Retrospecs.com is a U.S. based company that is threatening the owner of Retrospecs.co.uk with ‘costly legal action’ if he refuses to sell them his business or stops using the domain for commerce and trading . Robert Roope, an optician and the registrant of Retrospecs.co.uk almost signed an agreement until he analyzed the fine print which included rules that would disallow him to sell his product to U.S. based customers and promote his company on social networks like twitter, facebook or youtube.
Both companies registered their domain names and have been using them for business since 1999. According to Roope, it wasn’t until a couple years ago when they made their first threat that he realized Retrospecs.com was an existing competitor. He now faces an ultimatum from the lawyers representing Retropecs.com: Sell Retrospecs.co.uk website to us or stop ecommerce on your website otherwise we will sue you.
What do you think? I don’t believe Retrospecs.com has much of a chance to win the Retrospecs.co.uk out from under the registrant in court. Looks like they are trying hard using bully tactics to scare Dr. Roope into handing over his online business. I don’t understand how the owners of Retrospecs.com think they are entitled to Retrospecs.co.uk, it’s quite ridiculous if you ask me.
News Source – Practice faces ultimatum in website name dispute
“What do you think?”
Should have gone to specsavers!
screw the us company if they have no uk trademark !
This was one of the greatest examples of legal IP Theft ever perpetrated. It ranks with the theft of the word Uggs. I was a happy retrospecs customer for years. One day they were gone. WTF? Now there is some American wanker using the name. Money buys justice.