Contact a lawyer, and have him or her talk to the Treadstone group directly.

This may just be a innocent offer to purchase a certain domain name, or it could be a dispute you can't win and would be advised to settle. If a lawyer calls them, they will direct him or her to the legal eagles and get to the bottom of it.

Let us know what you find out.

Wow it is a little suspicious perhaps inquire why they are looking to acquire the domain? Also it might be good to seek legal advise with this just contact some law office for legal consulation?
You can also do additional research on their company and their tactics; or check out namepros.com: there are a lot fo domainers there who can help you better

Lastly the important question; are you infringing any copyright with your domain?

You might want to do a copyright/trademark search and see if you are infringing anyone. If so, you can bet this is the reason.

Search here:
http://www.uspto.gov/

Well I think the real question is .... does the domain make you money, is it worth more than $750 to you?

Why are you suspicous? It doesnt sound like they are threatening you, they simply want to buy your domain for $750. I wish they would email me and offer $750 for some of mine

Lee

[DELETED]

It doesn't sound particularly menacing, maybe they just want to buy the domain??? I think if you were infringing they probably wouldn't be so nice about it and they certainly wouldn't offer $750 for it.

Only you know if the domain name or any of the content is suspicious. Unless you hired out any of the writing you have nothing to hide.

The shark contacting you probably has a client willing to pay five times as much as the offer. So if you're clean and know it ask for maybe ten grand and then negotiate from there.

Their website has a phone number.. call it. I'd personally try to get them to pay top dollar for the domain, unless of course it earns well for you.

Maybe they have something in the works and want to clear the bases before they try to hit their home run.

The email doesn't seem like a threat to me. I think they simply want to purchase the domain from you.

You should ask some of these questions before you agree/disagree with the offer.

Is the domain currently making you money?

Do you think it's worth more than $750?

Regards,
Ben

I think the bolded part about sums it up.

If they felt they already had rights, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be asking. Even when you asked directly, they did not answer the question. There generally is no confusion of their position when contacted by any business regarding potential infringements.

Not an attorney but... just saying, having received a few of these throughout the years

You need to ask yourself why they want to get the name in the first place.

Like I intimated earlier, they may have something in the works, to which you you are holding them hostage. If that is the case, you need more information so you can negotiate in an educated manner.

Personally I would take a look at the domain name and try to figure out what it sounds like, what it looks like and what could actually be done with it and who might take it...it may be that $750 is a good offer, but they wouldn't be offering that if they weren't making profit for their time.

We all know the story of Microsoft offering to sell an operating system to IBM when they didn't have a damn bean; Bill Gates (and crew) simply bought someone elses for 50k which seemed a lot to the man in question and then went on to become the richest man in history.

Tell them to give you contact details of the company wanting the domain name and you will cut them in, I am betting the profit to them will be far more than $750 lol

If they don't do that then walk away, never accept the first offer, especially when you don't have all the details

Gene Pimentel is quite good at this I hear, he has been selling to businesses for a long time but where is he on this thread? lol (hope he doesn't mind me dropping his name lol)

I'd figure out if the sale was a good sale for you at $750. If it is, sell it. If not, hold onto it. The only thing you need to be aware of when selling a domain from someone who has emailed an offer is the old domain appraisal scam. If they ask for an appraisal and give you a choice of two or three companies that they want you to appraise it with, run. They just want you to buy the appraisal from their company. Then you never hear from them again.

You could be selling it cheap. From the Treadstone company

Anonymous Acquisition

It's quite possible a big company is interested in acquiring this domain. Treadstone will, of course, try to get it at the lowest price possible.

You might consider making a much higher counter-offer.

Exactly what Suzanne said. Only thing I would add to this conversation is, if Treadstone is in fact trying to obtain this domain for their "high-profile" client, they will keep trying. I would remain silent, and wait for them to approach me another time or two before responding. That will make it clear they are in a very profitable situation. Unless, of course, you really need the $750 right now.

EDIT: Just to clarify, there is no such thing as copyright infringement on a domain name. I presume you meant trademark infringement.

A lot of speculation here. The fact is that you have an offer to purchase your domain, with no overt or implied threat of litigation. A "cease and desist" letter from a law firm would be a different story.

Why would someone hire a third party to buy a domain? The answer is typically that they don't want you to know who is bidding. Maybe it's some guy named Wendel pounding a keyboard in his mother's basement that has a domain similar to yours and is willing to cash in his comic book collection so he can pay you $1,000 to get your domain. Maybe it's Big Bad, Inc. that wants the domain for whatever purpose and is willing to pay $20,000 or $50,000. You don't know. Using the third party company allows the buyer to stay anonymous which gives them an improved negotiating position because you just don't know who you're negotiating against. By your reply to the intermediary you have already told them that you are concerned that you may be vulnerable to an intellectual property claim - which they can now use in any future negotiations with you because you don't know the identity of the real buyer. Is it Wendel or Big Bad, Inc. with the fire breathing lawyers?

Assume that litigation is being contemplated. As a lawyer who has been litigating cases in California for the past twenty years what I can tell you is that if this unknown party is thinking about a possible lawsuit, they are looking at spending six figures and even then they may not succeed. Litigation is expensive and uncertain. Also, you rarely ever want to lead with your best offer so my guess is that the $750 is an opening offer to gauge your interest in selling. If you were to accept that amount rest assured that Treadstone will be giddy because they are probably being paid quite a bit more to get the deal done.

What do you do now?

That depends on what you want to do. If $750 sounded like a good deal, great. I'd mail them back with a reasonable counter offer and see how much they're willing to move, let them pay the costs of transfer, and call it a day.

Maybe the $750 is not worth considering and that this particular domain represents a much more significant value to you. Let's say you think it's worth $20,000, but you're willing to sell. Then I'd respond by thanking them for their interest and that while you might be interested in selling to the "right" party that the domain represents a much more significant investment than what has been offered. See if they come back and solicit a counter offer from you.

What if you just want to keep your domain? It's yours. Keep it.

But what if they sue? Like I said, lawsuits are expensive and uncertain. If you find yourself served with papers they will still be quite happy to pay you something for the domain because the cost of pursuing the lawsuit will be significant and comes with no guarantee of success. By the way, the just told you that the domain is worth tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to them...

From what you have described I'm betting that your imagination - and the imaginations of a few here on the board - is getting the better of you. This does not seem like a big deal to me. Sell the domain if you want. Don't sell it if you don't want. If selling sounds good use a reputable third party escrow, let them pay all fees, and don't sign anything until funds are on deposit with the escrow company.

Good luck. Relax.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give you an update on what I found. Turns out the company just wanted to buy the website.

We worked out a good deal that I am pleased with and the transaction has been completed through escrow.

The website was making no money for me - it just happened to be in a group of websites I purchased earlier.

I appreciate everyone's input.

That's great. Glad this worked out for you.

Awesome! Glad you aren't getting sued LOL... did you get more than $750 for it?