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Originally Posted by Matt 26z
The absense of a registered trademark does not necessarily mean you are safe. The US is a first use country. If they can prove first use in commerce and can show continued use, that could be a problem.
You can search USPTO.gov for registered trademarks, but this does not solve the threat of unregistered trademarks. Those are harder to find and searches cost around $300.
I don't think you'll find any solid info on this situation with expired domain names. The laws need to be updated. I am not a lawyer, so take this like a grain of salt..... but I would say if they let it expire and didn't use the mark for a long period of time, that will help you. But if this was an accidental expiration and they have a current product or service matching the domain name, you are screwed.
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They cannot claim since they have used the name before they are entitled to the domain and if they did I'd file a trademark for the domain as if they come with that BS it is obvious they have not trademarked the term/name/product or whatever it is.