Hi Philip,

I would like to lay out some of the undisputable facts here.

* The domain name classhelper.com was first registered by one of our
reseller's customers on June 9, 2004.

* Tucows acquired the domain name on July 18, 2007.

* You registered classhelper.org on November 23, 2007, more than four months
after we took ownership of the .com, and more than three years after the
.com domain was originally registered.

* You first contacted us on March 29, 2009 regarding classhelper.com.

In other words, you launched your venture, by your own admission, about one
and a half years ago, at the domain name classhelper.org knowing full well
that someone else already owned classhelper.com. You chose to register and
use the domain name classhelper.org; you could have registered and used a
different domain name that used the .com TLD. You operated your business and
built up traffic to, and equity in, classhelper.org for about 16 months
before contacting us.

In my original reply to you on April 2, which I have included at the bottom
of this message, I outlined our position on this matter, which I will
summarize now for the final time:

1. This is a *generic* domain name consisting of two common English language
words: "class" and "helper"; "class helper" is a common phrase with over
34,000 Web pages using this phrase, according to Google.

2. You do not have a registered trademark for "class helper" or
"classhelper".

3. No references to "ClassHelper.org" appear on the landing page of
classhelper.com.

While I can appreciate the fact you would *like* to own classhelper.com, we
do not believe that our use of this generic domain name infringes on any
trademarks of yours, nor are you in any way legally or morally entitled to
this generic domain name more than any other third party. Since we began
speaking about this matter, I have tried to treat you in a fair and cordial
manner, however that appears to have failed.

I am therefore retracting our May 28, 2009 offer to sell the domain name to
you for about one quarter of its fair market value.

We wish you best of luck with your venture, and if one day you change your
mind and wish to purchase this domain name from us for its fair market
value, please let me know.

Regards,

Bill


--

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 19:34:47 -0400, "Bill Sweetman" 
<bsweetman@tucows.com>
wrote:
*** PLEASE CONFIRM RECEIPT OF THIS, THANK YOU ***

RE: classhelper.com domain name

Hello Philip,

Thank you for your email of March 29, 2009 regarding the domain name 
classhelper.com, which was forwarded to me by one of my colleagues
because
you mentioned legal matters. I manage the Tucows domain portfolio, 
and
this
is one of the domains that we own.

Tucows, Inc. (www.tucowsinc.com) is a publicly traded company, one of 
the oldest Internet companies in the world, and the registrant of 
numerous trademarks and service marks for the suite of Internet 
services it provides.
Tucows makes a practice of presenting its Internet offerings in a way
that
does not infringe on the rights of others.

I have reviewed your email and would like to comment on the concerns 
that you raised.

This domain name consists of two common English language words: "class"
and
"helper". A Google search for the phrase "class helper" returns over 
34,000 pages using this phrase. "Class helper" is a common phrase.

I also just did a search of registered trademarks at the United 
States Patent and Trademark Office and did not find a single 
trademark (active
or
dead) for "class helper" or even "classhelper".

I also just checked the advertising links on the main landing page of 
classhelper.com and I do not see a single appearance of
"ClassHelper.org". 

For these reason and others, we do not believe that our use of this
generic
domain name infringes on any trademark registration(s) that you claim 
to have.

You are welcome to disagree, of course, however it would be prudent 
of me to inform you that our domain names are critical business 
assets, and we
will
and do defend them when forced to do so.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Please 
note, however, that I am be on holiday until April 13th.

Regards,

Bill

--

--

Bill Sweetman
General Manager, Domain Portfolio
Tucows
tel 416-538-5429
mobile 416-317-0826
bsweetman@tucows.com
http://www.tucowsinc.com 

Why settle for a lousy domain name? Check out...
http://www.YummyNames.com 

Read my blog. Somebody's got to...
http://www.Sweetmantra.com 

Follow me on Twitter: @billsweetman


-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Paradis [mailto:philip.paradis@classhelper.org] 
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 8:42 PM
To: Bill Sweetman
Subject: RE: classhelper.com


Hi Bill,

Thanks for your quick reply; I've taken a few days to consider your offer.
I have to admit that I find the asking price excessive considering the
circumstances. Here's my position:

(1) I've been using the term "ClassHelper.org" in trade for over a year and
a half now, with the formal federal trademark registration in process. The
site represents a large repository of original content, the majority of
which geared toward assisting teachers, parents, and students. The site
enjoys a very good reputation in the teaching community, and is visited by
over 40,000 people per month. I do not charge for my content, deriving
operating revenue for the site from advertisements, and I publish most of
the content under Creative Commons attribution-only licenses. This is in the
hope that the barriers for use of the resources are as low as possible
without diluting the trade name or allowing misrepresentation of the content
in association with ClassHelper.org.

(2) Referring to points made in earlier emails, the site "classhelper.com"
as operated by Tucows over the last several months makes use of expressions
that are either verbatim repetitions of or very close matches to major
content categories on ClassHelper.org. This is confusing to my visitors who
mistakenly type ".com" instead of ".org" when attempting to reach my site,
and represents a clear violation of trademark law through the use of the
term "ClassHelper" in a confusingly similar context to generate revenue for
Tucows.

(3) The site "classhelper.com" contains no original content of its own,
generating revenue from traffic sent to other sites. It is my sincere belief
that the vast majority of traffic to "classhelper.com" results from
accidental use of ".com" as the TLD. The site has a Google PageRank of 0,
and returns only the domain root in a search for "site:classhelper.com".

Given these facts, I have a counter-offer. I originally proposed buying the
domain for $150 USD, and am now making a final offer of $200 USD to settle
the matter amicably. This offer is good through June 11, 2009. I understand
that you place a higher valuation on the domain and would have to pursue
authorization to sell it at this price, but I feel my position is quite
strong.

In the event that you choose to decline the offer, I'll honestly have no
choice but to pursue legal action, coupled with as much publicity of the
issues surrounding the case as possible. I would be seeking the domain
itself, monetary damages associated with unfair use of it in trade (to
include revenue generating from it by Tucows and possibly punitive damages),
and recovery of attorney's fees.

I don't want to go the legal route, and sincerely hope that you will give my
offer serious consideration. I value the fact that we've been able to
establish a dialogue on this matter instead of involving the legal system
from the start, and would like to continue conversing with you after the
conclusion of this matter. Please feel free to contact me via phone if you
wish.

Sincerely,

Philip Paradis
ClassHelper.org
860-389-6562


On Thu, 28 May 2009 11:15:03 -0400, "Bill Sweetman" <bsweetman@tucows.com>
wrote:
Hi Philip,

I enjoyed chatting with you as well.

OK, here's the scoop.

When we run this domain through our pricing process we end up with an 
asking price of $2,999. That would be the price we'd list the domain 
for in a
"buy
it now" marketplace and the price we would give to a third party 
approaching us to buy this domain.

It's a solid, generic domain name with lots of appeal for different 
types of business.

That being said, I'd like to propose a significantly reduced purchase
price
for you in light of your concerns and our discussion and the fact you 
are running a venture that is good for the community.

You can purchase this domain name for $799, which is the absolute 
'rock bottom' I can go before I will have some difficult explaining to 
do to
our
CEO. ;+) This reduced price is valid until Friday, June 5 at 5 PM EST.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

Bill


--

Bill Sweetman
General Manager, Domain Portfolio
Tucows
tel 416-538-5429
mobile 416-317-0826
bsweetman@tucows.com
http://www.tucowsinc.com

Why settle for a lousy domain name? Check out...
http://www.YummyNames.com

Read my blog. Somebody's got to...
http://www.Sweetmantra.com

Follow me on Twitter: @billsweetman


-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Paradis [mailto:philip.paradis@classhelper.org]
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 5:42 PM
To: Bill Sweetman
Subject: RE: classhelper.com


Hi Bill,

I enjoyed our conversation regarding this matter, and look forward to
your
reply.

Sincerely,

Philip Paradis
ClassHelper.org
860-389-6562


On Wed, 20 May 2009 15:33:00 -0400, "Bill Sweetman"
<bsweetman@tucows.com>
wrote:
Hi Philip,

It just occurred to me that I never heard back from you regarding 
this domain name. Did you get my April 17 email?


--

Bill Sweetman
General Manager, Domain Portfolio
Tucows
tel 416-538-5429
mobile 416-317-0826
bsweetman@tucows.com
http://www.tucowsinc.com

Why settle for a lousy domain name? Check out...
http://www.YummyNames.com

Read my blog. Somebody's got to...
http://www.Sweetmantra.com

Follow me on Twitter: @billsweetman