This is not Domain Investor… This is a Cybersquatter!
I have just read this story online which is below about a man from Vietnam who bought 4 domain names and redirected them to a porn site to try to force the TM holder to purchase his domains, This is the type of story that joe public reads and then believes that every domain name investor is cybersquatting.
Since I started my blog, I now get emails asking me to buy domains and while I appreciate people making contact with me I would say 9 out of 10 are TM domains i.e. Contains something to do with Twitter, Google, Amazon or Facebook like… ChristmasTwitter.com etc… Why anyone would register these domain names baffles me but hey that’s life and not everyone realises that they are throwing their money down the tubes and giving our industry a bad reputation.
There are so many great resources online now about domain name investing why people think they can still make a quick buck buying a trademark name is just crazy…
This guy below is finding out the hard way now the police are involved so my one word of advice for 2013 – Dont buy Trade Mark Domains!
A Vietnamese man has been summoned by police after building materials producer Eurowindow Holding accused him of buying four domain names related to the company and directing users of one of the sites to porn in order to pressure it to buy the domains at exorbitant prices.
Nguyen Trong Khoa, 35, was on Thursday summoned to the southern headquarters of the Ministry of Public Security in Ho Chi Minh City, a source from the ministry confirmed with Tuoi Tre on the same day.
Khoa was accused of seizing assets and spreading depraved cultural products, police said.
The man told Tuoi Tre in the Thursday interview that everything started when he bought the domain name eurowindowholding.com, and linked it to an international sex website before informing an employee from Eurowindow Holding about his act.
“I just wanted to alert them that they have neglected the protection of their brand name online via the domain name,” he said.
$50,000 for 4 domain names
Khoa said he also demanded to consult the company, and ask them for contact him over the issue.
“A man named Minh, introducing himself as a responsible individual from the company, contacted me a few days later and asked me to set a price for them to re-buy the domain name,” Khoa said.
“At first I didn’t agree to sell, but when they insisted, I eventually accepted the deal at US$50,000.”
Eurowindow Holding’s director of relations, Vuong Bich Thu, confirmed with Tuoi Tre on Thursday that one of her company’s employees has contacted Khoa and was asked to pay $50,000 for all of the four domain names.
Besides the eurowindowholding.com, Khoa also bought the www.eurowindowholding.vn, www.eurowindowholding.com.vn, and www.eurowindowholding.net.
Thu said Khoa has intentionally directed eurowindowholding.com to a porn website to “create pressure to force the company to re-buy the domain name.”
“This is not only extortion but also a spread of depraved cultural products, that’s why our company reported the case to the Ministry of Public Security,” she said.
However, all of the four are now redirected to the website of Khoa — banhitlagai.com, as tested by TuoiTreNews.
No violations?
Khoa asserted that he has not violated any Vietnamese laws in directing the eurowindowholding.com to a porn website, as it is an international domain name.
“Should they want to sue me, they have to take me to an international court,” he said.
“It’s also wrong to accuse me of spreading the depraved cultural products as I don’t own that sex website as well as storing or spreading pornography.”
Khoa said he has bought thousands of domain names, mostly international, as a hobby.
“I didn’t buy to resell. I only wanted to consult companies and transfer the domain names to them as gifts rather than hoarding.”
According to lawyer Ha Hai from the Ho Chi Minh City Law Association, the domain name registration is done under the ‘first come, first served’ scheme.
“You can register a domain name without having to prove your legality to own that name,” he said.
There is thus a phenomenon in which people buy the domain names in relation to several individuals or organizations or the geographic indications of localities under hoarding purposes.
“If the real individuals or organizations want to use such domain names, they have to re-buy from the speculators at exorbitant prices,” he explained.
“But there are no penalties for this as it is only considered a civil dispute,” he added.
Earlier Khoa also bought the legendeecoffee.com, in relation to a coffee product of Trung Nguyen Group, and directed it to sex.com, a renowned porn website.
The name Nguyen Trong Khoa was known to local netizens last year when he claimed to have worked with Mark Zuckerberg but the boast was later found out to be a PR trick as Zuckerberg in fact chose Vietnam only to spend Christmas with his girlfriend.
Registering domains containing TM’s in and of itself is not a bad thing. It’s the use that matters.
that was 5 words of advice
Lol! Chris your right I should have just my advice.
What about the guy who registered the domain NormanSchwarzkopf.com?
What about Mike Mann?
Yes, Mike Mann. Is he an investor or squatter for registering NormanSchwarzkopf?
Mike is an investor not a squatter. If you aren’t happy or wish to contact him Mike is always willing to discuss on his Facebook page about his registrations. It also might have been an automated bot that purchased the domain as mike hasn’t hand picked all of his companies 300k+ domains.