Acorn Shanghai'd?

[retired_member6]

I got this weird email tonight while out;

Dear Manager:

We are a Domain Name registration service company, which is the domain name register center in Shanghai,China. We have something important need to confirm with your company. A formal application here dated on June.17th,2009 from HAITONG Investment company requested "acorndomains" as their Internet Keyword and CN/Asia domain names(.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/org.cn/.asia) on internet .After our initial examination,we find this name conflicts with your company. We send this email to the owner who have used this name and hope to get the affirmation of your company because that may relate to your internet intellectual property. Now we have not finished the registration for this company, in order to deal with this issue better, please let the someone who is responsible for this matter to contact us as soon as possible.Thank you!

Best regards,

John
Oversea marketing manager
Tel:+86(0)21 6296 2950
Fax:+86(0)21 6296 1557
web:YGChina | Complete Asia Pacfic ccTLD Domain Names

[admin]

Yes I got that too but didn't think it was from inside the forum.

Please let me know by PM the originating IP of the email.

Cheers

[retired_member6]

It wasnt, it was by email, guess they just smacked the forum and spidered it for emails.

[Systreg]

These are pretty common, it was doing the rounds a few months back, it seems like every few months they send a shed load more out, we had one on eater a while back that someone posted in our miscellaneous scams section:

forum.419eater.com :: View topic - Receive a scam

These are nearly always from China based scammers, which is reflected in the Shanghai landline number given in the email.

[admin]

Originally Posted by LeeOwen

It wasnt, it was by email, guess they just smacked the forum and spidered it for emails.

OK, I'd still like to have the IP so I can block it from the server, cheers

[crabfoot]

Refutation -
The name "Acorndomains" is by custom and repute a trademark in the USA, since it has been acknowledged as such without refute for a period exceeding two years, Accordingly, we request that you cease and desist from any registrations using the name "Acorndomains" as a keyword or phrase.

Am I right? Possibly to probably, I'm guessing. Face it, the registrars are asking politely - they wll probably decline the application, politely, and ask the merchants to rephrase the application, if you refute it.
The US trademark laws make a name like Acorndomains a trademark after 18 months of common usage in most states, whether registered or not.

WTH, respond promptly!

[aZooZa]

Originally Posted by crabfoot

Refutation -
The name "Acorndomains" is by custom and repute a trademark in the USA, since it has been acknowledged as such without refute for a period exceeding two years, Accordingly, we request that you cease and desist from any registrations using the name "Acorndomains" as a keyword or phrase.

Am I right? Possibly to probably, I'm guessing. Face it, the registrars are asking politely - they wll probably decline the application, politely, and ask the merchants to rephrase the application, if you refute it.
The US trademark laws make a name like Acorndomains a trademark after 18 months of common usage in most states, whether registered or not.

WTH, respond promptly!

WTH are you banging on about???

[devolution]

Lee, your email address appears in the MSN field of your profile, so they could have got it that way.

[crabfoot]

OK, Dale, the "Black and White Andy Pandy version" -

In most of the US, a trademark does not need to be registered to count as a trademark. If a "phrase" has been used for 18 months for business purposes without objection, let or hindrance, it is a trademark in most states, under US law.
So "Acorndomains" is a trademark in the eyes of the federal government of the USA, because it has not been contended as such within the period since the site was set up, and Acorndomains has been visible to the citizens of the US during that period.

In most of the European world, you have to register a trademark, and state the areas to which it will apply. The US allows that a trademark can appear from business usage, custom and practise.
So sometimes it is best to use the laws of a foreign country to get a result.

You want to help those Chinese domain burglars towards the result they want?

Hey, Lord, don't ask me questions ...

[cm1975]

Originally Posted by crabfoot

OK, Dale, the "Black and White Andy Pandy version" -

In most of the US, a trademark does not need to be registered to count as a trademark. If a "phrase" has been used for 18 months for business purposes without objection, let or hindrance, it is a trademark in most states, under US law.
So "Acorndomains" is a trademark in the eyes of the federal government of the USA, because it has not been contended as such within the period since the site was set up, and Acorndomains has been visible to the citizens of the US during that period.

In most of the European world, you have to register a trademark, and state the areas to which it will apply. The US allows that a trademark can appear from business usage, custom and practise.
So sometimes it is best to use the laws of a foreign country to get a result.

You want to help those Chinese domain burglars towards the result they want?

Hey, Lord, don't ask me questions ...

Crabfoot, I think Dale is asking "what you're banging on about" is because the best course of action is to just hit delete. It's a scam.