Duets Blog : Creativity and the Law: DuetsBlog

We thought we had arrived when DuetsBlog made a listing of the Top 100 Branding Blogs, and it also was kind of nice when the DuetsBlog mark became federally registered, but now it appears we have reached yet another level of notoriety, appreciation, and respect altogether, as DuetsBlog is now receiving the most thoughtful of email solicitations all the way from Hong Kong to protect our apparently and admittedly famous DuetsBlog trademark from "vicious domain name grabbing":

Dear Manager,

 

We are a professional intellectual property rights consultant organization, mainly deal with the global domain name registration and internet intellectual property rights protection.

 

On August. 2th, 2010, we formally received an application from Hongyue International Investment Co., Ltd, They want to apply for registering the following domain names and Internet keyword: 

 

Domain Name:

 

 duetsblog.net
 duetsblog.cn
 duetsblog.asia
 duetsblog.hk  
 duetsblog.com.hk  
 duetsblog.jp 
 duetsblog.tw

 

Internet Keyword :duetsblog

 

During our preliminary investigation, we found that these domain names' keyword is fully identical with your trademark. Therefore, we need to confirm with you, whether you consigned hongyue International Investment Co., Ltd to register these domain names with us or not? Or, is hongyue International Investment Co., Ltd your business partner or distributor?  If you have no relationship with this company, we assume that they have other purposes to obtain these domain names.

 

Currently, we have already suspended this company's application temporarily due to the seriousness of this isuue. In order to avoid the vicious domain name grabbing,  please let the relevant person make a confirmation with me via telephone or email as soon as possible. Thank you for your support to our work!

 

Best Regards

 

Asia Domain Name Registration Limited, 

Units 20/F, Far East Consortium Bldg.,
121 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong

 

Vivian 

Tel:+852-6517 0670
Fax:+852-3069 6940
Email: admin@login-idc.hk
http://www.world-wtc.cn

Well, thanks for thinking of us, but no thanks, Vivian, we're actually running for the hills at the moment, and just so you know, when clients are interested in registering domains in Asia, you don't even make the short list.

Peeking behind the curtain, according to DomainTools, "West Group" owns the world-wtc.cn domain, so, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, just in case you're wondering, right?

No, this is the West Group that most of us in the legal field know well, and the one that emerges as the top Google hit when using "West Group" as a search keyword. Definately no relation, but perhaps a cause of action.

This kind of thing has been going on for a while, we're just one of the latest targets. Bloptimization previously wrote about the Asian Domain Name Registration Limited scam, and Rumplepup has written about Chinese Domain Name Frauds too.

What is your experience with these kinds of unsolicited email communications?

Do you respond or simply ignore them?

When we don't blog about them, we do the latter.

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Putting aside, for now, the unsettled question of who currently owns the iPad trademark, and Dan's perspective on Apple's trademark clearance strategies, from last week, look at what our finely-tuned e-mail spam filter just snagged:

It is a similar story to my previous Free Dell XPS Laptop Spam Scam? blog post from last December. Here, however, the Apple, iPad, and the (possible) iPad configuration trademarks, are the newest form of brand bait for what appears to be an ongoing type of spam e-mail scam. They're fast. It only took about two weeks after Apple's announcement of the iPad for these folks to bait their electronic hook with the newest branding lure.

By the way, how is it that these folks can make the free offer before Apple's iPad tablet is even available to the public? As of today, Apple still has a notify me page, if you'd like to "be among the first to receive iPad." So, doesn't the present unavailability of the iPad add to the misleading nature of the above advertisement because it seeks "testers" for this "new" product?

What do you think, misleading advertising, fair use of Apple's intellectual property?

This story also appears related to the topic covered in my previous Is Wal-Mart Giving Away Free $1,000 Gift Cards? blog post too.

What do these unsolicited e-mail programs have in common? Well, besides the fact that they all appear to originate from Canada (for reasons unknown to me), they use well-known, if not famous brands to attract attention online and convince you to supply them with your e-mail address. Really, would anyone pay even an ounce of attention to any of these e-mail spam solicitations without the unauthorized use of these popular brand names and images?

In an apparent attempt to avoid misleading anyone and confusion, of course, as was the case with the Free Dell XPS offer and the Wal-Mart $1,000 Gift Card offer, the Apple iPad ad offers a purported disclaimer:

The advertisers in this email are not affiliated with any of the above brands.

This is a third party advertisement sent to you by the list owner. If you no longer wish to receive email from this advertiser, please write Reward Group 191 7 West 4th Avenue, Suite 279 Vancouver, B.C. VJ6-1M7 or visit our email removal site by click here.

If you do not wish to receive correspondence from the list manager you will need to follow the unsubscribe instructions provide by the list manager on how to remove you from their list.

Who are the advertisers? Who is the list owner? It says the advertisers are not affiliated with any of the brands, so does that mean the list owner is? Does this disclaimer do the job with claims relating to likelihood of confusion as to source, affiliation, sponsorship, and approval?

Even in the unlikely event it does, what about claims for initial interest confusion? Where is the disclaimer for that additional type of unlawful trademark confusion? And, since there is a reasonable claim of trademark fame for many of these brands, is it even possible to have a disclaimer that avoids a state or federal dilution claim concerning a famous mark?

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Same drill as yesterday. Another email spam scam? More trademark fair use abuse?

Is it just me, or is the branded email spam coming out of the virtual woodwork, or what?

It appears that spam email -- complete with fully branded solicitations -- is becoming more and more aggressive, both from legal and technology perspectives.

We have a pretty aggressive email spam filter, but this one, like the one I blogged about yesterday, slide right through our screen, just like butter.

From the legal and trademark perspective, don't these advertisers pay attention to the limitations of the nominative fair use defense?

With respect to the purported disclaimer, if you were to scroll all the way down to the bottom of your computer screen, before you hit the CLICK HERE icon, you'd find it is virtually identical to the one from yesterday, only the mailing address has changed:

The advertisers in this email are not affiliated with any of the above brands.

This is a third party advertisement sent to you by the list owner. If you no longer wish to receive email from this list owner, please write Gift Sponsors 7B-871 Victoria Street North, Suite #105, Kitchener, Ontario N2b 3S4 or visit our email removal site by click here.

If you do not wish to receive correspondence from the list manager you will need to follow the unsubscribe instructions provide by the list manager on how to remove you from their list.

Now, at least one website suggests that Wal-Mart is the one actually behind these kind of free gift card offers, here, but I find that really, really hard to believe.

What do you think? What do you know?

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What if you were told that if you agreed to "test" a Dell XPS laptop you could keep it, for free?

Would you expect the offer to be from Dell Computer?

After all, who else but the manufacturer would care to give a computer away for simply having you test it?

Would you at least expect the offer to be affiliated with, or authorized, or approved by Dell Computer?

What if the unsolicited email offer avoided your spam filter and looked something like this?

Would you click on the "CLICK HERE" icon as instructed, or would you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see if you might be able to learn more before clicking?

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