What’s wrong with this picture: a famous trademark that belongs to giant Apple, is being ignored by Australian domain aftermarket Flippa.
Just like they did in September when some ignoramus listed a Microsoft-related domain on Flippa, the listing of iPhone-3gs.com is allowed to proceed.
Flippa’s response to reports of the listing was that if and when Apple contacts them, they will act upon it, until then they turn a blind eye.
In the meantime, Flippa makes a cut from such sales, where unscrupulous sellers attempt to flip trademark domains.
Nice job guys!
Do they ever remove auctions? If so, then them not removing these would not be good for them. If not, then they could simply say “we don’t screen auctions for trademarks but will take them down if told”. This sort of scheme has been used in other industries so wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they’d operate with this. It’s really tragic that this sort of stuff can be done through legal loopholes.
No argument about those guys from me. I posted a website for sale and got hammered with comments from nobodys. When I asked them to block the incessant comments from thesame person with an obvious agenda instead they locked me out from changing one comment that they felt was not inappropriate and there it stayed for the entirety of my paid listing.
Trading a rogue commenter for 2000 future litings that will now never happen at a 400,000 loss.
As you said Way to go… Nice job guys! Legitimate businesses think Customer first IMO
These people sound like the DirectNIC.com of auction venues.
Here’s the reply I got when I reported the listing: (repost from DNF).
timatflippa, Dec-07 02:08 pm (EST):Thanks for contacting Flippa Customer Support.
Thanks for reporting this to us – however we often have listings using the word ‘iphone’
you can take a look here flippa.com/buy/search?q=iphone
We are happy to take it down if Apple contacts us.
Please let us know if you need further information or assistance.
Kind Regards,
Flippa Customer Support.
My reply to the e-mail and never got a response:
“In another words. All you care about is the money you get from the sales. You don’t care if the buyer gets sued or loses the domain after. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Hey Lucius.
We’ll give a toss when Apple gives a toss. We regularly remove listings as a result of being contacted by the trademark owners – happy to do the same in this instance. Beyond that, we don’t attempt to anticipate trademark infringements any more than the domain registrar does. This is not any attempt to boost our cut as we don’t refund when we remove listings that do breach our terms – we also can’t be in a position whereby we are making calls on a trademark owner’s behalf. If you really feel strongly about this, raise it in the listing comments and see what happens.
Is there a trademark risk here? Sure. However I’d argue that most buyers are aware of this … as indicated by the sale price of this domain.
hi Andrew – As far as Apple is concerned, Flippa is a small star in the galaxy. Do you seriously expect every trademark violation to be dug up and chased after by the trademark holders? It’s your responsibility to ensure that obvious trademark violations aren’t allowed on Flippa. Would you remove domains that contain “Flippa” in an instant? If so, then you bear the same responsibility towards other tm holders because you provide the marketplace. Some months ago you poked fun at eBay, remember that one? So don’t become a “lesser eBay” for domain names; it’s in your hand to keep the place nice and tidy.
If enough people report to apple the websites that have iphone or other TM in the domain names, then eventually flippa will end up on the wrong side of a lawsuit, since flippa participates in the sale of these infringing domains then they are legally responsible for allowing these domains to be sold.
you can report them here using this form choose, internet, and enter the url of the auction.
http://www.apple.com/legal/contact/#piracy
What I find to be really interesting is that some poor customer might come along and buy a domain name thinking they will make money and they pay thousands of dollars for a domain name only to get a cease and desist letter, and find out they own a worthless domain name.
That is what I find to be the real crime here is that flippa does not care about hurting consumers.
“Do you seriously expect every trademark violation to be dug up and chased after by the trademark holders?”
Yes, this is how trademark enforcement works and why policies such as UDRP exist – note that this, and pretty well every trademark enforcement, can only be initiated by the trademark right holder.
To be honest, you’re effectively making calls of trademark violation when it is not 100% clear that as to whether or not there is a breach. Apple PAID $1M for iphone.com in 2007 and the foundation of the recent iphone domain names case was that they redirected to porn sites – obviously not applicable here.
We poked fun at eBay for not verifying ownership (or anything else) when sellers try to sell a website or domain. This is different. We have a robust UDRP process in place – it just takes the trademark owner to kick it off where they think there is a breach. I’m not confident even Apple feel there is a case here at this stage …
Andrew – If you can’t clear the Flippa marketplace and police it from having obvious and famous marks listed, you’ll end up defending yourself when Apple and other tm holders find out those domains are being peddled on Flippa. You’re missing the forest focusing on the proverbial tree.