Innerpath-- Dispute Intellectual property rights (TO Principal/CEO)
The contents of the message are as follows:
Dear President/CEO,We are a domain name dispute and registration service company in HongKong, who mainly deals with the international company's domain names in Asia. Currently we have something important that needs to confirm with your company.We received a formal application from a company called Fujun Limited Company who is now applying to register " Innerpath " as the internet trademark as well as some domain names related to Innerpath with our organization on May 18th, 2009. During our auditing process we find that this company has no trade mark, brand or patent similar to that word. As authorized anti-cybersquatting organization we hereby suspect the Fujun Limited Company may be probably a domain grab. Hence we need you confirmation for TWO things:First of all, whether this Fujun Limited Company is your business partner or distributor?Secondly, if not, whether you are interested in registering these domains? ( Fujun Limited Company will be entitled to obtain a domain name which is no need to be approved by the original trademark owner.)
This is a letter for confirmation. If you are not in charge of this please transfer this email to appropriate dept.If the mentioned third party is your business partner or distributor please DO NOT reply. We will automatically confirm application for your business partner after this auditing period. Otherwise, please CONTACT US by telephone or email AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!Best Regards
Cary.Feng
Auditing DirectorHong Kong Head Office:Tel:+852-9566 0496Fax: +852-3019 7872Add:3A, Units 20/F, Far EastConsortium Bldg. 121 Des Voeux Road, Central,Hong Kong
Well, first off "Innerpath" is neither a company, nor is it trademarked in any way, and I do not have exclusive use of it.
Secondly, it is quiet clear that this is a scam intent on getting a little bit of money from me for registering domains I do not need. Of course, I couldn't resist replying, to see what snake oil they were peddling, and the follow-up email goes as follows:
Dear Graeme Wilson ,
Thanks for your reply.
We knew you have registered
the domain name innerpath.co. nz .etc and own theintellectual property ( Internet Brand:Innerpath) . This is why we informed you, But now
Fujun Holding Limited wanted to apply for other domain names and internet brand you have not registered yet. Fujun Holdings Limited wants to apply the following domain names: 1. Domain Names
innerpath.asiainnerpath.mobi2. internet brand
Innerpath
You must know Domain name
takes open registration, this is international domain name registration principle. So Fujun Holdings Limited has right to register them. As a
domain name registrar, we have no right to dispute their application. So required by China government to inform your company to protect your
interest. But as the company whose trademarks relate to the applied domains, you will get the priority to register these domain names.
Of course, each company has
their own idea. If you don't think their application will affect your company, you can give up, we will finish their registration. But if
you think these domain names are useful for your company, we can send an application form to you and help you register these within dispute
period. This is the only way to prevent domain name grab. Pls let us know your decision soon, so that we can handle the next step.
Best Regards
Cary.Feng2009-05-19
cary.feng
I ignored this email, and a short while later I received another follow-up email (at least many other businesses could take note of the customer service skills of the scammers!):
Dear Graeme Wilson ,
I am Cary.Feng .We had discussed the caseabout your company's domain names. We did not receive your reply until now. If so, we will think you have given up these domain names. So wewill help Fujun Holdings Limited company register these domain names after 3 workdays. Fujun Holdings Limited company will becomethe legal owner of these domain names in the world. We had notified you, so we are not responsible for any dispute questions about intellectualproperty right and trade mark after they succeed in registration. If you would like to register by yourselves, we will send an application form toyou and help you register these within dispute period. Pls contact us within 3workdays. Best Regards
Cary.Feng2009-06-02
I will leave it up to your detective skills to figure out whether or not I have lost my right to my intellectual property of "innerpath" and had several Asian top level domains registered using my "company" name... Now, on to important stuff, anyone wanna buy a bridge???
