Cybersquatting with .tel

Spocky wrote:
http://caterpillar.tel_

Caterpillar is a dictionary word. So, I think that the "Cybersquatters" or rather "word stealers" are owners of that TM, and not the owner of this TEL.

Registration yesterday: westernunion.tel

Registration yesterday: colgate.tel

Registration yesterday: burgerking.tel

Registration yesterday: weightwatchers.tel

I suspect that the people who have registered these domains are newbies who don't know the law. I made the same error when I first bought .tels registering around five of this type of domain. All were dropped after a year except for the landrush ones which were dropped after three years. 

Call it a domain investing education by fire :-(.

I would like to know: is the .tel of the day a case of cybersquatting?
www.whatsyourtel.com/t42p16-tel-of-the-day#178
www.zumba.tel

When I search for "zumba" I see the ® sign everywhere:
www.google.de/search?q=zumba

And many trademarks are registered:
www.trademarkia.com/trademarks-search.aspx?tn=zumba

And the important domain extensions are registered by one company:
www.zumba.com
www.zumba.co.uk
www.zumba.de
www.zumba.nl
www.zumba.es
...

How would you judge this domain legally?

@boracay

Thank you; that clarifies things for me.

These are the most blatant cases of cybersquatting with .tel domains to date:

www.barack.tel
www.blanton.tel
www.chehade.tel

let wrote:www.blanton.tel
www.chehade.tel

Both registered and administrated by Telnic's customer service!

Expert wrote:

let wrote:www.blanton.tel
www.chehade.tel

Both registered and administrated by Telnic's customer service!

Yes - absolutely right - click links below to confirm:

https://www.easywhois.com/?domain=blanton.tel
https://www.easywhois.com/?domain=chehade.tel

I assume Telnames have their permission to do this ?

If so, good luck to them, I hope they extend this "let us set up your .tel" service to British MPs and MEPs - as long as the politicians then quote their .tels when dealing with the electorate.

BUT nothing beats PROOF OF CONCEPT better than customers putting their own hands in their pockets to buy the product or service !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

The above is of course all "fiddling at the edges" - I really hope Kash is hard at work on MY BIG IDEA

http://MikeSeaton.tel

Walmart.tel
This will be interesting.

Boracay wrote:Walmart.tel
This will be interesting.

Clear from the legal view.
Even Telnic displays the trademark in the Whois: http://telnic.org/whois.html?domain=walmart.tel

Does Telnic have any gripe sites ?

You know what they say - the only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about !

Would kinda give Telnic "street-cred" if there was a gripe site - is there ?

After all, no business wants to be completely ignored by the world at large !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

PS. I exclude this TelTalk forum in my question "Is there a gripe site ?".

mikeseaton wrote:Does Telnic have any gripe sites ?

Not a site specialized in .tel, but comments can be found enough:

http://domaingang.com/domain-news/telnic-adds-insult-to-injury-launching-idn-tel-domains/
http://my.opera.com/jlouisbiz/blog/2012/05/25/tel-domain-sucks-and-now-with-telnames-com-it-sucks-even-more
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/11/10/telnic-a-35-million-investment-gone-awry/
http://acro.net/blog/domains/still-lost-in-tel-hell-in-the-age-of-development/
http://my.opera.com/tel-domain/blog/2012/05/10/tel-domain-sucks-and-it-now-sucks-big-time

It's only difficult to find something positive about .tel.

mikeseaton wrote:PS. I exclude this TelTalk forum in my question "Is there a gripe site ?".

... and it definitely isn't!
As long Telnic doesn't produce anything good, Telnic has to live with the fact that people speak about all the deficits and mistakes.

let wrote:

mikeseaton wrote:Does Telnic have any gripe sites ?

Not a site specialized in .tel, but comments can be found enough:

http://domaingang.com/domain-news/telnic-adds-insult-to-injury-launching-idn-tel-domains/
http://my.opera.com/jlouisbiz/blog/2012/05/25/tel-domain-absorbs-and-now-with-telnames-com-it-absorbs-even-more
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/11/10/telnic-a-35-million-investment-gone-awry/
http://acro.net/blog/domains/still-lost-in-tel-hell-in-the-age-of-development/
http://my.opera.com/tel-domain/blog/2012/05/10/tel-domain-absorbs-and-it-now-absorbs-big-time

It's only difficult to find something positive about .tel.

Looks like an emphatic YES then in answer to my question !

Still once Kash gets his act together (before 15 October ?) and announces Telco deals automatically generating actualphonenumber.tel for millions of customers the only gripe will be "What can I do with all the money my .tels are now worth ?".

After all you can only drive one Porsche at a time !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

mikeseaton wrote:Still once Kash gets his act together (before 15 October ?) and announces Telco deals automatically generating actualphonenumber.tel for millions of customers the only gripe will be "What can I do with all the money my .tels are now worth ?".

That's not the current focus of Telnic.
Telnic want to bring success to .tel with Telnames.
The plan is to make a Telco deal after Telnames sold millions of .tels.
Today we are at 11,276 and registrations are declining.

mikeseaton wrote:Still once Kash gets his act together (before 15 October ?) and announces Telco deals automatically generating actualphonenumber.tel for millions of customers the only gripe will be "What can I do with all the money my .tels are now worth ?".

If Telnic don't see this as as a HUGE OPPORTUNITY to get mass market participation in their TLD sooner or later someone else will - after all there are nearly 2000 new gTLDs becoming available soon !

I really hope this doesn't turn out to be yet another missed opportunity by Telnic !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

\"Expert wrote:The plan is to make a Telco deal after Telnames sold millions of .tels.
Today we are at 11,276 and registrations are declining.

Not going to happen - how many weeks have the last 1000 Telnames registrations taken to achieve now that Telnames .tels are over a year old and candidates for dropping ?

I like the Telnames single page format as a SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT solution - but it's NOT GOING TO ACHIEVE CRITICAL MASS on it's own !

As John Cleese would say "Stating the Bleeding Obvious !".

http://MikeSeaton.tel

@Mike,
yes, but it is unfortunately very unlikely anyone be able to convince under time pressure to 15th of october unless prepared  6 /9  months ago , any mobile telco, which anyway will have look first at its muscles and evaluated what are muscles from TELnic/Telnames (how many users).

Playing judo with heavy weights competitors  when you are ultra light weight requires more indirect approach and taking advantage of any small dissimetry or default of the carpet, even one millimeter worth , to try to get mass transfer work positively for you , or even change the rules and better push to unconventional playing area not in favor of heavy weights  ;+)

Mobile phone device long number identity, instead of phone number itself , might be an interesting unconventional playing area, offering expensive smartphone owners some DIY way to attach unalienable and public Google searchable information on status STOLEN/yes no and contact details for returning their expensive latest smartphone which is at high risk to "disappear" one day .
It depends on bottom up approach , not on facing immediately an heavy weight, and on the fear from millions of Joe public to have his beloved smartphone stolen or lost.

Tens of Millions of mobile users unfortunately already know about importance of 15 /16 digits long number ID of their mobile device,  called IMEI, because their cherished phone has been lost or stolen one day, and whatever app to trace it embedded, has been immediately erased when wiping out all the data from the phone for "resale" .

These millions of users also know the inefficiency of existing multiple " centralised" , free or paid databases of IMEI, uncompleted, uneffective, and not easily searchable through a simple universal query by willing-above-the-average cautious buyer or reseller of a "second" hand smartphone offered at such a low price.

If these databases where somehow effective so far BTW, stolen smartphones statistics should have shown some reduction for a few years know, which is the opposite, still increasing due to international smuggling and increased desire of latest device.

Pro TEL might be cheaper to perform IMEI long number anti theft TEL registration.

But VARs and mobile insurance companies could later on be invited by Telnic to participate to additional coupons for Telnames registration of long number IMEI at attractive price .

Therefore any general initial communication from TELNIC Registry and then replicated if any, by the Registrars, about IMEI potential application (and others)  before 15th of October might encourage Joe public from any country worldwide, to register its long number IMEI , the universal ID of his expensive smartphone , over dot TEL.

Doing such registration is very likely to block possibilities for third parties trading at an interesting price his phone after being lost or stolen , and to promote gently returning it for a Paypal reward or dumping it to the nearest police station not to be caught with obviously (Google searchable) stolen IMEI in hands ?

Every month in London 10K phones are reported stolen , neither returned to their initial user, but potentially/certainly live now in other hands in UK or in other country due to international trading of "found" phones.

So this is about more than a million per month on a worldwide basis probably, still inflating.
Just because there is until now no effective simple link between the digital identity of the device (IMEI) and some central point of contact for its present  user.

Possibly some strong potential very universal AND very basic usecase for long numbers massive registration ... provided this comes before 1(th of October to the ears of Joe public by one way or another.