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Facebook files 21 domain name complaints
Facebook has filed a UDRP complaint covering 21 domain names that include its trademark.
All seem to belong to the same domainer: Mike Mann. His company, Domain Asset Holdings, which has over 162,000 domains to its name, is listed in the Whois for each.
It’s the largest single UDRP filing by Facebook to date, and only its second to include brand+keyword domains.
The contested domains include: aboutfacebook.com, facebookbabes.com, facebookcheats.com, facebookclub.com, facebookdevelopment.com, killfacebook.com and many more.
All 21 covered by the UDRP are currently available for sale at Mann’s DomainMarket.com, with list prices between $350 and $8,000 and above.
A quick search on that site for other well-known social media brands returned dozens of results.
Mann is known as co-founder of BuyDomains, and more recently as one of the former owners of sex.com, which sold for $13 million last year.
Received a similar complaint from Facebook, about my domain name likethisonfacebook.com
Bummer but if anyone knows how to handle it from here its him.
Good, I find this embarrassing for us all. I hope they win big. Go Facebook.
Hello,
If I were Facebook, I would worry more about correcting some of their internal Marketing Strategies, that were mentioned in the USA Today paper.
Headlines : “Social Media Cant Block Poisoned Links.” If you read the article it brings up what we have been saying about them for some time now. They have so many Security breach problems in their Business Model that they are losing Trust with their base rapidly.
We have designed our future sites Business Model to provide a safe and secure Walled Garden of Trust, that sidesteps these issues and builds trust with the Online Business Community.
We have been saying all along that our Business Model will replace their weaknesses with our strengths. We will not ever let our BRAND be tarnished like theirs.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
He should know better.
I wish the big players would leave these types of names alone. Mann should man up and try to fix his portfolio, lol.
Good to see our domain industry leaders are finally leading by setting a good example.
NOT!
Wasn’t this the same guy that tried to unload a lot
of 6 figure .co’s in the Sedo auction last month?
I believe it is. He sold a few five-figure .co domains.
http://domainincite.com/dotmusic-buys-music-co/
http://www.elliotsblog.com/mike-mann-on-sedo-co-auction-1923
Thing is, if you look at the domains there’s no squatting there. They’re all about things related to facebook, such as FacebookDevelopment.com I can see how this domain would be good for someone who wanted to make a site about app creation for Facebook. Such a domain is not useful for creating a copycat of Facebook. So I dont think there is very much malicious intent there, if at all. On the other hand Facebook is a trademarked term and they are a corporate giant now so I’m guessing this gets resolved quickly. Im not saying its right but I remember last year I wanted to create a minisite about the heath effects of “Coke” or “Coca-cola” both of which are trademarked terms, and if you want to rank for the related terms it certainly helps to have the keyword in the domain. But the keyword I wanted was a trademarked term so I ended having to scrap the project.
That’s debatable. Why exactly were those domains registered to begin with anyway, considering that users are likely looking for Facebook instead of, say, Domain Asset Holdings?
I agree that the redirect to DomainMarket.com shows intent to possibly capitalize on the Facebook keyword. I’m just saying a domain like FacebookDevelopment.com could be used for something like giving app developers resources, with zero intent to harm Facebook in any way. Im sure though Facebook will use screenshots of the forward as their evidence of how the domain was used.
“The domain names are all currently owned by a company called Domain Asset Holdings, a known domain squatter based in Potomac, Maryland. ”
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/24/facebook-tries-to-squash-21-squatted-domain-names/
This whole thing is a mistake, we have fewer tm names in our collection than anyone and have lost almost no cases. These were registered by an automated system, not by hand, in any case we are trying to give them to FB for free eventhough they are rich and rude if they would merely stfu and contact us.
“in any case we are trying to give them to FB for free eventhough they are rich and rude if they would merely stfu and contact us.”
Whatever happened to Bell, Bain, Tomlinson and Cooper’s inventions? Or did the pigeons hibernate?
Aren’t you friends in Facebook? Lol.
Really, lots of trouble could have been saved, if people were only willing to say, “please,” “sorry,” or…”Hello!” Not all cases are settled in court.
There are 13 domains on sedo for sale at cheap prices that summarize the letters that match the facebook, I’ve noticed that more young people mention and write facebook = facbk
@Mike Mann
Yeah I just received an email to an inquiry for one of these thousands of domain names you’re squatting on.
You want to charge thousands of dollars for something that’s worth maybe 20 bucks a year.
I really hope a billion dollar company like facebook is planning on raking you through the coals in court.
You souless weasel