Internet Trademark

Thank you for the explanation. We received a similar scam email and we were concerned.

Thank you very much for providing this information. I have been contacted about 2 domain names so far from different companies in China (with what look like valid web sites) with email subjects like “Emergency Notice Network Trademark Registration”.
The first time was about a client’s domain name & it was regarding China-specific extensions, which we saw no benefit in registering.
The second time was about my own domain name & included the internet keyword registration, which prompted me to do more research. My gut feeling was that it was a scam & I’m glad for the confirmation.
Thank you!

Ok… so I received one of these emails too. I read your blog and felt reassured that this was a scam. When I called this “Michael” on it, I have been bombarded with more emails from him. I am starting to get freaked out, I really don’t want anyone purchasing my name (as I may very well expand worlwide in the future). I already own the .com address so I think this should be enough. Here’s the latest email that I received. I would love your input on what I should do from here (if anything).

Dear Sir,

Government request us to audit and record the application during the process of registration.Now,You just tell me whether you would like to register the brand keyword not.If you don’t think their application will affect your company, you can give up internet trademark, we will finish their registration. If they register those domain names for imitating you web, invading some market of you, linking to some illegal webs, selling to your competitors or even something worse, you should take the consequences! we never involve in this matter again. But If you attach great importance to protect your brand, As a professional domain name registration organization,I suggest you register it by yourself before Sabre Holdings Ltd. This is the only way to prevent trademark grab. Please consider this matter more carefully. If you have no other questions, we will send an application form to you and help you register it within dispute period,Pls confirm.
Best Regards,
Michael

You don’t mention their company Karen, or the name of your company, but they are scamming you to get you to part with your money for domain names that are useless to you. Check back over all the comments, pick out some of the company names and then do asian domain name searches and see if any of them were actually registered by the companies that were supposed to be on the verge of buying them - I can’t find any. If you are worried about your brand, and again,I don’t know what you sell or what the name of your site is, buy the domain names that you someone may actually want if they were trying to steal your branding, like .org, ,net and .co.uk. The asian domain names are worthless unless you are aiming at the asian market and even then, an established .com site will always come before a new .net.hk for example. Bin the emails and don’t worry about it. BM

We have received 2 email below from 2 different companies wanting to use our registered company name with the suffix .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia/ domain names.

We knew you have registered the domain name “accommodationauctions.com” and own the intellectual property / own the trademark “accommodationauctions”, this is why we informed you. But now the company wanted to apply for other domain names and internet trademark name you have not registered yet. the company wants to apply the following domain names and internet trademark name:

You must know Domain name takes open registration, this is international domain name registration principle. So the company has right to register them. As a domain name registrar, we have no right to dispute their application. So required by China government to inform your company to protect your interest. But as the company whose trademarks relate to the applied domains, you will get the priority to register these domain names.

If you have business in China & Asia or you want to develop business in China & Asia in the near future, so I think these domain names are very important for you! Of course, each company has their own idea. If you don’t think their application will affect your company, you can give up, we will finish their registration. But if you think these domain names are useful for your company, we can send an application form to you and help you register these within dispute period. This is the only way to prevent domain name grab. Pls let us know your decision soon, so that we can handle the next step.
And email No 2 from another company
We are a internet service (software development, website design and development, wifi network works to promote the protection of brands, search engine optimization, etc.) company in China,

Several days ago we received a formal application submited by Robert Jiang who wanted to use the keyword “accommodationauctions” to register the Internet Brand and with

suffix .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia/ domain names.

After our initial checking through Internet , we found that the keyword “accommodationauctions” to be applied for registration is same as your keyword.Accordingly,before we finish his registration,we would like to get your final decision about this,whether you mind his registration,if you believe his registration would affect your bussiness and produce conflict,then we could give your priority to register them,as the keyword is first used by your company.However,if you do not think so,please advise of that and then we will finish his registration.

Does this sound like a scam??

I should cocoa! go to your google address bar (not the search box) and type in: accommodationauctions. You don’t need the http://or the www, the the words in the domain name. Google take you straight to your site. That’s the internet trademark they are trying to sell you and as for someone trying to sign up your domain names - check in a month and see if they have been bought - they won’t be - and even if they are, it will have absolutely no effect on your business, unless you are marketing to people in Hong Kong in the Chinese language, ofcourse. Have a mighty fine day! BM