Some new gTLD operators have no clue – or the social skills – otherwise there is no explanation about this fear-mongering email from the dot .GDN registry.
Instead of talking about positive things and opportunities, the email talks about trademark infringements, trademarks, counterfeiting and cybersquatting.
Not only their email qualified as spam and ended up in the respective folder, it reads like a giant extortion of sorts.
Not to mention, why would anyone register domains ending in GDN anyhow? Is this another XYZ wet dream?
The very least they need to do is fire their marketing campaign advisors.
Here’s the full email below:
Dear Trademark Holder,
We have some exciting news to share with you!
dotGDN TLD is pleased to announce that the Sunrise registration period for the .gdn extension began on August 31, 2015 – and is now in full swing!
We would like to take the time to personally invite you to register your trademark .gdn extension during this exclusive Sunrise period before it’s released to the general public.
dotGDN (Global Domain Name) is a generic Top Level Domain that can be used in conjunction with common TLDs like .com and .net to protect your IP from trademark infringements and other cybercrimes like cybersquatting, counterfeiting and more.
To understand more about protecting your brand against cybercrime read here
This initial Sunrise period allows registered trademark owners to secure their .gdn trademark extensions before the initial Sunrise period ends on November 28, 2015. To find out how to register your trademark .gdn extension before this exclusive Sunrise period ends, visit www.nic.gdn website today.
Kind regards.
GDN Registry FZ LLC
www.nic.gdn
Dubai Internet City – License 92220.
I’ve received dozens of emails from these guys, though my spam filter eventually started picking it up and trashing them. I’m pretty sure they are breaking the CAN SPAM act, or whatever it was called, because there my name is in some of the email address I use that has been getting them. I imagine they’ve just scraped the whois databases and emailed all of them without even checking them, because I’ve been getting a load forwarded from my privacy addresses as well. They’ve since changed the tone of their emails a little bit, but it’s probably too late, when people think of .gdn now, the first thing they will think of is spam. They’ve sunk their ship before it’s sailed in my opinion.
Suu – Indeed. Maybe GDN stands for God DamNed!