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

 

[whitebark]

If you look at the toyota.me site you can see he is making a feeble attempt to keep it.

Idiots and their money are soon parted.

I don't believe the registry should have to police it - who are they to decide what is a TM violation and what is not? I also don't want to pay $50 per domain registration year to help the registry cover the costs of hiring a fleet of lawyers to screen every domain purchased at their registry.

 

[Dave_Z]

who are they to decide what is a TM violation and what is not?

Not to mention they also don't want to deal with a gazillion legalities coming
from a gazillion jurisdictions. Unless someone's up to it?

Then again, no one really likes to deal with the devil in the details unless it's
affordable, maybe.

 

[akcampbell]

Registries shouldn't have to police TM's but they also shouldn't pick out obvious TM domains like Toyota.me and Porsche.me and auction them off. Arguably, that makes them as guilty of trademark infringement as the winning bidder. They have deliberately profited from somebody else's trademark. If I sell on goods I know are stolen, I could go to prison. Picking out obviously trademarked domains and auctioning them offer isn't much different. ICANN, as the licencing body is an accessory to that. From an economic angle, it's a waste of society's resources if companies have to continually fork out on lawyers and obscure domains to protect their trademark.

 

[exsedo]

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

and between someone who steals a dollar against someone who steals 100 dollars ?

 

[snoop]

and between someone who steals a dollar against someone who steals 100 dollars ?

Bad analogy. Stealing one dollar or $100 is something that is clearly against the law, only the amount varies. A "potential" TM issue is something where the legal status is not clear.

 

[bmugford]

Snoop is right here. There is a big difference between a potential TM and the Toyota, Microsoft, Yahoo, Coke, type TM's.

Bad analogy. Stealing one dollar or $100 is something that is clearly against the law, only the amount varies. A "potential" TM issue is something where the legal status is not clear.

 

[exsedo]

Point taken good thoughts.

 

[Dave_Z]

There is a big difference between a potential TM and the Toyota, Microsoft, Yahoo, Coke, type TM's.

And domain names don't necessarily infringe on their own, more so if its holder
is prepared to demonstrate non-intentional, non-infringing use.

Besides, the .me Registry's in Montenegro. One could file an action in the U.S.
itself, but I don't know if they can enforce it on them.

 

[Compassion]

I don't know what is worse:

the fact porsche.me was sold to this guy for so much
or
the fact other people had to bid to make it go so high
or
that this name was allowed to be auctioned.

90k? ohhhh man, he could have just snatched up QB dot com for that and flipped it for more to someone in the NFL.

 

[bmugford]

Yeah, who the hell was the back bidder on Toyota.me for $90K

I don't know what is worse:

the fact porsche.me was sold to this guy for so much
or
the fact other people had to bid to make it go so high
or
that this name was allowed to be auctioned.

90k? ohhhh man, he could have just snatched up QB dot com for that and flipped it for more to someone in the NFL.

 

[Kate]

90k? ohhhh man, he could have just snatched up QB dot com for that and flipped it for more to someone in the NFL.

He seems to have deep pockets. Perhaps we should contact him to offload our domains :lol:

 

[labrocca]

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.

I agree...they should refund buyer immediately.

 

[JAugusto]

labrocca & bmugford: Got my vote also!

 

[Dave_Z]

they should refund buyer immediately.

Hmmm, maybe Toyota or Porsche should refund their buyers if their respective
cars were found to be used to rob a bank or whatever, even if those buyers
didn't know.