Domain fight?

    Okay so this is sort of interesting. Because it hasn’t happened to me before.

    Oct 24: I received an email from YGNetWorldLTD.com informing me that company T (let’s call them T for now) in China has just registered “FlavorBoulevard” as their domain name in China and Asia (flavorboulevard.cn, flavorboulevard.com.cn, flavorboulevard.asia, etc.) and that I needed to contact them if I want to object this and secure my trademark. Okay.

    Oct 25: Company T emailed me, saying “We hope your company will not object our application, because this name is very important for our products in Chinese and Asian market. We don’t want your company to use this name in China and Asia, we believe our company will become the legal owner of this name in China and Asia. Even though Mr. [YGNetWorldLTD.com Manager] advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name and permanent registration of this name.”

    Now it’s not like my FlavorBoulevard has a huge Chinese market (for the time being? :-P), but:
    1. I thought long and hard for this name too, and I’ve used it for 1 year 8 months and 25 days.
    2. I don’t want my website to be associated with a Chinese company.
    3. “We don’t want your company to use this name in China and Asia”. Doesn’t this sound kinda rude? Dear T Ltd., I don’t want you to steal my blog’s name in China and Asia.

    Am I being absurdly greedy?

    On second thought, would it be actually better for me and worse for T if they did have flavorboulevard.com.cn? I mean, all those people who forget to type the .cn part would end up on my page, right? So did they not think this through, or am I missing something?

    UPDATE (Oct 26): Peter is right, they kindly suggest that I buy the .cn and .asia domains. You bet I won’t.

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    11 comments to Domain fight?

    • peter

      i had a simalar email for my company, just ignore it they want you to buy the domain name (i think) just a underhand sales tactic.

    • Mai

      That would make sense, but they haven’t said anything about buying the domain name (yet?). I’m just annoyed by their rudeness.

    • Wow, this is strange and rude! You should definitely keep on fighting for your domain! Good luck!

    • Give ’em hell, Mai. Sounds like you were first contacted first because you could potentially do just that? Tell ’em Flavor Alley is still available.

    • Mai

      Thanks, Oanh, I will! And Dang, excellent suggestion, Flavor Alley, Flavor Drive and Flavor Freeway are available, but Highway, Lane, Street, Road are not 😀

    • Gleb

      You should tell them to fly a kite, but maybe it’s not the best idea to publicly write that you’re thinking that the name similarity might bring you extra traffic. I think this kind of thing is looked down upon in domain name disputes.

      I’d check out the feud between Nissan and Nissan Motors (though of course this wouldn’t turn into anything similar :)).

    • Mai

      Well the extra traffic part is not really my intention anyway, they want the similarity, not me. I don’t think they could take my .com, or I’ll seriously sue them, or cry.

    • Cmeo

      Fight fight Mai uiii, dont let Chinese go over your blogggggg

    • Bob

      I would just tell them no, that you will not surrender your domain name. Tell them that you will not surrender it and that they need to consider a different mark.

    • F em! I ordered shoes from China and they sent me fakes. Prolly the same people :p

    • Mai

      Hmm… what are fake shoes like? Can you still wear them? 😀

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