Re:
www.paypal.us
We are writing concerning your registration and use of the domain name
paypal.us which contains the PayPal trademark.
As you know, PayPal is the leading provider of online payment services.
PayPal adopted the name and trademark "PayPal" in October 1999 and since
that time, PayPal has actively used the PayPal name and trademark in
connection with its online payment and related services, including
maintaining the web site
www.PayPal.com. PayPal has devoted substantial
resources to promote its services under the PayPal mark and logo, and
those trademarks embody the substantial goodwill that PayPal has earned
as a result of providing high quality services. In addition to its own
promotional efforts, PayPal has been the subject of numerous unsolicited
articles in the media, including national and international print, radio
and television media highlighting PayPal's pioneering and successful
efforts in online payments. As a result of PayPal's promotional efforts
and the high quality services that PayPal provides, the PayPal trademark
is famous, well known, and viewed favorably by the general public.
PayPal is a wholy-owned subsidiary of eBay Inc. Accordingly, eBay owns
exclusive trademark rights to the PayPal name and trademark in the
United States and internationally, including related common law rights.
We are concerned that your registration of paypal.us will cause
confusion as to whether you or your company's activities are authorized,
endorsed or sponsored by PayPal or eBay. As we hope you can understand,
protection of its trademarks is very important to eBay.
We understand that you may have registered paypal.us without full
knowledge of the law in this area. Your registration of the above domain
name violates the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.), because it
infringes and dilutes the PayPal trademark. Infringement occurs when a
third party's use of another's trademark (or a confusingly similar
variation thereof) is likely to confuse consumers as to the affiliation,
sponsorship or endorsement of the third party's services. Trademark
dilution occurs when a third party's use of a variation of another's
trademark is likely to lessen the distinctiveness of that famous
trademark. Additionally, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(
http://www.submerged-ideas.com/litigation/anticybersquat.htm) provides
for serious penalties (up to $100,000 per domain name) against persons
who use, sell, or offer for sale a domain name that infringes or dilutes
another's trademark.
While eBay respects your right of expression and your desire to conduct
business on the Internet, eBay must enforce its own rights in order to
protect its valuable trademarks. For these reasons, and to avoid
consumer confusion, eBay must insist that you immediately cease all use
of paypal.us and not make any future use of the domain name. You should
not sell, offer to sell, or transfer the domain name to a third party
and should let the domain registration expire. You should also not
register any other domain names that infringe the famous PayPal or eBay
trademarks.
Please respond to this email and confirm that you will agree to resolve
this matter as requested. If we do not receive confirmation from you
that you will comply with our request, we will have no choice but to
pursue all available remedies against you.
Sincerely,
Edith
eBay Legal Department