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FCSESA v OUSC: Case Settled BUT, OUSC Parents Left in the Dark. Club missing money?

BOTN did reach out via email to Mike O'Malley, OUSC President, to give him an opportunity to have his comments posted, however Mr. O'Malley elected not reply

Did FC SESA & Oceanside United SC Settlement Needlessly Cost OUSC Parents Thousands and Thousands of Dollars?

Looking back to 12/3/19, BOTN posted that FC SESA had commenced legal action against the Oceanside United Soccer Club (OUSC) by issuing a Cease and Desist letter alleging that the OUSC had committed trademark infringement, and tortious interference by inferring that OUSC and FC SESA were somehow connected. (see https://www.backofthenet.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/734302/1)

In the original post of the alleged trademark infringement the details were not disclosed.  The reason for withholding the details at that time was to halt further damage to the FC SESA brand.  

Now, the details can be made known.

What the OUSC club did and were guilty of was "Cybersquatting".  Cybersquatting is when someone registers a domain name to a business or person, especially a well-known company or brand name(s), as Internet domains, in the hope of reselling them at a profit, or to confuse the end user.

OUSC initially did this to FC SESA because they were intimidated by the Oceanside based FC SESA club, and by cybersquatting www.fcsesa.com which redirected everyone to the OUSC website.

Exactly what is cybersquatting?

Cybersquatting, according to the United States federal law known as the "Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act", is registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.  Cybersquatters neglect the existence of a trademark to profit from others. 

To win an online copyright or trademark lawsuit, plaintiffs typically must prove, at the very least, that the defendants: (i) were using their marks – or ones confusingly similar; (ii) profited from the use of the contested marks; and, (iii) acted in bad faith.

What must be proven to make cybersquatting punishable? To prove cybersquatting: (i) The registrant had bad-faith intent to profit from your mark, (ii) the mark was distinctive at the time of the domain registry; (iii) the domain name is identical or confusing to your mark; (iv) and the mark qualifies for federal trademark protection.

Cybersquatters often intend to profit from someone else's registered trademark by purchasing a domain name before the trademark owner can do so.

Prior to the Cease and Desist letter sent to OUSC on or about December 3, 2019, if anyone went to www.fcsesa.com they were immediately redirected to the OUSC website.  After the letter was received by OUSC what they did instead of acting contrite, and seeking to mitigate the issue, was to behave mean-spirited, which turned out to be very costly to the club, the club's parents, and out-right stupid.

Instead of simply transferring the domain to its rightful owner, FC SESA, at zero cost, let me repeat, ZERO COST, it seems like Mike O'Malley & the OUSC Board dumped the domain into a domain graveyard, or domain reseller, and gave up control and ownership to another third party, a third party that resells domains at huge profits.  Mike O'Malley and the OUSC Board mistakenly thought their action would fix the issue by not giving the name back to FC SESA, while divesting the OUSC club of owning the domain, and closing out the complaint.

It appears like OUSC was wrong. Mike O’Malley, and I believe the OUSC Board, felt that while knowing they should not have had the domain, neither did they want FC SESA to own and use the domain, and dumping the domain would end the the issue.  Wrong-O!! Unfortunately for OUSC their continued arrogance did not end there.

When FC SESA found out what had happened they advised OUSC that dumping the domain name simply exacerbated the problem, and explained why, and also suggested it was OUSC's problem to buy back the domain from the reseller, and transfer the ownership back to FC SESA.

BOTN believes that OUSC knowing they were guilty and that they could not win in court decided it was best for the club to cut its loses, and buy back the domain so they could do what they simply should have done in the first place when the Cease and Desist letter was sent, and that was to transfer the www.fcsesa.com domain name to FC SESA.  

So, here is the part that OUSC parents should read — instead of it costing OUSC nothing, the buy back cost for OUSC according to our information was between $16,000 & $18,500, and all the money paid by the club is money the parents paid for soccer services for their kids.  OUSC parents should be very pissed at this total waste of their money, and should demand accountability of the Board's actions and to demand to have their money returned to the club’s bank account. 

In the opinion of BOTN, it is surprising to BOTN that Mr. O’Malley and other board members, some of who are attorneys, that they allowed the club to engage in what appears to be cybersquatting and have it needlessly cost the club’s parents thousands and thousands of dollars.

w0w!!! No words necessary!

MO should be fired

The entire Board should be replaced as they all knew what was going on.

Whole board should be ousted

Oceanside used to be competitive club now it’s horrible

It has been a long time since Oceanside United was a competitive club. Any boy or girl that can play at a strong level finds another place to go. It is not the place to play if you are a competitive player.

It's not the place to play if the board is pissing away your money and doing things that we teach our kids not to do. I really cant believe what i'm reading is true. how can this be

Places like FC SESA , exist only because of crappy town teams like Oceanside and many others. Mike Omalley is a prime example of being clueless in the game of soccer and running a real program. Parents of players that are competitive and have a future in this sport leave places like oceanside to join FC SESA and play in better leagues, and receive way better training by real staff not some 3rd party RDS crap. Word on the street is there will be many many players leaving oceanside for FC SESA at the end of May for tryouts!

So a one time charge of $10 a kid in the club? Or that the first 25 teams of their next tournament goes to pay this off? A waste of money yes, but not a huge liability or settlement when you break down which is probably why they agreed to pay. Anyone know how many teams SESA has? I'm assumimg almost $20k is a big chunk of change for them

The money paid did NOT go into SESA's pocket. The almost 20k went to some 3rd party company to buy the domain name back. I think you need to re-read the original post.

You seem to allude that the parents money paid is not a big deal? You must be be an OUSC board member.

$20K for a non-profit club is a huge chunk of money as non-profits are not supposed to keep large bank accounts. Considering many families may leave the club due to the disreputable behavior of the board this could be very damaging.

Right now we need to get this virus under control and finally move on with the season and our lives but this is sad. Very disappointing to see grown men that are supposed to be teaching kids how to act actually doing something like this. What is the lesson here, sportsmanship or cheating? Competition or winning at all cost? Sad to see but Oceanside will spin this to their parents, or maybe just not say anything and amid this disaster it will fall to deaf ears. Either way the club should be ashamed.

If they have elections then vote them out.

The reason most boards have a bunch of dinasauers is because very few people with new blood join. Most boards should be replaced but there is no one to backfill. Its easier to go to and outfit like SESA and pay someone to do everything you don't want to do

Absolutely untrue!!!!!!! If I recall correctly the ownership of SESA originally was on the board or involved with the board and before even SESA was started, they suggested that maybe the club should aim towards trying to be more professional, compete in higher competitions, develop and foster high-level players, etc and the oceanside board basically told them NO we are not interested in that because of course, that would take on more work for the board and old farts. Whenever someone like that comes into these old-school boards the old farts find a way to oust the young blood new ideas people so maybe that's why it is not successful. Listen all i can say is people are willing to help but when the board is uneducated in soccer and not willing to listen then you can not do anything. The truth of the matter is Oceanside SC could be just like FC SESA but they are not. I would suggest taking on a few lessons from FC SESA, FC SESA may not have as many teams as OC but they have all quality teams rather then quantity and OC if they where smart could have done the same but that takes some skill and brains to pull off. I doubt OC has learned their lesson nor do I think they even care. It is what it is FC SESA is the academy program for higher-level players in Nassau and if OC has good quality players then I'm sure they will find their way to FC SESA or another top academy program.

Absolutely clueless you are. Go ask any club if they have a hard time filling volunteer board positions and 95% will say yes. This isn't just an Oceanside problem

All of this volunteer stuff talk is nice but it has nothing to do with the mean-spirited and illegal actions by the OUSC board and their pissing away between 15 and 20 thousand dollars needlessly of the parents money.

Keep your eye focused on the subject of this post.

It's good to see justice served, but don't think for one second this cost won't be passed onto parents, doesn't matter if it's $10 or $100, it sucks.

That has been tried over and over. They change the voting rules to keep the good old boys in the seats.

Are these board members and president being challenged or are they being voted in unopposed?

unchallenged at 95% of clubs. That is the problem nobody wants the jobs

Most parents just like to bitch and moan and don't want to do a thing for anyone but their own kids. Then you have to deal with stories like this attacking them and why would anyone want to be a volunteer anymore?

How do you even get the job??? i know of the one guy Rob president of West Babylon came out of no where and destroyed the club rebranding it into some southshore soccer club who no one considers seriouse, how did an idiot like Rob get into that position?

Because no one else wanted it. People like to complain about the people in charge but they don't want to step up themselves to do the job.