04 Jun Warning regarding registration of domain names in Asia
We are receiving a high number of inquiries from clients regarding proposals or notices about the registration of domain names (DNs) under extensions corresponding to some Asian countries (.cn, .hk, .asia, .tw, etc.). These proposals are made by alleged registrars of the area, particularly China and Hong Kong.
In our opinion, this is a questionable or fraudulent business practice.
This practice is as follows: after checking in the relevant Registries that a certain DN -coincident with an existing trademark- is not registered, a firm that claims to be an Asia DNs registrar sends an email to the owner of the trademark to inform him that a third party intends to register different DNs whose name matches that of the protected trademark. Thus, the alleged registrars appear as acting in good faith to protect the rights of the trademark owner, when in fact their only intention is to push him to register a package DNs (for a period usually from 5 -10 years and for a high amount of money).
We have verified that, if the recipient replies to the message, the alleged registrars proceed to quickly register the DNs in question -so that to secure a position of strength- and subsequently start negotiations for the sale of the DNs package.
If for practical reasons you are interested in registering DNs with different extensions, our office can handle their filing and prosecution acting directly before the official Registries of each country / organization or through our network of accredited correspondents.
You should note that there are more than 200 DNs territorial extensions (apart from many other generic ones) and that the best way of protection against abusive practices is the international registration of your trademarks.
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash