Sedo has a blacklist of domains.
Sedo even uses the email address of Blacklist at Sedo.de to send these notices out:
Here is what one of these messages look like:
Dear Mr. Admin,
We are writing to inform you that Sedo has received a complaint of potential trademark infringement regarding the use of the following domain names in conjunction with Sedo services:
kkk.es
Due to the famous nature of the trademark contained in the domain at issue, Sedo is forced to remove your domain from the domain marketplace and parking program at this time. This action in no way affects your registration or control of the domain, your Sedo user account or the other domains you have listed for sale or parked with Sedo. However, due to the potential of infringement of a famous mark Sedo must do the following:
– Suspend the domain name from our domain marketplace
– Suspend the domain name from our parking program
“”Sedo takes great pains to strike a balance between the legitimate rights of domain owners and third party intellectual property owners and require verification of legal complaints before taking any action against a domain listed for sale or parked with Sedo.””
That is one I got.
Another domainer send me a blacklisting he received on one of this domains:
Miamicruiselines.com
I check there are no federal trademarks for the term “Miami cruise lines”
Another blacklist I got was for fortbaynard.com which is a territory in New Mexico, again no federal trademark on either Fort Baynard or Ftbaynard
So one has to wonder Sedo actual does what they say:
We “require verification of legal complaints before taking any action against a domain listed for sale or parked with Sedo”
I mean it takes one minute to determine if there is of isn’t a federal trademark on a term.
On other other hand, not only listed on Sedo’s system, but in actual auctions with bids are these two gems:
Yeah who would possibly see a trademark problem with either of those domains?
Sure its great if auction and parking systems want to try to keep their platforms clean, but if they are going to do it, how about really doing it in a proper and effective manner fair to all parties.
Laughable…oops, I hope mashable doesn’t see this.
Easily the best post I have read this week. Thanks for having the guts to put this out there. When a domain investor of your reputation brings issues like this to light, it carries a lot of weight.
Trademarked names should not be available for registration, though it would be difficult to make that work. But, certainly, no trademarked domain name should be allowed to be sold in an auction or allowed to be in a marketplace.
LOL, the Offer Description for FACEEOOK.COM says: “typo domain, large traffic”.
Well, domainers are just being crapped on every direction that turns.
Nothing surprises me as to what Google, Yahoo, Bing, the domain auction platforms, lawyers, arrogant developers, and the parking companies say or do anymore.
We have the best traffic, yet we are treated like total dog dirt.
Unfortunately the biggest problem with a company of this size is the lack of ability to personally handle all the names. The biggest problem I see is their inconsistancy in their rules. One thing is fine and others are not. I think it comes down to complaints. I think if you complain you can get a name taken down. Not sure they even check.
It’s time to come down hard on these cybesquatters and I’m not just meaning registrants but auction providers like SEDO. They are the biggest problem by aproving such squatting trademark names of this caliber for auction. Such marketplaces like SEDO are providing criminals a trading plattform and should be liable for such action. It’s not hard to check every domain going to auction, but just like every business, it’s all about making money.
Aproving by listing such trademarkt names on there plattform is a criminal act which should be investigated.
There are no excuses for such criminal acts and puts a very dark shadow on the domaining comunity.
“Yeah who would possibly see a trademark problem with either of those domains?”
they’re pretty close to the original names
has SEDO banned the domains or their owners?
I was trying to list and park my domain RapeVideos.co.uk through Sedo, but i was unable to do so. When i contacted support they told me that they can’t allow it in their marketplace due to some law infringment.
OK no problem.
But i was amazed to see the singular Rapevideo.co.uk parked and listed through sedo. It was hard to understand that the term ‘rapevideos’ is legally banned but there isn’t any problem in the term ‘rapevideo’. I contacted support and never got a response………,..
?@MQJ i own a few adult porn names and i am certainly not a prude and the most unreligious person you could ever meet,but i have to say i am appalled at your choice of domain,what on earth made you register such a name?, i have very few lines i wont cross, but this is one of them.
also then say ” When i contacted support they told me that they can’t allow it in their marketplace due to some law infringment”
Some law infringment???, you mean like the henous crime that is rape and you wanting to advertise a site called rapevideos?
You seem more concerned with the fact the singular ( an equally aphorent name) is allowed on Sedo than the fact you have registered a name to cash in on a serious sexual crime.
I understand that some people have these fantasies and you could use consentual false rape scenes, but come on what kind of sicko do you think types “rape videos” into a search anyway?
Mobile phones are used to record all kinds of sick assaults ,having domains like this will only encourage this to continue, say someone bought this off you then proceeded to use it for a site showing assaults?.Had you considered this ? or is any possible sale of the domain more important to you than having morals?.
Back on topic, Agree with Duane coompletely, this needs to be stamped out and holding people like Sedo to account would be a step in the right direction and would show something is trying to be done.
@ Bob
(Quote) what kind of sicko do you think types “rape videos”
into a search anyway? (Unquote)
——————————-
That’s how,
SICKO “MQJ” ended up … registering that Domain Name 🙂
@Bob
First of all stop blaming me for registering the domain name and trying to sell it. If you really wanna do something then go and argue with 250k+ peoples who frequently google the term ‘Rape Videos’ (or just sue google, bing and yahoo etc. for indexing illegal rape sites), Go and ask all the webmasters of rape videos, pics and stories containing websites to shut them down, Go and ask all the million of viewer to stop who love watching the same rape video five times, Go and ask all the advertisors who spend millions for advertising on the rape vid or pic containing websites, Go and ask all the rape domain owners to delete it (or just sue ICANN and other registeries for allowing registration of rape domains), Go and ask the owners of rape.com and rapevideos.com why they registered the domain or just tell them to delete it right now so that someone else can register it and trade it for a whopping six or seven figure…………!
These are just some simple steps to do what do you want to do. And please don’t forget to inform me so that i can also contribute in this. In fact, i am already a part of your great work until i am not building any illegal site on it and just keeping it registered so that anyone else can’t register it and build a illegal site on it. So, you should say “thanks” not “sick” to me for being a part of your great work Bob!
One more thing Bob, everything depends on your point of view. Suppose, someone from Sedo read my post and realise their mistake and delete the domain “RapeVideo.co.uk” from their marketplace. This way one more sale which could lead to an illegal website stops…….
@MQJ
I dont want this to descend into a debate, suffice to say you bought it to keep others from regsitering it, yet by your own admission you then moaned when you were not allowed to put it on Sedo, the biggest auction house on the internet for selling domains ?
And your argument that others do it ,so its ok for you to do it is rather pathetic imo.
Each to their own, but i do not know or care to know how many people type in rape videos, nor do i want to try to profit from these types of names.
Great point about Sedo listing blatant trademark infringements. I was wondering why nobody was mentioning it…
If you sort by traffic you can quickly find some of those, and don’t tell me Sedo doesn’t know. It’s just so easy to see:
tumlr.com 34,000 visits in last 30 days; “make offer”;
twiteer.com 24,000 visits
youtuvbe.com 17,000 visits
wikipédia.com 18,000 visits
etc etc
there are dozens of those.
@Bob
I am not saying that i don’t want to sell the name or don’t want to make money from it. By posting about Sedo not letting me park my domain through them, i didn’t mean that i was dying to sell my domain and Sedo kicked my ass. The point i raised from my 1st comment was that Sedo is not completely fair in banning illegal term containing domains.
My efforts to park the domain through sedo was when i had newely registered that domain. If you visit the domain now. You will see a blogger template installed on it which helps you to build a video viewing site. This template supports only youtube videos and as much as i know youtube doesn’t allowes illegal videos. In fact, i was trying to build a video site opposing rapevideos and illegal contains. I was experimenting on building a video site to make peoples aware from watching illegal rape contens.
But you guys don’t try to listen anyone else and start shouting…………………
Ok
Guys get off the rape video topic and get back to the subject at hand.
DO you really think they had complaints about generics? They don’t tant you competing with names they own themselves. IMO sedo is corrupt and are no longer an ethical company.
In terms of service, I think Sedo rapes their customers. Typical large company that has the market share and doesn’t give a fuc*. From my experience with them and what I have read they triumph at mediocrity and only do what they say they are going to do when it behooves them. Otherwise they suck, but most are too intimidated to say anything, so in that regard I would also deem them as bullies.
@ Bruce TedeschiT
They don’t want you competing with names they own themselves. IMO sedo is corrupt and are no longer an ethical company.
———————————————–
More then true,
VERY TRUE!
Halverez is alive and well!
I think they even hold back on bids and AND LOWER VALUE
JUST to try to get you to sell for LESS …
so then there In house Clowns can buy it for themselves
via offshore associates.
OR sell it for HALF (DISCOUNT)
just so THEY can get THERE commission anyways …
AUCTIONS are the LAST of the …
“SHELL GAME” genre.
Have to agree, it is laughable. Although in theory some may well be justified but for crying in a bucket follow through with all domains!
I am the owner of one of the domain names mentioned above…
MiamiCruiselines.com
First I’ll say that I like Sedo for the most part and my account rep was very helpful getting information for me and the attorney from Germany offered a reply to justify the banning of the domain from the Sedo system.
The Sedo legal department told me that they had to take down my domain because of a court action by Louis Vuitton against Sedo.
I was told they did this for my protection from Louis Vuitton however I have never had any complaints or even inquires on the GENERIC domain MiamiCruiselines.com
As Mike said above, there is NO TRADEMARK for Miami Cruiselines.
I was sent this URL as “proof” of my quilt as a cybersquatter:
http://www.lvmh.com/groupe/pg_societe.asp?str_table_1=societe&int_id=65&rub=3&srub=5
I have asked for proof of my “crime” and that Sedo reinstate the domain since there is no TM violation.
Sedo has many black holes, the more you look the more you find.
I wasn’t allowed to park this domain:
Bushido.tv(which now has been sold), because there is a German artist under that name. They couldnt understand that Bushido is a real Japanese word and martial arts term that has been around for centuries now.
I use them only for escrow and that happens in rare occasions since they aren’t any good at this too.
They give this business a bad name
The issue that I have had with Sedo over the years is that English is not the primary language of those making the decisions. This is evident in the names they choose to feature along with their valuation process.
And a blatant violation of their own terms is allowing English language names with a non-English extension, such as .de or .mx.
I see the company as highly inconsistent and often frivolous.
My notice was for BlondeBeers.com [I have 4 versions (BlondeBeer(s).com and BlondBeer(s).com] I responded with a request for the tm it violated and they replied that it was a mistake and should not have been flagged….Nevermind. They typically will respond with this letter/notice with any broad complaint
The Tm they were worried about was DeBeers
i received a mail like this as well,for the domain
sugarcanerum.com
i dont know what to think
marco
Sedo is a shell game company. All one needs to do is look at their premium auction criteria and how unevenly those names are picked to know that there is something self serving going on. WE have all had names rejected at Sedo for quality only to scratch our heads at the current month’s inventory.
They suck.
Over the last year I have worked hard to hand register what I thought are good domains. 100 .coms such as workingmine.com , drugimpaired.com , trickytobeat.com , and tzivia.com
yard.es, punch.es, mulch.es
avaro.es
I had all of my domains parked at sedo but over 100 requests to have domains sent to auction were declined. Something smells at sedo. peayou.con
Blacklists? …. interesting What other businesses can afford to blacklist potential business?
Strange business.
Robert McLean
I had an issue with this and Sedo back in 07. I wrote them and mentioned I wanted to know how they were involved since it takes a legal action to establish trademark infringements. I asked for a copy of the complaint. Never answered.
I got an answer in person at a convention. The Sedo attorney said Sedo decides which names they don’t want to allow.
It makes sense that they don’t want to middleman complaints so they police themselves conservatively.
I suppose Sedo can delist any domains they choose but when they tell someone it’s because of a TM and there is no TM, then I think they are wrong.
Overall though I will say that I am very happy with Sedo and they are certainly not a bad company as some people said above.
All great people from my experience.
@ Sc2
THE SEDO ATTORNEY said ….
Sedo decides which names they don’t want to allow…
___________________________
So do you think that if your DN entry would
UPSTAGE and devalue a DN that THEY OWN (Be the Better Buy)
You’d get Bumped?
maybe their clerks are robots
ps ………..fix your search sedo it’s become a joke !
Names like PlayStation3.net are huge websites. They make a great community name IMO.
As long as it won’t be used to make money off the TM by ads or impersonating I don’t see how the .org would have any issues.
UPDATE
Sedo has asked me to post this as their official response to this post:
“”@Michael, thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Whenever it is about security and trademarks in the domain industry, and especially on the Sedo platform, we agree that this is an ongoing important topic for every domain owner. That’s why we have well-staffed Security & Compliance and Legal teams located in both Boston and Cologne, that get hundreds of complaints a year.”
“But regardless of internal resources, with more than 17 million domains in our database in 20+ languages, Sedo relies on the help of trademark owners and the community to help us prevent offensive or infringing domains from being traded on our platform. ”
“If you ever receive an email from Sedo’s Security & Compliance or Legal team notifying that your domain has been blocked from the platform for any reason, whether due to a complaint to our Rights Protection Program (RPP) or violation of our offensive domain policy, and you feel that the decision was made in error, we are more than happy to review if there has been an error from our side or give you more information on the complaint from the trademark owner. ”
“We have checked the two domains you mentioned, playstation3.org and faceebook.com to ensure the blocking occurred in accordance with policy, and here are the hard facts:
“both domains were pushed to auction by the owners and no Sedo employee was involved with the listing or sale of these domain at any time.”
“While Sedo has received a RPP complaints from both Facebook and Sony, owners of the marks contained in the domain names, these domains were not caught by our blocking mechanism due to an error and would have been removed from the auction upon notifications.”
“It’s important to note, however, that Sedo does not proactively block or review domains for trademark clearance.”
“Sedo’s staff are neither in a position to determine all the relevant facts to make such a decision and we must rely on the rights owners themselves to notify us if they are concerned about a domain or pattern of domains utilizing Sedo’s services.”
“I can only assume that the domain community would agree with this stance as we do not view Sedo as an arbitrator of what domains do and do not violate third party rights.”
If a reader of your website finds a domain on Sedo they believe infringes the rights of a third party, this is not evidence that Sedo does not take trademark infringement seriously, but rather indicates we have not received a complaint from anyone about that term.”
“That’s why we launched the Rights Protection Program in 2004. ”
“Our goal is to find the right balance between the interest of domain owners and trademark holders and we do our best to respond to the legitimate concerns of both communities.”
“By instituting the clear policies of use and complaints on our website we try to make it clear that Sedo’s role is to provide services that bring value to the domain owner and the public alike. “”
“Sedo relies on the help of trademark owners and the community to help us prevent offensive or infringing domains”
In my case of MiamiCruiselines.com, there is NO TRADEMARK HOLDER yet Sedo banned my domain.
and
“Our goal is to find the right balance between the interest of domain owners and trademark holders and we do our best to respond to the legitimate concerns of both communities.”
Again, Louis Vuitton, the company with the court action against Sedo is NOT the trademark holder on my domain yet Sedo, by association, has agreed with LV that I am a cybersquatter on a term that is NOT TRADEMARKED.
I have asked that the domain be allowed back into the Sedo system since there IS NO TRADEMARK on my MiamiCruiselines.com.
I am doing this to prove a point to Sedo and to the public that Louis Vuitton cannot inappropriately request domains to be banned simply because they decided to use the term in my domain name.
It is in our best collective interests to fight the likes of a Louis Vuitton who acts with heavy handed demands to have domains banned from Sedo.
Who knows how far this over-litigious French company will go and then who knows what other companies will follow and then who knows how easily Sedo will cave in to specious demands.
Note that I have NEVER received any email or phone inquiry or cease and desist letter regarding MiamiCruiselines.com yet Sedo has no problem agreeing with LV and declaring me “guilty” of TM infringement.
Sedo is acting as judge and jury here so by agreeing to act in LV’s favor, I’m afraid that Sedo has deemed me guilty thus jeopardizing my rights of ownership of this domain.
Kind of a line in the sand challenge for me.
I don’t like to be proven guilty without a fair hearing especially without the ability to confront my accuser or testify on my own behalf.
PS. Is there some reason that Sedo couldn’t register as a member and post their comment for themselves? This seems like a cowardly way by Sedo to post a comment. Now they don’t have to see any follow on comments.
Can you post the name of the person who asked you to post the Sedo comment? A fair request, no? Why does this Sedo employee have to be anonymous? Is this an official Sedo reply or not?
Thanks Mike. I appreciate everything you do.
ESPECIALLY @Chris, and @Robert McLean, Aaarrrggh! Like you, we have submitted scores of really juicy domains, including dozens and dozens on one-word generics (and a few cute invented generics) and they have accepted nothing.
It’s sufficiently upsetting that we bought a few domain auction sites in hope of sharing our experience… by way of appropriate keywords.
Marketplace pressure ultimately works more efficiently than regulation, right?
Numerous good and useful comments here. Thanks to you all.
I have noticed whenever i would put up a keyword generic it would almost get an immediate hit on the offer page as soon as it was listed so someone is watching,then it only gets internal offer page hits no park page hits and i really have seen some great domains go for low prices only to show up two or three days later with very high prices so someone is really smart or has an in, and really the domains they will pick for auction sometimes make no sense at all.
UPDATE
Here is another TM domain the Sedo sold yesterday at auction:
viagraonline.com
http://www.sedo.com/auction/auction_history.php?language=us&auction_id=108765&tracked=&partnerid=35426&language=us
Its been a long time coming to develop the next “Sedo” and “Afternic” because both of those places suck the rust off of trailer hinges, they’re so bad. It would please many people to see Sedo and Afternic go away.
@patrick of http://www.thedomains.com/2010/11/21/sedo-blacklists-generics-while-holding-auctions-for-trademark-infringing-terms/#comment-68541
This is the game these places play. Dare you ask about why or how things work and YOU are blacklisted because they dont want you to know PRECISELY how things work. Maybe a phone call to the appropriate office in the government to look into the massive fraud will rattle their bones.
Seems to me it’s basically “guilty until proven innocent” when they receive a complaint.
It’s a moot point with me, although I have a few domains listed with Sedo, I’ve never so much as received an offer on any of them.
good article!thank you for sharing!