London, Leeds & Exeter
Wed 2nd Nov 2016
IP Scam #3 – Beware of international copycat domain claims
Services: Brand protection, Patents, Trade marks
Sectors: Brand owners
Each week we are notified by a client to say that they have been contacted by an official-looking Chinese domain name company with a notification that a third party is trying to register their brands as Chinese domain names and asking if this is authorised.
The scammers hope that the recipient will respond by registering many Chinese domain names with them for a substantial fee. You should be wary of emails from China saying that third parties are seeking to register your trade marks as domain names. Such notices are likely to be false, and if there really was such an attempted registration of a domain name, why would they contact you?
Action
You are advised not to enter into correspondence with the sender, nor to use the sender for your domain name registrations. You should instead use a reputable domain name company to secure the domain names that you really need. If you do find that third parties have registered your name as a domain name, there is often action that can be taken at an administrative, or court level.
Advice
For more advice on all aspects of trade mark and domain name protection for your brand in the UK, Europe and internationally, please contact James Cornish on 44 (0) 207 831 7929 or email james.cornish@pagewhite.com.
This briefing is for general information purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice relating to your particular circumstances. We can discuss specific issues and facts on an individual basis and answer any questions you receive from others about Brexit. Please note that the law may have changed since the date this was first published in November 2016.
