Monday, February 4, 2008
Citizen Hawk Service Upsetting Domainers
CitizenHawk, Inc. is sending out emails to domainers that they feel are infringing on the trademarks of some companies. Domainers that get emails from them are upset in part because they come on so strong and are demanding that the domainer turn over the domain to Citizen Hawk. Many domainers think this is a scam since they are being asked to turn over their domains.
While not exactly a scam, it seems to be a service that may or may not be legal. Unless the Squawker has been authorized to act in the behalf of the trademark holder, they may not have any right to do what they are doing.
On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with providing a service that goes after those that may be abusing a trademark.
My concern is that there are some cases where a trademark may be involved but no abuse is taking place, such as a domain like Xboxforums.org. If a site is not doing things that should be considered abuse, will they still be targeted? My advice to companies is to go easy on those that may be loyal and good customers at first. You can always get tough later on if you find real signs of abuse and infringement.
Frankly, I could see this area ripe for a different kind of service that provided not only a policing service, but also one that offers education as well. Many new domainers start buying domains and do not realize that they may be potentially infringing on a trademark. After all, if you find some valuable land that no one owns, but that they could have staked a claim in and didn't, it doesn't seem likely that they are interested in it.
Ebay had the right approach last year when they sent out thousands of emails to people that registered different variations of the word "ebay". Rather than pay a lawyer to get all nasty, they simply notified people that they were being put on notice and that they should not use, sell, or renew any domain with their trademark. The implication was that if the advice was not followed, they would come after you and you were not going to like the encounter...
www,citizenhawk.com
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