Porsche.me: Money Down the Drain

[Mark]

Man who shelled out big bucks in .me auction kicking himself now.

Pity poor Georg Kohler of Brazil.

In August I wrote about how he snapped up car company names in the .me launch auctions. He even paid $90,025 for Toyota.me. Apparently he hadn’t gotten the memo from ten years ago about the dangers of owning trademarked domain names.

In a recent World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decision, he lost Porsche.me to the car company. Could his $90,000 investment in Toyota.me be too far behind?

http://domainnamewire.com/2008/11/06/porscheme-money-down-the-drain/

:]

http://www.namepros.com/domain-name...-000-non-commercial.html?highlight=porsche.me

http://www.namepros.com/domain-newb...ge-suckers-industry.html?highlight=porsche.me


Zoom Zoom Zoom ... :p

 

[maxeaus]

Pretty silly realy, buying it, but he may have a case against the .me register. It's another case of greed and bad business practice allowing it to be auctioned.

It's small change compared to the hedge funds and investers who got caught up in the "shorts squeeze from hell" when Porsche announched their takeover of VW last month.

Dont mess with Porsche is the moral of the story i think.

 

[Kate]

Now the scary bit, if he paid that much there must have been other people in the auctions who bid him up :red:

 

[Jawed]

Pretty silly realy, buying it, but he may have a case against the .me register. It's another case of greed and bad business practice allowing it to be auctioned.

Mr Georg Kohler of Brazil has got my sympathy. This trademark issue is weird and nonsense. .me registry must not have been allowed in the first place to take Toyota.me to the auctions and there must be some judicial systems in place, which can hold these registries accountable. For how long, these big corporations will always be winners and we individual domainers always losers?????

I CANNOT find this Porsche.me news amusing at all.

 

[Pred]

insane purchases. what was he thinking?
must have been inheritance money lol, he can't have made that himself lol

also like kate says, who were the other bidders , rofl

 

[blogcrash]

The only thing I know, and that matters to me, is:

Cases like this are VERY good for .ME extension.

.Me it's on the news again. Big companies want their .me trademarks.

.Me it's growing.... and that's good for guys who invested in .me domains.

 

[Giode]

Every once in a while, someone does something so stupid, and so void of common sense, that it's impossible to feel sorry for them when it comes back to bite them in the butt. That's the case with this guy for me. I actually find this amusing.

Anyone bring the popcorn?

 

[blogcrash]

Stupid things like this are the best Marketing with the lowest price! :D

 

[-REECE-]

Wonder which was dumber -- Porsche.me or Toyota.me

USPTO.me and ICANN.met are taken :lol:

WIPO.me is available :hehe:

 

[Giode]

Mr Georg Kohler of Brazil has got my sympathy. This trademark issue is weird and nonsense. .me registry must not have been allowed in the first place to take Toyota.me to the auctions and there must be some judicial systems in place, which can hold these registries accountable. For how long, these big corporations will always be winners and we individual domainers always losers?????

I CANNOT find this Porsche.me news amusing at all.

Get real! This "domainer" became the loser when he forget to use logic and common sense. The registry didn't hold a gun to his head. It's time to face personal accountability, and he is.

 

[-REECE-]

I'd like to see registrars start being held accountable for stuff like this (that goes for Pool, Snap, and Namejet as well).

I'm sick of all of them profiting from selling obvious trademark-infringing domains and it really does make us all look like a bunch of cybersquatters :td:

 

[h2o]

LoL
Some guy wrote "Better think up a good acronym for Toyota (Think Or You’re Out That Amount?) or it’s strike two." :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[sng]

LoL
Some guy wrote "Better think up a good acronym for Toyota (Think Or You’re Out That Amount?) or it’s strike two." :lol: :lol: :lol:

LOL!!! :wave: to that 90k!

 

[weblord]

two words
kick.me
kill.me

 

[Kate]

Now that he has been officially labeled a cybersquatter he is going to be an even easier prey for the next domains :wave:

 

[Dave_Z]

I'd like to see registrars start being held accountable for stuff like this

Here's one attempt to give you an idea:

http://davezan.com/sizevsnsi.txt

Of course, nothing's going to stop one from suing anyone. But their chances
of getting a favorable decision...aren't necessarily good.

Plenty of blame to go around. But it boils down to knowing what one's getting
themselves into, and no one's really forced to do anything like participating in
a domain auction prior to real-time registration.

Besides, who's to really say who should "own" the domain name? The Registry
doesn't want to do that, given that people dispute other people's rights every
other day.

Just a passing fantasy, but I'm wondering if Porsche planned to file a dispute
soon after the auction rather than participate to begin with. If the UDRP cost
them like maybe $15K including lawyer fees, then that was quite a gamble for
what's possibly the more cost-efficient way.

 

[Len]

Isn't the Sunrise Period there for the purpose of companies with trademarks to stake their claim?
The .me Sunrise was May 6 to May 20.
May 20 to June 6: The Sunrise auctions began for names that received multiple applications. .ME domain names that received only one application were awarded.
June 6 to June 26: Landrush

I'm not defending this guy's stupidity, but if Porche (and Toyota) really wanted the domain, they had ample time to secure it before somebody laid out good money for it. This guy is now big bucks out of pocket and will forever be labelled a cybersquatter thanks partly to the failure of these multi-nationals to secure the domain prior to landrush.

 

[exsedo]

As i posted in the official .me thread, I think they should lose all rights to the domain after the sunrise period. Will Porche have to pay the legal fees for the WIPO or does the other guy have to pay those too ?

 

[Dave_Z]

but if Porche (and Toyota) really wanted the domain, they had ample time to secure it before somebody laid out good money for it.

See my comment above for a possible reason. Not that Porsche was required
to join the auction, anyway.

Who knows what Porsche was really thinking?

Will Porche have to pay the legal fees for the WIPO or does the other guy have to pay those too ?

Porsche definitely paid fees to file a UDRP and later get a favorable decision,
while it didn't cost the respondent-registrant anything to reply except effort
and time. And as answered before, there are no monetary damages in UDRP.

 

[bmugford]

Clearly buying Porsche.me and Toyota.me was a stupid decision. However, at the same time I don't see how the auction company can justify why it is alright for them to pocket the money they received based on the same TM. I think that would be an interesting lawsuit.

 

[akcampbell]

I don't think companies should have to register their trademark in every extension sunrise to block somebody from piggybacking on it. The biggest profiteer here is the registry as Brad points out, it's about time companies went after registries like Domain.me who try to cash in on their trademarks and facilitate infringement.

I don't feel sorry for the Brazillian guy who bought Porsche.me, he must have known this was a possible outcome. However, the money Domain.me took from him should be refunded because he can't use the domain now. Either that or it should go to Porsche to compensate them for trademark infringement and hassle.

Hopefully, big businesses will go after registries and registrars for facilitating trademark infringement in future, it will make launching new extensions less lucrative and that will help the domain industry.

Also, you could argue that since ICANN plans to licence a raft of tinpot registries from 2009 to go out and extort money from companies in order to protect their trademarks or risk infringement, ICANN should also be named in lawsuits. Whoever sets up the game is responsible for copyright infrigement online (e.g. Napster) so I don't see why it shoud be any different for trademark infringement.

The Brazilian guy is the street corner drug dealer, Domain.me, Godaddy, and ICANN are the real Mr Bigs when it comes to trademark infringement. A minority of domainers see trademark infringement as fair game. However, apart from the damage it does to the industry as a whole, ethically, it's a bit like saving up for a new car, for somebody to come along and drag a key along the side of it.

 

[Dave_Z]

Hopefully, big businesses will go after registries and registrars for facilitating trademark infringement in future

Good for the big business or so if they sue and get a favorable decision. But if
they lose, then shouldn't they also be held accountable and pay the registrar
or the Registry's attorney fees for wasting their time?

After all, it's only fair everyone gets to be held accountable for their actions,
especially if that action caused someone some considerable loss. Depends how
things turn out, though.

If the registrar or Registry gets sued for this, though, they can use either the
Size Inc case I linked here or the Lockheed Martin one in their defense. Good
luck to the complaining party on trying to show something new.

Mr. Kohler knew what he was getting himself into, yet he went on ahead...and
subsequently lost. I guess it's easier to blame others for one's misfortune?

 

[exsedo]

I agree with the general opinion in this thread. I was going to post a new thread last week along the lines of, Can you honestly say that you have NEVER registered or bought a domain name with potential TM issues ? Obviously I can not make that claim but how many members can ?

 

[mirko3]

If you ask me, I wouldn't even allow non Montenegrins to buy .me extension, well to some point.

 

[Kate]

Can you honestly say that you have NEVER registered or bought a domain name with potential TM issues ?

There is a difference between a potential TM issue and a blatant TM issue