Mike22
04-15-2010, 08:29 PM
This kind of comes under security / spam...
It's still security since its a fishing email, but it does highlight some good points!
If you own a site, what power do you have of the URL if some one registers the domain name (or the main part of the domain name) as Brand Name / Registered Trade Mark
Let say you owned dubdubdub.ILovePinkMice.co.uk
And then the owner of dubdubdub.ILovePinkMice.com decided to register "ILovePinkMice" as a registered trade mark
If you even mention ILovePinkMice, your need to get their permission / pay the legal costs. By someone registering a trade mark, it can knock you out of the game completely.
Anyway, this was the spam I got: (it's a clever little fishing trick, but grammatically poor)
Dear President,
We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china. we have something need to confirm with you. we formally received an application on April 5, 2010. one company which called "ViVD investment company" are applying to register " ILovePinkMice " as Brand Name and the following Domain Names:
"
ILovePinkMice.asia
ILovePinkMice.cn
ILovePinkMice.com.cn
ILovePinkMice.com.hk
ILovePinkMice.com.tw
ILovePinkMice.hk
ILovePinkMice.in
ILovePinkMice.net.cn
ILovePinkMice.org.cn
ILovePinkMice.tw "
After our initial examination, we found that the Domain Names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. these days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation from your company. if your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible.
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit is 7 workdays. if your company files no reply within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by "ViVD investment company"
Best Regards,
Henry Huang
Senior Consultant
It all sounds helpful at the moment right.. these guys want to help you out... pftt, sher right... It doesnt seem to matter how you respond, or what you respond with, they follow up with another email not really undestanding, but then giving you 1st refusal on the domain names:
Dear Sir,
Thanks for your confirmation. As soon as receiving the application of "ViVD investment company", we checked and found the domain names are similar to your company working domain name ILovePinkMice,So we informed you also that's reason why we sent email to you.
As well you should know that the domain names registration is open worldwide, "ViVD investment company" has the right to apply for the available domain names, for this reason "ViVD investment company" is also legitimate applicant and we have no right to reject them. Now we can do for you is give you the preferential rights to register the domains yourselves.
Thus, please inform us your company's decision of this issue. If your company do need to register those Domains yourselves please contact us in time, then we'll inform you how to register. Or else we deem it as your waiver.
Best Regards,
Henry Huang
Senior Consultant
But I SAID BUGGER AWF.. I DONT WANT YOUR SILLY MICE.. or something to that affect... Yeah, it's a scam!
Anyway it does raise some intresting points about Brand Names and Registerd Trade Marks... At what point do you think you should be looking into registering your Brand Name as a trade mark (if you can) to stop this sort of thing really happening!
It's still security since its a fishing email, but it does highlight some good points!
If you own a site, what power do you have of the URL if some one registers the domain name (or the main part of the domain name) as Brand Name / Registered Trade Mark
Let say you owned dubdubdub.ILovePinkMice.co.uk
And then the owner of dubdubdub.ILovePinkMice.com decided to register "ILovePinkMice" as a registered trade mark
If you even mention ILovePinkMice, your need to get their permission / pay the legal costs. By someone registering a trade mark, it can knock you out of the game completely.
Anyway, this was the spam I got: (it's a clever little fishing trick, but grammatically poor)
Dear President,
We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china. we have something need to confirm with you. we formally received an application on April 5, 2010. one company which called "ViVD investment company" are applying to register " ILovePinkMice " as Brand Name and the following Domain Names:
"
ILovePinkMice.asia
ILovePinkMice.cn
ILovePinkMice.com.cn
ILovePinkMice.com.hk
ILovePinkMice.com.tw
ILovePinkMice.hk
ILovePinkMice.in
ILovePinkMice.net.cn
ILovePinkMice.org.cn
ILovePinkMice.tw "
After our initial examination, we found that the Domain Names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. these days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation from your company. if your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible.
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit is 7 workdays. if your company files no reply within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by "ViVD investment company"
Best Regards,
Henry Huang
Senior Consultant
It all sounds helpful at the moment right.. these guys want to help you out... pftt, sher right... It doesnt seem to matter how you respond, or what you respond with, they follow up with another email not really undestanding, but then giving you 1st refusal on the domain names:
Dear Sir,
Thanks for your confirmation. As soon as receiving the application of "ViVD investment company", we checked and found the domain names are similar to your company working domain name ILovePinkMice,So we informed you also that's reason why we sent email to you.
As well you should know that the domain names registration is open worldwide, "ViVD investment company" has the right to apply for the available domain names, for this reason "ViVD investment company" is also legitimate applicant and we have no right to reject them. Now we can do for you is give you the preferential rights to register the domains yourselves.
Thus, please inform us your company's decision of this issue. If your company do need to register those Domains yourselves please contact us in time, then we'll inform you how to register. Or else we deem it as your waiver.
Best Regards,
Henry Huang
Senior Consultant
But I SAID BUGGER AWF.. I DONT WANT YOUR SILLY MICE.. or something to that affect... Yeah, it's a scam!
Anyway it does raise some intresting points about Brand Names and Registerd Trade Marks... At what point do you think you should be looking into registering your Brand Name as a trade mark (if you can) to stop this sort of thing really happening!