Just as the title said. This is enough to make me drink 5 cups of coffee this morning. At first glance the last week or so I thought this was a scam, but now I am starting to think otherwise. I have owned a Schedule C business and website since 2003 called www.svtsnake.com. A very large and national forum that is very active and popular.

A few weeks ago I received this email:

Dear Sir / Madam,

Super day for you!

We get your email address from the Internet . It is glad to write to you with keen hope to open a business relationship with you in the future.

We are professional IT out sourcing service company in HongKong.On the September 11, 2009,we received an application formally from our client.its name is LiChuan Technology & Trade Co., Ltd. They want to apply for the registration of the domain name and Internet Trademark" SVTSnake " from us.

After our initial examination,we found that the brand name and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. These days we are dealing with it. We need to know the comment of your company because the domain names and Internet keyword may relate to the copyright of brand name on internet. Now we have not finished the registration of them yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to appropriate dept.

Have a nice day!


Best regards,
Larry Lee

Domain Name Dept.
HongKong Net Center
Tel: +852-307 23 948
Fax: +852-307 23 949
Email:larry.li@hkitos.net
Website: http://www.networks.hk.cn

Now, at first glance I thought scam., But he has a legitimate telephone number and business and everything. Now, what the heck? I NEVER REGISTERED THE TRADEMARK. What can he do to me? I dont think its fair that he is able to take the .com name from me, that just cannot be legal. I have owned this domain for 6 years now. What is going on guys?

My response:

发件人： Dominick V Strippoli
发送时间： 2009-09-11 18:50:24
收件人： Larry Li
抄送：
主题： Re: SVTSnake-About Intellectual property rights (TO Principal)
Larry, i am the sole owner of the website and domain name svtsnake.com. We have been in business since 2003.

Kind regards,

His response:

Sorry to trouble you!

We haven't received your reply so far. Do you mean that you want to give up the registration? if so, we will sign the registration agreement with LiChuan Technology & Trade Co., Ltd. you will be responsible for the loss caused by the matter yourself. If you can't decide whether to register these domain names,please make a decision on the matter as soon as possible so that we can finish the registration processes for you as quickly as we can.

If you have any questions, contact me freely. Have a nice day!


Best regards,
Larry Lee

Domain Name Dept.
HongKong Net Center
Tel: +852-307 23 948
Fax: +852-307 23 949
Email:larry.li@hkitos.net
Website: http://www.networks.hk.cn

My response:
Larry,
I do not want to give up anything that I own. I have no clue what the
hell you are talking about to be honest with you.
I am the owner of the website SVTSnake.com (the domain name) which is a privately owned and operated Schedule C business
in the United States.If you would like to buy chinese domain names, thatdoes not affect me at all. I am an American Business and have no reason to deal with China.

Dom

His response:

Dear Dom,

Thank you for let me know the decision of these domain names,If you want to register internet trademaek,it will cost 1300 USD/year.

Pls confirm.





Best regards,
Larry Lee

Domain Name Dept.
HongKong Net Center
Tel: +852-307 23 948
Fax: +852-307 23 949
Email:larry.li@hkitos.net
Website: http://www.networks.hk.cn

So someone please explain to me WHAT the heck is going on? Is he trying to tell me that he registered the internet trademark SVTSnake (even though its my website which I started and designed) and he is trying to threaten me to pay him 1200 per year or hes going to steal my svtsnake.com domain that I have worked so hard for over the last 6 years. I am very nervous right now.

Thanks in advance guys,

Dominick V. Strippoli
Owner, SVTSnake.com
www.svtsnake.com

Spam -- I got one of these a couple of months ago.

Spam -- I got one of these a couple of months ago.

You 100% sure man?? Telephone and website and business look real to me man. Thanks man.

Dom

SCAM SPAM.

SCAM SPAM.

OK so lets say this in particular email is definitely a scam.
What can I prevent a REAL situation like this happening?
What are the laws regarding trademarks?
I own the website: svtsnake.com since 2003, but I do not own the trademark? Do I need to register a trademark somewhere also? Where can I do this? Why do I need to do this if it is necessary?

Thanks guys.

Dom

It's crap. We have gotten these several times over the years. Every time for the same name / web site, and every time stating that someone wants to register our domain or corporate name in China. The first time I sent an email to the guy stating that we would never be doing business in China so they could go ahead, he sent me multiple emails trying to convince me to purchase there product.

It's a real company, but they are trying to sell you something completely useless that you will never need.

Google "internet trademark scam"

HTH,
Rob

Their grammar is convoluted and almost unreadable.
The basic thing here is that they will need to show proof of a trademark in the USA registered before you created your domain.
And even then, it's more details to dissect.

Suffice to say, this email is BS and you can safely ignore it. Don't pay attention to them until their attourneys contact you officially. (Which will never happen ofcourse)

It is nearly impossible to file for a trademark everywhere in the word; although the question you should ask is : Do i need a trademark at all ?

The most likely answer to that would be: no you do not need one.

You 100% sure man?? Telephone and website and business look real to me man. Thanks man.

Dom

Cost of hosting : $2,00 a month
Cost of Voip lines: $15,00 a month
Cost of template: $100,00 one time

And they get a $1300,00 from anyone silly enough to buy their 'service'.

Besides that; the website in the article is different as from the email account; most likely the website and the writer of the spam are not even related.

OK so lets say this in particular email is definitely a scam.
What can I prevent a REAL situation like this happening?
What are the laws regarding trademarks?
I own the website: svtsnake.com since 2003, but I do not own the trademark? Do I need to register a trademark somewhere also? Where can I do this? Why do I need to do this if it is necessary?

Thanks guys.

Dom

I'm not sure that there is a "real situation" here. They are trying to tell you that someone is going to register a domain that matches yours with a .cn or other tld, and register a business name that matches your domain name in Asia.
Who cares if there is a svtsnake.cn or some Chinese company called svtsnake llc.

In reality you wouldn't care, even if you had a business with this name, unless you were doing business in that region, or had a large multinational brand to protect.

Don't fall for it, it's a scam. I got the same thing for my LLC, and they ended up registering the .cn extension of our domain and tried to sell it back to us.

I'm not sure that there is a "real situation" here. They are trying to tell you that someone is going to register a domain that matches yours with a .cn or other tld, and register a business name that matches your domain name in Asia.
Who cares if there is a svtsnake.cn or some Chinese company called svtsnake llc.

In reality you wouldn't care, even if you had a business with this name, unless you were doing business in that region, or had a large multinational brand to protect.

You are right in that aspect but I called up my lawyer friend, and I guess after reading all of your responses he doesnt know too much about internet trademarks and internet law. He said that since I never copyrighted or trademarked my company, I only purchased the domain name. Technically someone could register the external (non internet) trademark of SVTSNAKE and than try and steal all of the svtsnake.com and other level domains away from me, or muscle me for trademark registration fraud. Is that technically possible?

The way I see it is the only way someone could do that is if they actually registered the trademark "SVTSNAKE" externally and outside of the internet 1 day before I purchased the actual domain name svtsnake.com on the internet. So, I should be in the clear right?

PS- Just want to say thanks to all of you for easing my nerves and calming me down this morning.

Dominick

The way I see it is the only way someone could do that is if they actually registered the trademark "SVTSNAKE" externally and outside of the internet 1 day before I purchased the actual domain name svtsnake.com on the internet. So, I should be in the clear right?


I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is right. They would have to prove that they had a trademark, or some other use, prior to you registering the domain.

Now you only need 1 cup of coffee.

The questions is where can a person trademark there business to prevent it.

If a bigger company comes into play with you and your domain.

But the email you got is a scam I also got it long time ago and was so confuse.

I cannot even believe we are discussing this :) Does anyone need some snake oil? If so, send me all your money and to prove you are trustworthy please send your PayPal login info too!

I received the same type of e-mail a few months back.
I responded letting them know I owned the domain name for years, everything is registered, etc..
I never received a response.
It is a scam to steal money. I live in the USA and that is not how that type of issue would be handled by those departments.

I've just invented a scam rubric!:D


Super-ultimate greetings my friend!!!!!(or other terrible greeting attempting to be normal)

I am bob and I'm offering: [business oportunity/urgent message/dead uncle/money for you/larger penis] and it's [from/ coming through/has anything to do with/linked to/owned by] someone located in the country of [China/Nigeria/Congo/Africa in general]


if you can match a word from each of the brackets with the item in question, it's a scam.:agree:

Dear Sir / Madam,

Super day for you!
Don't bother to read a single word past that. ................

Guys, yes I understand it is a scam. You dont have to be jerks about it. I was more trying to get information on Intellectual Property and Trademark Law and find out any real life legal stipulations. Not directly regarding THIS SCAM in particular. Just in general as per the thread title "very nervous" . I am very nervous because I never registered as a trademark. If you dont have anything positive to say, dont respond in here there is no need to bust my balls. Thanks.

spam spam !!
I have a lot of these mails in my box :(

I have awesome spam filtering and have not had a spam message since we got the new system.

I have awesome spam filtering and have not had a spam message since we got the new system.

Ok, and that has to do with the OP's question exactly.... how?

nothing it was just a reply to the post above mine.

Yes it is a spam message - I used to get a few of these. Take it with a pinch of salt.

Guys, yes I understand it is a scam. You dont have to be jerks about it. I was more trying to get information on Intellectual Property and Trademark Law and find out any real life legal stipulations. Not directly regarding THIS SCAM in particular. Just in general as per the thread title "very nervous" . I am very nervous because I never registered as a trademark. If you dont have anything positive to say, dont respond in here there is no need to bust my balls. Thanks.

Any trademark they filed would be made irrelevant as long as you were able to prove you were using this name before they created it AFAIK. Further they would never be able to take the domain from you(at least not legally), larger companies by domains from people all the time because they have the domain name of their new company. Additionally I've personally helped people try and get domains back that a business partner wouldn't give up. Even with the company name etc and it being a legal entity they wouldn't do it unless we had the registered owners permission. You should be in the clear:agree:

If someone registers TODAY a trademark matching your domain name you wouldn't lose it.

You registered the domain in 2003, you have a right previously to the trademark registration, there a lot of those cases in wipo, you'll never lose your domain

You 100% sure man?? Telephone and website and business look real to me man. Thanks man.

Dom

Yes, it is sure.

We also got this few months ago and we simple ignore it.

It is a SCAM.

Check this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_domain_hijacking

registering a trademark AFTER your domain registration to get your domain would be considered Reverse domain hijacking

don't worry, only if the trademark was registered BEFORE you registered the domain then you could lose the domain (or if the name was widely used before, but always before)

Terminators! :thumbsup:

Dominick,

A few points, as it doesn't seem that anyone has really answered your question. Let me give you a brief run down.

1. In the U.S. Trademark law is first applied by use through common law...aka, once you start using your name receive rights from that, however, that name is only protected in the state(s) in which you operate or target your business.
2. The registration of a trademark allows you to have federal protection across the U.S. and also puts all others on notice of your mark...generally speaking a fairly inexpensive thing to do, and very smart.
3. IF someone wanted to take the domain from you, and they were not in the U.S., generally speaking, they would be relegated to the UDRP process. The UDRP profess requires that they prove 2 things.....1 They have a right to the domain, 2. that you made a bad faith effort in registering the domain AND in use of the domain. Not an easy taks given your current circumstances....and based on the limited fact pattern, I would say you are in the clear. If they are U.S. based or they want to sue in the U.S., they would bring suit under the U.S. Anti-Cybersquatting laws in federal court (this is my preferred method). The reason to do this, although a bit more expensive is 1. if you win, it is most likely because they were infringing on something......a.k.a. they got a trademark and 2. you only have to prove either they had a bad faith effort in registration OR in use...which is a huge issue.

Still, in your situation, I think are fairly in the clear, but it would be smart to file a trademark application and get the name trademarked....relatively inexpensive...a whole lot less of a headache.