Porsche.me and the friends
One can tell that Georg Kohler of Brazil based Minas Invest Private Holding had a bad year. In 2008 he purchased during the land rush auctions several pricey domains, including toyota.me (acquired for the record price of $90,124.98 after 110 bids), skoda.me (acquired for $20,109.98 after 76 bids), porsche.me (acquired for $7,604.98 after 23 bids), mitsubishi.me (acquired for $6,624.98 after 115 bids), bentley.me (acquired for $174.98), and few others.
Mr. Porsche vs Mr. Kohler - because the size matters
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche, the owner of world famous car brand "Porsche", filed a case with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre on August 14, 2008.
On October 24, 2008, the sole panelist Alistair Payne took the decision: the domain name to be transferred to the complainant.
This has followed other two cases both ending with "transfer" decisions.
The first case was creditmutuel.me (registered by Epsilon Production Worldwide on the second day of Go Live phase, i.e., July 18, 2008 at nominal cost of $39.98) decided on October 1, 2008. The respondent did not reply to the complainant’s contentions and just let the domain vanish.
The other was exxonmobil.me (registered by Robert Christian from Florida during the land rush period for the nominal price of $99.98). Mr Christian confessed to "bad faith" intentions and the case was concluded on October 2, 2008.
Porsche.me is now with Mr. Porsche. The company has no plans to develop it for the moment, so the site is down. The fate of exxonmobil.me is similar. Only creditmutuel.me was "lucky" to be parked on a side server.
As to toyota.me, it is still with Georg Kohler, although he is now probably less entusiastic about it. He wished he bought legal.me but ended up with illegal.me as the matter of fact.
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Copy - http://links2.me/~wD5$5K
October 25th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Minas Invest?
Georg Kohler is also seems to be associated with seios.us. He is listed as the administrator, billing and technical contact using the same info he used for Toyota.Me. Apparently seios.us is a porno site owned by ESHA USA, Inc. (a company based in California).
The email address he is using for toyota.me (minasinvest@minasinvest.com.br) is also associated with 2500+ domain names (found on DomainTools.com).
January 10th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Maybe it is just his unlucky domain – rape.me
He paid $12,015 + registration for it… and now it is striking back.
I would sell it before it is too late and he is left only with this one.
Call me old-fashioned.
http://domain.me/index.php?whois_name=rape
January 13th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I’ve heard, the other guys were bidding for toyota.me et al just for fun to create the buzz but it is insure.me that caught the true attention.
February 17th, 2009 at 5:59 am
They have added other five cases on http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisionsx/list.jsp?prefix=DME&year=2008&seq_min=1&seq_max=199 :
* danone.me
* sprite.me
* firefox.me
* getfirefox.me
* mozilla.me
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 am
Porcshe domain acquisition related related news in Russian, this owner of the trademark is really insane:
News in Russian:
http://www.autoonline.com.ua/news/index.php?id=4231
Translated into English:
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/cayenne/170263-russian-cayenneclub-under-attack.html
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I understand they were after porsche.me and it was probably right thing to do to give it to Mr Porsche.
But with all those local clubs – they really damage their brand.
You cannot stop people making small communities on the Internet.
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Wouldn’t it be wise.ly to buy something like http://MyCar.Me and promote brand neutral car fan club with Sub URLs http://MyPorsche.MyCar.Me, http://MyToyota.MyCar.Me ?…
That would be okay from the trademark point of view.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Interestingly, royaldutchshellgroup.com and royaldutchshellplc.com could survive the attack of corporate lawyers:
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2005/d2005-0538.html
I guess, it all depends on what arguments are presented to the WIPO panelists.
June 12th, 2009 at 10:09 am
2009 Q1 was less dramatic, with only two domains being transferred: overstock.me (case DME2009-0001) and intesasanpaolo.me (case DME2009-0003).
One can even doubt the fairness of the former, the owner just decided to let it go.
The other, being quite generic, gameload.me, gamesload.me, softload.me, softwareload.me, thebodyshop.me, monabanq.me defended themselves from attacks of Deutsche Telekom, The Body Shop International, and Monabanq 3 Suisses International.
Source: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisionsx/list.jsp?prefix=DME&year=2009&seq_min=1&seq_max=199
June 15th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
The Hon. Neil Brown QC FCIArb did sit on many cases and is sharing good bits with everyone. Good read if you are into domains: http://domaintimes.info/ and want to learn more about how to protect yourself.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Internet is getting messy, indeed, and even big names cannot track it all:
Yahoo.mu is for sale, but who would buy it anyway?
July 27th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Just FYI, some guys think they can a fortune cybersquotting .com with .cm – http://www.domainnamenews.com/editorial/cm-auctions-typo-traffic-domains-worth/5519
I think, they are losing their time. With the smae money, they can go for a jingling domain name and then turn it into cash generating business.
July 30th, 2009 at 2:29 am
If you talk to internet IP lawyers, you will be scarred less. So if in doubt, it is advised to spend a week or two and study WIPO regulations and cases.
Indeed, few guys lost “their” .me but those were specific brands. If you have porsche.me and pretend you have nothing to do with Porsche – your chances stand low.
Pretty all .me cases so far were weak on defence side:
* 2008 cases can be found here: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisionsx/list.jsp?prefix=DME&year=2008&seq_min=1&seq_max=199
* 2009 cases can be found here: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisionsx/list.jsp?prefix=DME&year=2009&seq_min=1&seq_max=199
The guy behind intesasanpaolo.me did not protect himself well, hence lost it.
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/dme2009-0003.html
If you hold a potentially disputed name, try to “clean” it a bit, state you have nothing to do with the “rival”, but only the generic part of the name.
Study cases on potential complainants:
http://ggl.me/?q=site%3Awipo.int+YOUR_POTENTIAL_COMPLAINANTS
In the end of the day, contact the company and tell them you will be _not_ infringing their trademark. Discuss it. They might be okay like that.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
This “me” topic of Toyota and Porsche took a big cycle over the web:
* http://ggl.me/?q=wipo+toyota.me
* http://ggl.me/?q=wipo+porsche.me
January 24th, 2010 at 11:50 am
[…] the rest of the Internet), with only eight cases filed at WIPO in 2008 (also discussed in our earlier article featuring Porsche.Me) and further nine cases filed in 2009. With near.ly 300+ registered .me domain […]
March 19th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
A good article about premium .tvs: http://www.thedomains.com/2010/03/19/5-5-million-in-tv-domains-up-for-grabs-today-winners-losers-thoughts/
August 4th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
[…] while ago we covered FB.ME and Porsche.Me. Now, Facebook.Me story is a mixture of two. Amjad Abbas of the United Arab Emirates registered […]
May 8th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
More popcorn please: “”” Sony has brought a UDRP on the domain name Sony.me which has been registered since August 5th 2008. “””
November 15th, 2014 at 2:57 pm
Recently Porsche lawyers lost the case on porsche.social http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/1571774F.htm
Then managed to suspend it via the registry.