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Received A Cease And Desist Over A Website I Built That Used A Trademarked Name, I'm Complying, But The Company Wants Me To Transfer The Domain To Them. Do I Need To?

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Location: Washington DC

I've been building a website for 4 months now and unknowingly gave it a name that has been trademarked. Turns out the trademark is for essentially the same service I'm offering and is owned by a large company. Their service is pretty well hidden from the internet (guessing it's pre-launch) so when I originally Googled the name, I never saw their service pop up. I know, ignorance is not an excuse, just providing context. I learned the hard way to check the USPTO database.

Anyway, I received a cease and desist from a law firm last week asking me to stop using the name including the domain, social media handles, and marketing materials. I spoke with an attorney who advised me it would be best to comply and just not admit anything. That's what I did, I replied and said I would change the name, and asked for a transition period which they agreed to.

The law firm just emailed me back and said their client would like to gain possession of the domain name once I'm done. Is the best move here to just give it to them? Can I negotiate reimbursement for the original registration + transfer fees or is that a bad idea?

submitted by /u/Unhappy-Bottle-208
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