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Division
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PO Box 7970
Madison, WI 53707-7970
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Vol.
8 #3, January 2009
Chinese Domain Name Scam and Trademark Registrations
An increase in scams involving internet domain registrations in China
has been reported. A firm may receive a message from someone
claiming to represent the China Internet Network Information Center
(CNNIC) and that applications for Chinese domain names that use the
firm’s brand name or other trademarks have been received.
The sender asks the U.S. company to respond in order to dispute the
domain name application. In reality, the sender is looking for
domain names to claim in order to sell back to the original business.
Holly You, an attorney with the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich,
advises most clients to ignore this kind of message. “Most
often, the sender is trying to check if the name is worth
something. By replying to this type of email, you’ll give
the scammer indication that it’s worthwhile for them to squat and
register the name to sell for profit later,” she said. A
company can verify if its domain name has already been taken or is
still available by visiting the CNNIC website http://www.cnnic.net.cn/en/index/index.htm.
Wisconsin firms that are currently doing business in China, may want to
do business there in the future, or which have current or potential
competitors there, may want to proactively register domain names and
trademarks to keep them from falling into the hands of others.
China is a “first to register” country, which means that a
firm is not protected there unless its brand name and trademark are
registered with a government agency. Should a Chinese company
register a trademark first, a U.S. company’s products with the
same name will not be able to be imported into or exported from China,
and could be seized by the Chinese customs agency for trademark
infringement. While China has the reputation of lax trademark
enforcement, the government is becoming stricter in the application of
existing laws to both foreign and domestic businesses.
Trademarks can be registered by using the services of law firms.
For more information on protecting intellectual property and trademarks
in China, contact Commerce’s Asia Specialist, Ms. Beng Yeap, beng.yeap@wisconsin.gov, ph: (608) 266-1480.
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