UKNM: Re: UKNM Digest V1 #285 -Reply

[John Enser]

We've seen this before.  It is the next stage up in scams following registering names and selling them back to the trade mark owner was squashed in court.  If nobody has actually registered the names with the DN registrar - nominet for .co.uk names  and NetSol for .com  then you should just get your usual agency to register them first.   Alternatively let it go, as you can always use your trademarks to stop them being used by third parties.


The scam is clever because they know that if they actually registered the names they would be jumped all over for infringement.  Until they register, they are probably not doing anything they can be sued for  and they can make a tidy margin on the registrations.


John Enser

Olswang

www.olswang.co.uk


>

>> <aaaatl [dot] uk [dot] com> 15/October/1999 09:38am >>>

From: Anthony Appleby

Re: Domain names


Jonathan.

There are several points here:

1. It may well be a scam for you to buy domain names, however, 

.co.uk's are now �5 each so the price they are selling them to you 

will determine the extent of that.

2. Copyright.

- For all the names you mentioned the copyright is clearly yours so 

the punter would not get too far before expecting a court case, that 

is provided he is in the UK. If he is in the US or somewhere you 

don't have the name then bye bye names or hello big legal fees.

It would be much cheaper for you to buy them now - if that is you 

want them.

3. Practical.

Do you want these names for any reason:

Here some reasons you might want them.

- search engines like names with names in them (if people 

searched for hmv for instance)

- You can set up multiple entrances to your site and thereby get 

more traffic and position your site to different audiences under each 

domain name. (strategic play)

- You can reserve them for a rainy day when all domain names 

have run out!

Reasons you may not want them:

- some of them may be a complete waste of time not spelling 

anything useful or unlikely to be guessed at if you are looking for 

hmv records etc.

- you can't afford them

- you don't want to be bullied

Conclusions:

- If I were you I'd reserve *all* names that are realistically the name 

of the company eg waterstonesdirect.com/co.uk,  they are much 

more useful in your hands as a forward thinking marketer than they 

are in the hands of an aggressive competitor.

- I would also take the time to source domain names that reflect 

the products you sell like books.com etc (obviously already taken 

but that doesn't weaken the point I'm making).

- You don't have to reserve them through the guy asking you to, 

although he may actually be helping you here.

Regards

Anthony Appleby


> Hi

> 

> HMV and Waterstone's have been approached by a company called Business

> Serve, (PostCode LA1 1NN) who have detailed attempts by a 'hotmail user' to

> register twenty or so possible URLs with our business names in them -

> HMV-records.co.uk; Waterstonesdirect.com. They called me in response to

> having received all these name requests, and wondered if we would like to

> register them before the member of the public did. I have a couple of

> problems with this: One - if you want to register CocaCola and you can, why

> would anyone want to offer it to Coca-Cola for the same fee? Two: as a name

> buyer I'd go potty if a name I had registered an interest in was offered to

> someone else. Three: could this possibly be a scam to get me to panic and

> register a few names making the service agency several hundred quid? ;-)

> 

> If any of you have had the same call about a James Hart, who has invested in

> 30 names (to my knowledge) to date, perhaps you might want to be suspicious

> - - this bloke is clearly a very wealthy man buying hundreds of speculative

> names...

> 

> Thoughts?

> 

> Jonathan Wilson

> Internet Business Manager

> Waterstones.co.uk


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