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.twInternet Keyword :duetsblogDuring 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 RegardsAsia Domain Name Registration Limited,Units 20/F, Far East Consortium Bldg.,
121 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong KongVivian
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.