Odds & Ends Frank Ross on 05 Jan 2007 08:06 pm
Someone doesn’t like one of my Domain Names
And could that ’someone’ be eBay? Some time ago, before all the cybersquatting laws came into play, I registered a domain that was a phrase with the word ‘eBay’ in it. So far it’s just a parked domain and is not in use.
A few days ago, I got an email from someone appearing to be from eBay chastising me for registering this domain. I won’t repost the email since it was lengthy, but it basically cited some trademark laws and told me that I should let the domain expire without using it.
The odd thing about it was that the email did not originate from eBay. In fact, I’m not sure why my anti-spam, anti-phish filter didn’t catch it. The originating domain was another company, a legitimate company who does such trademark enforcement. But the email was signed with someone’s first name (no last name) and the title of ‘eBay Enforcement Team’. The reply-to email address was enforcement@ebay.com. I don’t think the email was a phish because it didn’t contain any links to sites that asked me for anything - only informational sites.
However, I am treating the email as a spam for a variety of reasons. For one, legal notices such as that should never be conveyed via email. For a various reasons, not the least of which are the existence of email filters, sometimes email does not get delivered and there is no real way to prove email delivery. The method of choice for any kind of legal notice is still postal mail (certified) which will hold up in court. I doubt if email notices like that can be considered any kind of official notice.
Secondly, a first name signature is not very official. It was a very common name and looked unprofessional.
Thirdly, why did this company not identify themselves as the actual company representing eBay, rather than try to pretend like they were eBay?
Is eBay just too lazy to send the notice via postal mail? The domain in question is not private so whoever this was had access to the PO Box address associated with the domain. It was available for them to mail me a notice. Or is it just someone trying to strong-arm the domain away from me?
Whatever the case, I will most likely renew it when it comes due unless I get some sort of official notice coming from something that I can positively identify as eBay. I will need to seek eBay’s approval before doing anything with the domain; this was my intention all along.