IDN registrations through intimidation?

[Adam Peake]

What's the name of the registrar, and are they ICANN accredited?

Adam


>Dear all,
>
>I am not sure whether this is of any interest 
>for the NCUC but this is what happened to a 
>student of mine. He registered the domain name 
><http://www.braeheadfoods.co.uk/>http://www.braeheadfoods.co.uk/ 
>on behalf of a company which is located here in 
>Scotland. The term Braehead merely represents a 
>location with a quite popular and busy shopping 
>centre here in Scotland but it is not by any 
>means well-known around the world. (I have added 
>at the end of this email their communication)
>My student received an email from a Chinese 
>registrar claiming that another company Sefar 
>Soft Inc. is looking to register the same SLD in 
>China urging my student to register them first. 
>Sefar Soft Inc. most probably doesn¹t exist (I 
>conducted a google search on my own) and it 
>looks like the Chinese registrar is seeking to 
>intimidate my student in order to proceed to 
>various domain name registrations under the 
>Chinese gTLDs or ccTLDs. This is not the first 
>time I have heard of something like this 
>(something similar has happened to a friend of a 
>friend).
>I think this is quite worrying as now with the 
>IDNs and the expansion of registries and 
>registrars some sort of control should be 
>maintained by ICANN as they will continue to try 
>and attract customers through intimidation. This 
>is something that I think should be addressed by 
>us as representatives of non-commercial users.
>
>Konstantinos
>
>Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis
>
>Lecturer in IT&T Law, Panellist,
>Chair Membership Committee,
>Global Internet Governance Academic Network,
>University of Strathclyde,
>The Law School,
>141 St James Road,
>Glasgow G4 0LT.
>
>tel:+44 (0)141 548 4306
>fax:+44 (0)141 548 3639
>email: k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk
>http://www.law.strath.ac.uk/staff/bio_sharepoint.aspx?id=75
>
>From: andy.zhang [mailto:andy.zhang at china-dnr.hk]
>Sent: 28 October 2008 01:33
>To: Braehead Webmaster
>Subject: Re: Re: URGENT_Notice of disputing 
>³braeheadfoods² domain name in China
>
>Dear Stephen Grant,
>
>Thanks for your confirmation. If you have no any 
>relationship with ³Sefar Soft Inc², then it must 
>be a pre-empt company who want to register your 
>domain names. We hereby suspect the company 
>"Sefar Soft Inc" is your competitor and intend 
>to enter Chinese Market by imitating your brand, 
>or "Sefar Soft Inc" is a domain grabber and 
>speculator.
>Thus their representative in China submitted 
>this application through our body so we can not 
>get in touch with them full-face, this just our 
>conjecture. But as per the open registration 
>principle as "who is the first, who is the 
>owner" in China, we do not have any right to 
>reject their application. So our duty and 
>incumbency is informing you about this issue as 
>you are the holder of "www. braeheadfoods. com". 
>If your company consider those Domains are not 
>important at all and " Sefar Soft Inc." register 
>and use those names will not brings any negative 
>effects to your company ,we suggest that there 
>is no need wasting lots of time and energy to 
>process this matter. If your company consider 
>those Domain names are very important to your 
>company and very necessary to be protected that 
>we shall apply the priority of registration for 
>your company and register those Domain names 
>under your company's name.
>Nevertheless this need you and your company cooperate with us.
>In addition, please inform us your company's 
>decision of this issue. If your company do need 
>to register those Domains in China we will 
>transfer an formal Application Form and fill out 
>finished return to us by Fax or via E-mail. If 
>not need, we will pass the registration of 
>³Sefar Soft Inc² unconditionally. Of course we 
>will esteem your any decision also. Thanks for 
>your cooperation.
>
>Best Regards,
>
>Andy
>
>
>andy.zhangÅC<mailto:%3c!--AID_FROMADDRESS_BEGIN--%3eandy.zhang at china-dnr.hk%3c!--AID_FROMADDRESS_END--%3e>andy.zhang at china-dnr.hk
>2008-10-28
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:webmaster at braeheadfoods.co.uk>Braehead Webmaster
>To: <mailto:andy.zhang at china-dnr.hk>andy.zhang
>Sent: 2008-10-28, 00:28:48
>Subject: Re: URGENT_Notice of disputing ³braeheadfoods² domain name in China
>
>Hi Andy,
>
>"Sefar Soft Inc" are not a business partner or subsidiary company of
>ours and as such we would not like them to use our trademarked name and
>second level domain in the suggested domain names. Could you please
>advise me on how you wish to proceed.
>
>-Stephen Grant
>On behalf of Braehead Foods Ltd
>
>
>
>andy.zhang wrote:
>>  Dear CEO,
>>  We are the department of registration service in China. we have
>>  something need to confirm with you. We formally received an
>>  application on Oct. 24th 2008, One company which self-styled ³Sefar
>>  Soft Inc² are applying to register ³braeheadfoods² as internet brand
>>  and domain names as below :
>>  braeheadfoods.asia
>>  braeheadfoods.cn
>>  braeheadfoods.com.cn
>>  braeheadfoods.com.hk
>>  braeheadfoods.com.tw
>>  braeheadfoods.hk
>>  braeheadfoods.in
>>  braeheadfoods.net.cn
>>  braeheadfoods.org.cn
>>  braeheadfoods.tw
>>  braeheadfoods.com.vn
>>  braeheadfoods.co.in
>>  After our initial checking, we found the internet brand and these
>>  domain names being applied are as same as your company's, so we need
>>  to get the confirmation from your company. If the aforesaid company is
>>  your business partner or your subsidiary company, please DO NOT reply
>>  us, we will approve the application automatically. If you have no any
>>  relationship with this company, please contact us within 7 workdays.
>>  If out of the deadline, we will approve the application submitted by
>>  "Sefar Soft Inc." unconditionally.
>>
>>  Best Regards,
>>  Andy Zhang
>>  Senior Consultant
>>  /Tel:00852-31781989Fax:00852-31758227
>>  Website: /www.87global.hk <<http://www.87global.hk/>http://www.87global.hk/>
>>  /Address:UnitA,5/F,Max share Centre,373 King's Road North Point, Hongkong/