a website (the “Website”) at that location and, as of the date of this letter, you are using the famous and distinctive DocuSign trademark in connection with the domain name and website without DocuSign, Inc.’s authorization. We request that you transfer the Domain Name to DocuSign, Inc. and refrain from any further unauthorized uses of our Mark.
DocuSign, Inc. is the owner of numerous federal trademark registrations for our DocuSign mark (the “Mark”), including, Registration No. 4049334, registered on November 1, 2011, Registration No. 2939871, registered on April 12, 2005, and Registration No. 2845169, registered on May 25, 2004. The DocuSign mark is well known among the consuming public and embodies substantial and valuable goodwill. As such, the Mark is a valuable asset, and its protection is very important to DocuSign, Inc.
Your unauthorized use of the Mark constitutes trademark infringement and dilution in violation of federal and state trademark laws, and is likely to cause confusion, mistake and deception as to the potential existence of an affiliation, connection or association between you and DocuSign.
Your actions with respect to the Domain Name violate the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy”) to which the Domain Name is subject, since you have no trademark rights or interest in the Mark and are using the Mark for commercial gain. In addition, your actions with respect to the Domain Name also violate the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §1125(d)) a federal statute which provides a cause of action with respect to those who, with a bad faith intent to profit, register, traffic in or use domain names that are identical or confusingly similar to the trademarks of others.
DocuSign, Inc. demands that you cease and desist from any and all use of the Domain Name; you are directed to immediately cease and desist from using the DocuSign trademark or any misspellings of the trademark as your domain name. You are further directed to remove any and all references to DocuSign or its misspelling from any Meta tags, HTML code, text, or content on your website (s) and transfer the Domain Name to DocuSign, Inc. and refrain from any further unauthorized uses of our Mark.
Please confirm in writing that you will agree to resolve this matter as requested within ten days of the date of this e-mail. If we do not receive confirmation from you that you will comply with our request, and receive full cooperation in transferring the Domain Name to DocuSign, Inc. we will take the necessary legal steps to protect our rights.
Sincerely,
DocuSign, Inc.
Brand Protection Department
enforcements@mm-docusign.com
Here was my response:
Hey there Docusign,
You have reopened an old wound.
http:://www.docusignsucks.com.Originally (back in 2011) I set the domain via GoDaddy to forward to a blog
I had at http://docusign-sucks.blogspot.com/
but something was wrong in the blogspot settings and I could never figure
out how to fix it, and eventually I got bored and moved on to other things.
Your latest threats have motivated me to correct the issue, renew my domain
registration, and repost my original blog. Assuming you sue in Federal
Court your discovery will reveal I directed GoDaddy to forward to the
blogspot blog at the time of writing. So good luck with proving bad faith
or any sort of profit motive.
Should you pursue this case with WIPO I will laugh my ass off at the waste
of time and money. “Sucks” cases are well established policy at WIPO, and I
won’t even need to bother responding in order to prevail. See here:
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2008/d2008-0647.htmlShortly I will upload all of your written threats to Scribd, and embed them
in my blog. Then I will post my honest and truthful account of my
interactions with DocuSign on every bit of social media (Yelp, Twitter, FB,
Reddit, etc.) I can find. Once completed I will do an email blast to all my
friends in tech press, many of whom were so supportive as I struggled
through chemo while your company angled to get and keep my money without
ever doing any actual work.While I understand the person receiving this email is likely just doing
their job, your company’s approach to me at a time I did not have the
strength or resources to stand up for myself was shameful. And your latest
threat is a very helpful reminder to me that this ridiculously poor conduct
by your company was never fairly presented to the public. I actually feel I
have a duty to let people know. Given the many choices out there I know I
would never want to do business that saw human beings as just wallets
needing to be emptied, regardless of any extenuating personal circumstances
like cancer.Thanks again for the reminder, the domain would have expired next month if
you hadn’t brought it up, and your latest threat helps make it newsworthy.
Well done.Sincerely
Me.