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Domain summit 2024

ebay sent me a C&D

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AlienGG

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hehe, i like the scenario Alien. very true.

Ye, so I think the best way to bankrupt a big company like ebay is to cybersquat as a giant team of 1 million members. Each member reg. 10 domains. When they receive the C&D, ask the company for refund of reg fee. it will cost the company $100 mil each run, and they have to pay for renewal every year.

Oops, don't spread out the little secret ;). Cybersquatting has a $100K fine :p.
 
Domain summit 2024

Sarcle

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Gerry

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Very true, I saw the name via pm and that's all I see on at 3 am on infomercials.

Do a quick look on Amazon:
http://amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-3794596-6372026?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ebay&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

Just tell them you are planning on doing one of these on this domain. ;)
Don't take it the eBay route. Take it the PM route if you plan on keeping this.

As far as I know, based on research done about 2 years ago, eBay has never had a court ruling against them. If the famous Tiffany and Co. can not beat them and win a decision, then a domainer won't. No one has gone head to head with ebay and won. My domains had nothing to do with ebay and I showed them this.

Plus, even parking it is risky as some parking companies do not accept TM's and those that do will most likely automatically resolve to an eBay page anyways.
 

Sarcle

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Don't take it the eBay route. Take it the PM route if you plan on keeping this.

As far as I know, based on research done about 2 years ago, eBay has never had a court ruling against them. If the famous Tiffany and Co. can not beat them and win a decision, then a domainer won't. No one has gone head to head with ebay and won. My domains had nothing to do with ebay and I showed them this.

Plus, even parking it is risky as some parking companies do not accept TM's and those that do will most likely automatically resolve to an eBay page anyways.

Yes parking can't be done. Automatically will be seen as bad faith.

But I don't understand how people can write and sell books using the ebay trademark. Sell their products on tv using the ebay trademark. Yet owning a domain that essentially will do the same is wrong. I guess I just don't get it.
 

Raider

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Yes parking can't be done. Automatically will be seen as bad faith.

But I don't understand how people can write and sell books using the ebay trademark. Sell their products on tv using the ebay trademark. Yet owning a domain that essentially will do the same is wrong. I guess I just don't get it.

Selling the books, tapes etc, along with these private ebay seminars draws more sellers to ebay, this is something ebay encourages and almost sure there is licensing involved in this. Cybersquatting on there name, thats a whole different story.
 

Gerry

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Yes parking can't be done. Automatically will be seen as bad faith.

But I don't understand how people can write and sell books using the ebay trademark. Sell their products on tv using the ebay trademark. Yet owning a domain that essentially will do the same is wrong. I guess I just don't get it.
In order to print, use, or publish a book or produce an infomercial undoubtedly requires permission from ebay and consent. I would not at all be surprised if ebay staff or members or even ebay themselves are the publishers, writers, authors, and producers. As the former member known as RG, Raider Girl, and simply known as Raider (I like the Prince slant on the name change) it only benefits ebay in the long run. I would imagine that most if not all have 100% endorsement of the eBay company. Why not? They are a cash cow and might as well start their own federal reserve bank. By the way, the link that you included to amazon...did you notice 10,400 items available relating to eBay?
Books: See all 10,400 items
And I'll bet no one on this forum has one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Name-That-Dom...1002?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1179318818&sr=8-10

On second thought, I'll bet -=DCG=- wears one to bed at night to fuel his imagination and inspiration.

The Tiffany issue was Tiffany trying to get a court order banning ebay from selling fake, fraudulent, and bogus Tiffany and Co. jewelry, lamps, and decor items that carried the Tiffany and Co. mark and brand. Who else would be a better expert in identification of the real vs. the fake flooding ebay than a company more than 100 years old? Thousands and thousands of complaints from customers and a serious devaluation in Tiffany items as well as an overall distrust of the real brand led Tiffany to file suit. Tiffany lost!

So here you have one company (eBay) who is so damn anal about their brand and branding and have not qualms at all with sending C&D letters or taking others to court...yet they could care less about the rights and trademarks and branding about another company. As long as ebay gets their cut, screw you Tiffany!

As I mentioned in my previous post, ebay thinks they own the alphabet when it comes to the sequence of letters E-B-A-Y. This is hard to beat when there is a clear violation or infringement. But I have demonstrated to them on three separate occasions why they did not have rights to my name and why my domains were not infringing on their mark or brand, and my rationale for registering and keeping the domain (plus a little twist and play on their name and their possible infringement by making the claim that all is owned by them when it comes to e-b-a-y). Each time the matter was dropped by ebay. But I was able to clearly show my rights vs their non-rights.

Now, one I would not play or toy with? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, best known as the Academy Awards. THAT law firm is damn serious about protecting its client and has quite a success rate...100%.
 

Sarcle

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Cybersquatting on there name, thats a whole different story.

First off all he's hardly cybersquatting right now. Unless he tried to sell the name to ebay for tons of cash.

In order to print, use, or publish a book or produce an infomercial undoubtedly requires permission from ebay and consent.

That's a negative. Yes, I did look at the link I gave, which is why I gave it. Did you happen to take a look at the first book that is being sold on that link? Here is a screenshot. But I'll quote it too.

Ebay is a registered trademark of Ebay Inc.
Ebay Inc has not endorsed this book and not affiliated with it in any way.



So again. How come the double standard?
 

Gerry

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That's a negative. Yes, I did look at the link I gave, which is why I gave it. Did you happen to take a look at the first book that is being sold on that link? Here is a screenshot. But I'll quote it too.

So again. How come the double standard?
What I was referring to is the fact that there are 10,400 items on amazon ebay related. That is a huge number.

My point was, do you think ebay knows about this? Highly unlikely. And yes, you did find one that is probably bogus and perhaps a violation of their mark and brand. I am equally sure that ebay does REQUIRE permission to print or publish or use the eBay mark or brand. REQUIRING and NOT SEEKING permission are two different things entirely. With 10,400 items listed on ebay, a safe guess might be 5-10% unauthorized items. This is perhaps an equivalent to piracy.

Now, books and periodicals and sites mentioning or using ebay is going to be harder to find and track down. Yes, they can google it. But I wonder how big their legal department is (I am sure it is large) or how many paralegals they employ to track down stuff like this. Perhaps they rely on the public to report this.

In regards to domain names, they (the legal team) does not have to take any time or effort to monitor domain names. Why? They are paying a service to do it for them and to immediately notify the legal department of the regitration of any domain containing the letters E-B-A-Y in that sequence. It is money well spent on their end to pay a service to do that work for them. I know this is also done with anything academy awards related (including those words, oscar, theoscar, nominees, nominations and any possible combination of those terms and words) as well as BMW, IBM, and Microsoft. Some are usually slower to respond, some quicker. The academy awards will nail you in less than 2 weeks.

When I got my C&D from eBay, I ran a search of domain name with the letters ebay in it. I do not remember the exact number, but I know my returns would only go to 10,000 and the total number was staggering. And that was just dot com. It was a bulk domain name generator that you could specify your search term and the extension (if I recall it was on WHOIS.sc which used to be a free service but not fee based).

The C&D letter is basically a form letter that they will send out to all the registrants. Some come rather quickly (about 2 weeks after regging) some come later.

Is there a double standard? Highly unlikely and very doubtful. One is just easier to find than the other. Electronically registered domain names flagged I am sure are much easier to find and spot and report than a printed book. Even you or I could easily print books our selves or find a very cheap online publisher who could care less about the contents or any copyright issues as long as money is good.

Perhaps ebay will offer you a reward of a free listing for reporting that book.;)
 

Sarcle

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My point was, do you think ebay knows about this? Highly unlikely. And yes, you did find one that is probably bogus and perhaps a violation of their mark and brand. I am equally sure that ebay does REQUIRE permission to print or publish or use the eBay mark or brand. REQUIRING and NOT SEEKING permission are two different things entirely. With 10,400 items listed on ebay, a safe guess might be 5-10% unauthorized items. This is perhaps an equivalent to piracy.

Now, books and periodicals and sites mentioning or using ebay is going to be harder to find and track down. Yes, they can google it. But I wonder how big their legal department is (I am sure it is large) or how many paralegals they employ to track down stuff like this. Perhaps they rely on the public to report this.

I doubt this is the case. I would like to hear a TM lawyers view but actually scanning through the first page most acknowledge they are not endorsed by ebay.

If Harper Collins feels they can publish the book, which by the way is a huge publishing company, and Amazon sells it, I just looked ebay sells all of his books and cd's too. And I'm sure if I go to Barnes and Nobles I can find the book.

So if it were illegal to do so there are a lot of parties they could sue.

I would think this would be a plausible defense one could use for a domain name considering that there are so many "unauthorized" ebay books out there to buy and ebay isn't doing anything to stop it. But I am not a tm lawyer and this isn't legal advice.
 

Raider

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I see your point of that one book, perhaps it does infringe on ebays trademark, however since the book promotes selling on ebay, Ebay is not going to go after it, why would they? This is much different than a domain name that carries there mark in which they WONT profit.

I'm not a fan of ebay, I think there the most GREEDY online company in the world today.
 

Donny Simonton

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Unless you plan on creating a "I hate ebay" site, give it up. You will either lose the domain via wipo or in court. It all depends on what mood they are in. But lately they have just been going to court and asking for lots of cash in the process.

If you know you are right, then keep it, otherwise, I would delete it and I would just hope that you were using some type of whois privacy service.

Donny
 

Jacksplat

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I'd like to clarify that I'm not cybersquatting. If I were I'd be embarrased and wouldnt be making this thread in the first place. I'm more than able to make my own revenue and have this domain for me to use. I wouldnt sell it to ebay. About the only thing that would have made me give it up would be if they had asked me for it so they can use it as they may feel the name suited a purpose for them. I got this name for 6.95 reg fee. It was available, the second word is very strong for some of the sites I'm into and my profession of 15 plus years. The fact that ebay is in there also reflects another profession I did very well with and may someday continue if I can peel myself away from domaining long enough (selling on ebay). When I regged the name I had visioned what I would do with the name and look forward to it. I pointed the nameservers immediately as I do by default to my namedrive parking but never added it to my account so i cannot comment on traffic. When they confronted me I then pointed it to canada.ca just to keep it from conflict.

The name does have the letters e b a y in it, I plan to emphasize my "so called" profession there and emphasize my profession I am in now. The two actually co-exist and work together as a unit. This isnt some cleverly conjured up scenario of what the name can mean. The fact is this is my intention.

I will keep updates coming as they happen.

Jack

p.s. For anyone thinking im some cybersquatter simply go back in my post history and look at the hundreds (if not thousand) domains I've bought here at dnf over the last few years. You will see little attention given in the cybersquatting type of domains. I do like ebay and have no ill feelings for them, even now with this issue brought to me. I don't have the energy to make an effort of using others mark for gaining from their efforts.
 

barefoot

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TM holders have an obligation to protect their mark from infringement. That's what eBay is doing here, just like countless other TM holders do. eBay obviously views this domain registration as intellectual property theft -- plain and simple.

My advice is to do nothing with the domain and let it expire. Reply to eBay and tell them you made a mistake and that you'll comply with their request. Then, register or purchase another domain that fits the needs of your project. Best of luck.
 

Raider

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I wonder what Ebay's response would be if you contacted them and asked to use the domain to promote there services?...It might be worth a try before complying with the C&D.
 

Jacksplat

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I would think they don't have time to keep on top of such requests. There must be many. But at the same time I already have a plan for use with it and am not interested in promoting others sites outside of positive mention here and there. Like I said in another post "I have no ill feelings for ebay". As a matter of fact I like what they've done, impressed even. And as a result any mention of them (there will be) can only be in a postive note. Certainly they deserve credit for their accomplishments.

Jack

p.s. no word back yet.
 

DNQuest.com

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As far as I know, all I can lose is the domain. With that understanding why would I just drop it ?

This thread gave me a headache, but I will address this. It was brieflt mentioned, but I wanted to expanded on this....

The penalties associated with being found a cybersquatter...

100,000K fine
Loss of all monies gained from the domain (everything you earned)
Potential loss from for holder (monies they would have received if they had ee domain)
Your legal fees
Thier legal fees (and that will be excessive)
Punitive damages
Labeled a cybersquatter which could haunted future disputes

and yes.... loss of the domain, but that seems a little inconsequential after all the previous possible punishments

You weigh the risk/reward factor
 

Jacksplat

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When did the headache start, and why did you continue reading it after it began :)

Thanks for the reply DNQuest.

Of those issues my concern would only be with losing the domain and getting tattoo'd as a cybersquatter.

Not enough to make me run with my tail between my legs though.

Jack
 

DNQuest.com

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I believe it started on post #2 lol

We all have our own Risk/reward.. but remember, there is more than just losing the domain. It usually doesn't happen, but if you PO the wrong lawyer, it cna cause trouble.

Good luck to you
 
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