Namejet: A Beehive of Trademark Violations

In my very early days as a domainer, not having much feedback or guidance from experienced professionals, I thought it was cool that I had registered the .com of an existing company that for some odd reason chose to use the .net

So nonchalantly, I did the obvious: contacted them and offered it for sale. The only problem: the exact term was a registered trademark.

The company president responded that he could barely afford the trademark, let alone pay for the .com at open market prices. The story ended there, the .net was eventually dropped and the trademark died.

Ten years later, I still own the .com but I learned a useful lesson.

Namejet auctions off unpaid domains registered with Network Solutions, eNom and a couple of other registrars. In doing so, domains that were registered in the early days of the Internet are being released into a public bidding which then turns private. Several worthy domains are being auctioned daily; some have traffic or a history – having belonged to companies until their recent past.

A lot of these domains are byproducts of mergers, acquisitions or corporate dissolutions. Quite a few are the result of expirations due to broken emails, forgotten passwords or neglect.

What’s even more alarming is the amount of trademark domains that are entered into the public and private auctions, daily. Literally dozens of aged, quality domains that when checked against a single database – that of the USPTO – can be found in a multitude of formats.

From my observations, many domains that have expired have trademark applications that are pending a decision or were recently applied for. Regardless of their obvious status, several domainers – some of which would be considered “repeat offenders” – are bidding serious chunks of money that far exceed the safety figure of a UDRP cost.

Also, companies that have pending trademarks are actively pursuing these domains at the drop, by bidding against domainers and although they are prepared to pay a premium price for them, should not be confused with easy recipients of a domain flip.

A small number of individuals that habitually catch these domains at Namejet auctions, act with the intention to resell them to trademark holders. A particularly notorious one is actually sending out letters of intent to these companies, informing them that he will be able to bid on their behalf against “cybersquatters” – clearly, the epitome of a weasel scum domainer.

Simply because you can chase after trademark domains, don’t do it. The risk well outweighs the benefits.