Issue with IDN's

[dottvfan]

What is your view about long term Japanese/Chinese websites that have been using the anglocised domain name for the service they offer but the IDN version is available. Are you likely to get a nice letter asking you to hand it over?

This is particularly tricky when the IDN appears to be generic (albeit monopolised by a certain provider). How can you tell if the IDN is subject to a wordmark in favour of that company.

 

[mortgage_loan_s123q1]

Find low home loan mortgage interest rates!

I am a miserable spammer.

 

[dottvfan]

lol - I'll keep that in mind

Ummm, anyone else

 

[Rubber Duck]

Lot of Info on this at IDNFs. Diverse opinions as well.

If the term seems Generic when translated into English but is only used by one company in Japanese, the chances are that it is a transliteration rather than a translation from the original English and there non-Generic in Japanese. In other words if you phonetically write the word Computer in Japanese Hirigana, that would not be a word in common useage in Japanese and is not there to be considered Generic. It might be valuable for branding but it could almost certainly be TM'ed.

 

[Olney]

It might not be but if it's kakaku.com you won't be able to register it even though it looks available.

 

[dottvfan]

Maybe if I gave two examples (based on overture) it would be easier:
ソフトオンデマンド
探偵ファイル

Are these generic terms monopolised by companies or company names?