A gaijin “samurai”.
When I first visited Gaijin.com we shared web hosting, in the late 90’s.
It all started by being curious about what other web sites were co-hosted on the same server, around 1997 or 1998.
The domain and web site is the personal sandbox of Brandon Harris, whose esoteric use of the Japanese term for “non-Japanese“, “alien” or “foreigner” was reflected by gray, black and green colors back in the day. I can still recall his web site motto at that time: Through you, like a symphony.
Onto the present.
Apparently, a Russian games developer by the name of Gaijin Entertainment decided to steal this domain name from Brandon, who hand-registered it in 1995.
That was 18 years ago, in case you’re bad in math. Gaijin Entertainment was formed in 2002.
Gaijin Entertainment’s Cease & Desist letter reads in part:
“It came to our attention that you registered and maintain a website www.gaijin.com (“Infringing Website”) that infringes Gaijin Mark. By maintaining and offering to public your content via the website, i.e., Infringing Website, having the same domain as Gaijin Mark, you create consumer confusion and mistake as to the source, sponsorship and/or affiliation of the Infringing Website and Gaijin, thereby infringing Gaijin Mark. Consequently, the main purpose of this letter is to demand that you immediately cease and desist from maintaining and offering your content via the Infringing Website or any other site having the domain substantially similar to Gaijin Mark. Gaijin also demands that you immediately transfer the Infringing Domain to Gaijin.”
Brandon’s attorney, Mike Godwin, responded thus, in part:
“Please be advised that my client, Brandon Harris, disputes your trademark-infringement claim in every particular. That is the most polite way to state how vigorously we dispute your attempt to assert flat ownership of the word “gaijin,” a word so well-established in English that it is an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. Currently, I’m advising my client to publicize your demand letter, so that the entire game-consuming public will be made aware of your client’s overreaching trademark assertions. In addition, we will of course continue to make clear that Brandon Harris’s website in no way gives rise to any kind of marketplace confusion of the sort that American trademark law is designed to address.”
While it is evident that such a ludicrous claim by Gaijin Entertainment does not hold water, I would like to see them file a UDRP; the resounding evidence against such a claim would be slapped with a “reverse domain name hijacking” decision, undoubtedly. It’d be yet another addition to Rick Schwartz’s growing list of domain hijackers.
For the record, Gaijin.com does not make use of its content in any form related to games development. On the other hand, there are other ‘Gaijin’ domains that do so, such as Gaijin Games. Maybe the Ruskies are targeting the wrong man, or are they upset that someone actually registered and has consistently been using Gaijin.com since 1995?
You can read about the full incident at Gaijin.com.
This post is 100% true!
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