Domains violating famous marks should not be allowed to be auctioned.
Popular domain forum DNForum.com – voted top domain forum for 2011 – continues its firm practice of disallowing and closing down sales threads that offer trademark violations for sale.
An example can be seen at this thread, where an obvious Google trademark domain was being offered for sale. The thread was closed with the notification “tm” as the reason.
Meanwhile, Flippa.com – the Australian marketplace for domain and web site sales – continues to permit the sale of obvious and famous trademarks.
In a recent search, we found the following violations as active auctions:
This is just a small sample of domains that are outright trademark violations and are being allowed for sale on Flippa.
Noadays, we do not bother to report these domains to Flippa.com, as the tech support personnel is apparently instructed to ignore such requests and responds with a cookie-cutter email.
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NamePros recently changed their rules as well. They allow TM domain sale threads.
Again with ‘the australian website’ bullshit , i dont see you mention how aussie soldiers die next to yours in Afganistan ??
Truly is it realy worth naming geo locations, because there must be a shitload of shifty american sites doing fuckknows what ??????/
You bring down a well intended post with that crap ………pity
Business Channel – Stay off the drugs mate.
Flippa acts on trademark infringement reports from trademark owners, not from anyone else.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of trademark law knows that its much, much more complex than it first appears. Trademarks are not only geographic in nature (Australia, Canada, US, European Union, China), but also category specific (drycleaning, fast food, online content, electronics manufacturing, etc.). It’s the trademarks owners job to protect their mark, and file complaints when they feel a specific website infringes on their registered trademark classes in a specific region.
We encourage buyers to conduct their own due diligence and evaluate the risks in ANY acquisition – provide plenty of guides and how-to information for doing so, and have even hosted Q&A sessions with an attorney recently to answer our community’s questions.
Matt – Please point me to Facebook Drycleaning Australia, Apple Fast Food Canada and Twitter Electronics China – Imaginary corporations with marks more famous than their American counterparts.
Unless, of course, you’re comfortable with allowing Flippa to become a common, household, diluted term in those other countries; after all, Australia is only a land ‘down under.’
Flippa needs to protect those obvious, famous marks, for the benefit of the ethical domainer community. Imagine when one day Microsoft, Apple, Twitter and Facebook discover the ‘gems’ you’ve been allowing to be sold on Flippa.
One thing they are missing, is the situation I am in. I own a TM domain name and website. I have a licensed tm agreement that grants me the right to use the TM and the ability to sell the site and domain with the tm holders approval.
Ralph – I’m sure this would be settled with an email to their support. Did you contact them?