Already the first day of the .ME auction we got trademark issues as there are 5 bidders on Sony.me currently at $105.
In coming days realtor.me
Harley.me
macbook.me
macworld.me
redskins.me
thomascook.me
ducati.me
cocacola.me
We have asked many times before how GoDaddy can allow clear trademark infringing domains be auctioned off on their platform. Now GoDaddy is not only using their own platform, but as the owner of the .me registry they apparently will be getting the proceeds of the auction of these clearly trademark violation domains.
Very troubling.
I’m curious to know how hug.me will be developed.
I’m curious to see if insure.me sale actually goes through.
I’m curious to see if there will be a TM lawsuit filed before the week is out.
I’m curious to see anyone who is not a speculator buy a .me domain.
Sorry, Mike, I don’t mean to be a .me hater and I’m all in favor of speculation but this does nothing for me.
Good luck in the chase. I hope things go your way.
On May 6th, companies with registered trademarks should have registered their names to prevent folks registering them. Unfortunately, most, not all companies don’t get the importance of domain names or protecting their space on the web (this doesn’t make it right for an individual and/or company to purchase a registered trademark name that doesn’t rightfully belong to them). Correctly if I’m wrong, but if a company didn’t reserve their .me trademark name, as I recall, they may be out of luck per the .me rules. Michael, I agree with you, very troubling.
Rob
You don’t hurt my feelings.
I don’t own the registry.
I think there are around 100 .me names worth owning.
Hug.me would be a god social networking site.
I do think there is some of the public buying .me domains because godaddy advertises so much to the general public.
Its really unbelievable to me that Godaddy would actually sell off sony.me to the highest bidder and put the money in their pocket, not to mention all the other ones on the list.
Scott
Yes there was a time to apply with a trademark but even if sony.me did not apply for it, no other company or individual has a right to use the name sony.me.
We know this, Godaddy.com knows it as well.
So when they take some fools money for a trademark domain, its bad news for the industry.
I am not a trademark attorney but if someone wants to start a south of new york or some other S O N Y anagram name and sell outdoor furniture or something, there is little sony can do about it.
WIPO says the domain owner must violate all three of the following before WIPO will take the domain away
1. confusingly similar
2. no legitimate use
3. bad faith.
So, someone can develop a sony.me so long as they are not in the electronics business IMO
They still might be sued but godaddy had a sunrise period. If sony did not want to be proactive, they did not have to be.
How can any company own every since domain extension in the world anyway? How many are there 300 or so?
Michael, I am in total agreement with you and yes a company or an individual should not register a trademark that doesn’t rightfully belong to them. It’s definitely not a positive for the domain industry, perhaps “all” registrars don’t allow any individual and/or company register a trademark name that doesn’t belong to them-I think that where you have to start and would help clean-up the industry.
Rob
300 extensions plus hundreds of more coming.
This type of situation will only give CADNA more power and make there arguments stronger which is bad for domains.
pepsi.me $80 thus far (trademark issue to say the least)
Rob
What you think, can you use pepsi.me to stand for something else and just not sell soft drinks?
Like “people eat pickles says i”
A few names coming-up that may have a trademark issue or not(there are plenty additional names-here’s a small snapshot)
heinz; starbucks; mitsubishi; footlocker; tyco; chanel; sonypictures; ncaa; overstock; dominos; morganstanley; americanexpress, igoogle ? etc.
Scott
I don’t know why these were not blocked by godaddy
Michael:
I am speechless; why didn’t “HS-CEO of a company I mentioned above reserve its name; after all Mr. S was a financial backer of iReit.
to MHB
Sure, you would have a tough time doing something with pepsi .anything but how about apple computers and apple records and the apple farmer? All are entitled to apple.com.
Anyway, godaddy is probably not obligated to hold a sony.me or a pepsi.me. Imagine the ones they don’t hold, then they are liable for not holding every potential TM from every country in the world.
Just the joy of another .whatever rollout.
Remember .eu? They called back some domains because of improper use.
Honestly, I don’t understand why people would speculate with new extensions.
With that said, I made money on the .mobi rollout so I am guilty of speculation myself 🙂
General Comment, not directed at anybody in particular.
Most successful business people take chances and speculate, that’s the entrepreneurial spirit!
Of course…it wouldn’t be the “most successful domain launch…” without TMs…
What happened to the clarion call .com is King / all other extensions will just mean more traffic to .com just about every post treated new extensions with distain !!
I can understand value of .tv or possibly .vid but any other extension advertised by a developed site will just undermine your existing portfolio’s ? If you do not see or hear of it you will not use .it or trust .it and as for CADNA they IMO could be of great service to .com & country codes.
I would not want to be in the trenches with some of you chaps
Companies with registered trademarks should have registered their names to prevent people from registering them. Just because a Company holds a registered trademark it is NOT their right to take away the domain name for the person which has registered it first.
Damir
Sorry the law does not work that way.
We all sent through this years ago.
You cannot beat pepsi to the draw and register the domain first and you basically can’t register and use it just because they elected not to register it.
They can always come after you for it, and I am not aware of any case where a court has ruled against a famous trademark holder who passed on registering a domain using some extension.