A company in China is planning to use my company's trading name online... any advice?

December 20, 2012 2:24 AM

A company in China is planning to use my company's name. What should I do?

I've been receiving emails over the last few months from a Chinese domain registry enquiring about a domain name I have registered. This domain is my company's name with .net/.org/.co.uk extensions. The registrar has indicated this domain is available in it's various .cn variations and .asia, and is planning to register it for their client, who plans to conduct business under this name.

I know nothing about the client, other than that they may be operating in some of the same sectors as my company.

The registrar has stated they recommended to their client that they use a different name, but they are not taking this onboard.

Is this a cause for concern? On the one hand, it's highly unlikely that my company is likely to be operating in Chinese markets. On the other, should I be concerned that they're planning to use the same (unique) name and could possibly be entering my domestic market (not knowing the size of the other party). I'm erring to the side that it's not a problem, but something niggling at the back of my head and says I should CMA, but anything beyond a gentleman's agreement to not misrepresent in respective territories starts looking expensive.

Should I be concerned? Has anyone else been in this position? Should I take any steps to cover myself (my company name isn't trademarked) or am I overblowing things?

posted by davemee to computers & internet (5 answers total)

It's a scam, ignore it.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:27 AM on December 20, 2012 [5 favorites]

Wow, thanks DarlingBri. I guess the politeness of it all should have been a give-away. I was tempted to just let it go, which I will do based on your insight.

For future reference, the registrar is http://www.ygnetworkit.com/
posted by davemee at 2:36 AM on December 20, 2012

Yeah, we used to get these *all* the time at my previous company when I was on the domain contact email alias & that was years ago.
posted by pharm at 2:39 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

The site (http://www.yiguannetwork.com) posted by msittig is identical to the one I was sent. Guess they had to use a new domain name after these kinds of results started showing up.
posted by davemee at 2:45 AM on December 20, 2012

Previously (includes bonus links to previouslier)
posted by goshling at 12:25 PM on December 20, 2012