In a bit of a twist to the usual copyright cases, GoDaddy sent a copyright infringement letter to the owner of GO-DADDY-DOMAINS.COM and GO-DADDY-DOMAIN.COM. What was unusual is that GoDaddy had sold the customer the domains in the first place.

From: Infringements
To: John
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 1:08:25 PM
Subject: GO-DADDY-DOMAINS.COM and GO-DADDY-DOMAIN.COM Trademark Infringement

It has come to our attention that two domain names you have registered are infringing upon one or more of GoDaddy.com trademarks.

As you may be aware, GoDaddy.com is a registered trademark of GoDaddy.com. We are writing as a courtesy to inform you that your use of the term “Go Daddy” in your domain name or a domain name that is substantially the same e or confusingly similar to the “Go Daddy” mark is likely to cause confusion in the marketplace and would therefore likely be construed as a violation of the GoDaddy.com trademark.

As a result, we would like to refund you for your purchase of these domains and move the domains into our account.

Please be so kind as to initiate a change of account to this email address within 10 days. If you have any questions on this process, please contact me by replying to this email.

Thank you,

Karen Newbury
Trademark Administrator
GoDaddy.com

John has been offered a refund so no harm done but I imagine GoDaddy will take steps to avoid such embarrassing incidents in the future.