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Have you heard of “What Box Holdings“, “Plan Bee LLC” and “Thomas A. Brackey II“? If you are looking to buy a New gTLD domain name you probably have. They managed to register more than 300 premium generic domain names before anyone else. How? Using “fake” trademarks in Sunrise.
They have registered domain names such as cloud.guru, social.photos, Build.house, BET.guru, online.bike, VACATION.photos, discount.repair etc.
I am sure they will tell you that these are not fake trademarks. They have about 40 real trademark registrations in Switzerland, although they only operate in the US, for non existent
products they claim to produce such as pens, hats, bracelets, charms, guitar picks and plastic clips for sealing bags.
These are 3 different entities but all use the same Beverly Hills address so I can assume that the same people are behind all 3 trademark holders. The 2 companies and this Thomas A. Brackey II.
Mr. Brackey is the Managing Partner of Freund & Brackey LLP. Plan Bee, LLC, the .build registry, is a California company and part of the Minardos Group. What Box Holdings is behind .luxury new gTLD.
I wrote an article a couple of months back about the “Build” trademark when I still thought that it was not related to the other. I was rather polite there. These are not “questionable” trademarks. This a master plan…
Plan Bee, LLC has been registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse for the mark “build” in class 14 that relates to precious metals. The Minardos Group is a construction company and doesn’t have to do anything with precious metals. I asked Plan Bee, LLC for a comment then but didn’t hear back. No wonder…
Corporations have been using trademarks to steal generic and dictionary terms using UDRP. So we now have a new breed. The “legal” sunrise scavenger scam. The one that registers tens of trademarks in a far far away country from where they are that appears to accept any trademark claim without a single shred of proof.
None of the trademarks below has ever been used by their owners and will never will be used, except to steal domain names in Sunrise of New gTLDs.
“What Box Holdings“, “Plan Bee LLC” and “Thomas A. Brackey II“ have 39 trademarks in total all in Switzerland and all with Marcaria and all for non-existent products.
All trademarks were registered using Marcaria.com in Switzerland. Nice business this Marcaria company is running…
You can search all Swiss trademarks here. I am sure you will find more dirt like I did… (You might want to check a trademark “car insurance” for firearms.)
Here are their list of trademarks (first column is the trademark and the second what it is for):
What Box Holdings, LLC, 427 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210 California, US
34 Swiss trademarks using Marcaria.com as their agent and this is their list:
| wedding | pens |
| menu | pens |
| band | pens |
| club | pens |
| fish | pens |
| online | pens |
| discount | pens |
| bet | hats |
| realestate | hats |
| tour | pens |
| events | pens |
| health | bracelet |
| money | hats |
| travel | paper weight |
| christmas | picks |
| credit | pens |
| party | pens |
| food | pens |
| rent | pens |
| movie | pens |
| insurance | pens |
| shopping | picks |
| 808 | pens |
| aloha | pens |
| dating | pens |
| vacation | picks |
| tickets | picks |
| finance | hats |
| storage | pens |
| holiday | picks |
| camp | pens |
| radio | Plastic clips for sealing bags. |
| games | Plastic clips for sealing bags. |
| career | Plastic clips for sealing bags. |
| ilove | picks |
Plan Bee LLC, 427 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210 California, US
2 Swiss trademarks using Marcaria.com as their agent and this is their list:
| construction | charms |
| build | charms |
Thomas A. Brackey II, 427 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210 California, US
3 Swiss trademarks using Marcaria.com as their agent and this is their list:
| social | pens |
| cloud | pens |
| direct | pens |
I then checked 62 New gTLDs strings that have passed the Sunrise phase against their 39 (34+2+3) trademarks. I found that they have registered 330 (259+14+57) domain names in Sunrise so far. Click on the numbers to see the complete lists of domain names. I am sure there will be more because once the collision lists are freed more domain names from the lists will go the trademark owners.
These sunrise domain names can be challenged under Donuts’ Sunrise and DPML Dispute Resolution Policy. But Richard Tindal from Donuts made a comment at the DomainNameWire.com a couple of months back that they don’t feel cheated: ” We don’t feel gamed in Sunrise. Per ICANN rules, the TMCH decides who can buy then and everyone who bought in our Sunrise met the TMCH ‘in-use’ requirement. We’re not going to become an arbiter of which trademarks are legitimate and which are not. We think it’s a very bad idea for domain registries to become trademark judges.”
Will Donuts react now after about 300 of their premium domains were taken in Sunrise? Will the other new gTLD registries, the Trademark ClearingHouse or the Swiss trademark office finally do something?
There are tens of New gTLDs coming up. So if you have in mind in getting cloud.web or social.web you can forget it.
For now…
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By Donuts stepping aside, and not setting a precedence they are not only encouraging such actions, but supporting them. Pens really??? With so much transparency within our technological reach in modern times, how can we let these losers get away with this. So called ambassadors to the industry really need to call these people out. Hats off to Online Domain for exposing such fraudulent actions. Such actions are maybe why gtlds have been opposed by people like Rick, nobody can take these terms seriously when such terms can be gamed without consequence. No trust within these systems. Enjoy your reg fee spoils, their terms stink of scum.
The only other thing I can do is boycott .build and .luxury.
If Donuts doesn’t care (probable because their are getting about $100 by renewals each year for each domain) then who else will?
The pattern is definitely strange. I see that most of these marks were applied for in mid-July 2012, before any gTLDs entered the long list of applications. So the question is, how did they know these gTLDs would be approved? Also, is Switzerland once again becoming the vault of nazi gold?
As I understand it, the trademarks that have been acquired are all independent of the gTLD extensions themselves; rather they are all 2nd level domain trademarked terms.
For example, “wedding” is the 1st of 34 trademarks listed above as having been registered by What Box Holdings, LLC. And, according to the Sunrise domain registrations list provided in the article (click on the “259” link), thus far, What Box Holdings LLC was able to register the following domains during the Sunrise period:
– wedding.florist
– wedding.center
– wedding.management
– wedding.holiday
– wedding.guru
– wedding.clothing
…and, unless challenged by another “wedding” trademark holder, they will be able to continue registering ANY & ALL “wedding.{any open gTLD}” they desire during the respective Sunrise phase of the ‘open’ gTLD’s yet to be launched!
You are correct. If there is another trademark holder for the same term they simply go to auction.
They didn’t care what TLDs would be approved.
They want all domains in all New gTLDs that are going to be available for the keywords they bought.
Erik Ludwick was going after .club back in 2011
Guess he didn’t get it, but he sure learned quite a few things along the way;-)
https://twitter.com/ClubTLD
Unfortunately, gaming the system is something common nowadays, every landrush is tainted by questionable priority applications.
We have seen it first-hand in .eu, with those elusive Cyprus front companies.
But since the TLD as a whole is not valuable all they got now is a pile of worthless strings and liabilities.
Before .eu, .info was also gamed in the same way, leading to a number of revoked registrations years later.
I think you are not missing out people, and they are not going to benefit a lot from their deeds.
Eventually they will probably lose the domains, the money they paid to buy them, and the money they spend buying the fake trademarks.
I am waiting for my gift hat from What Box any time soon…
These guys are all insiders, they have been involved with new gtld’s from the start. If anyone knew how to game the system it was them. They obviously hatched the plan a long time ago, if they did not get the applied for extension it was essentially a backdoor to get some choice terms.
Domain Name Association
Erik Ludwick, What Box?
*Nonvoting director
Is this the type of people you want representing the industry? Who is the industry?
Thanks I forgot to mention his name. Erik Ludwick is listed in whois for all the What Box domains and uses a couple of different email addresses.
As for new gtld’s they were meant for end users who could not get their chosen terms in current top tier extensions. They are basically useless, if they are all being housed by phoney mark holders, so what day will they start selling the pen compnay, and start liquidating their domains? What do you say guys, have you thought that far ahead?
What a c*nt.
I expectet much much more ..
those people are .. i am sorry, but they are stupid ..
TOUR.technology ??
HEALTH.photography ??
ALOHA.domains ??
PARTY.technology ??
sry, i am feeling nothing if I see this names. no angry, no fear, nothing.
for sure there are some nice names in the hole list, **but for sure all of us got better names**
no please, I AM VERY DISAPOINTED ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE
i thought they reserved something like news.today etc
I completely do not understand. what a chance to get nice names and thats the outcome
btw i am from switzerland, so it would be nice if you dont dance on it.
I dont know why marcaria chosed swiss. maybe because swiss is save and a ongoing solution. no hipe, no BS !
to get ur own trademark (all over the world) u dont need a company or business.
because its just a trademark, your sign, your own brand.
They got a few good ones. And they have plenty more to get…
Maybe you have an answer as to why they chose Swiss. They have another customer there doing the same thing.
i don’t know but i would do the same. switzerland or hongkong. just because i know, everything will be fine.
the fees are about 600$ to register a trademark in swiss.
hongkong increased their fees 2 weeks ago. it was about 160$ before.
everything goes to ICANN.
ICANN is the process manager of the hole story. ICANN should increase the sunrise fees by 20 or better 50. there will be no “what box buying every wedding” anymore.
AND .. for each person or company there should be a maximum of 2 to buy (which company needs more then 2 domains ? if yes, buy a gtld)
its makes absolutely no sense that a sunrise is cheaper as a landrush. its logical that this is going to be a disaster.
but does ICANN cares about us ? cares about domainers ?
I hope, but I don’t think so.
This is not about domainers. It about all domains and the trademark system that is a joke.
absolutely agree !!
as i wrote yesterday. we are going into the future but it does not feel like it
its a gangster movie: changing prices over the night, reserving domains 15 mins before golive, claiming vogue words like web, online and cloud. etc etc
is there any control ? no, but who cares. there will come 5 gilds more next week
insurance.link
who grabbed it?
Insurance.link was taken by what box! Erik ludwick
I do not know how Frank can stand for someone poaching his extension like this. Insurance big term with bogus mark, ouch!
What Box – one of the three in the article
Internet domain name industry.
What is the Domain Name Association?
The Domain Name Association is a new non-profit global business association that represents the interests of the domain name industry. Its members are groups, businesses, and individuals involved in the provision, support, and sale of domain names. This includes such organisations as domain name registries, registrars, resellers, and registry service providers.
The Domain Name Association aims to play a key role in helping consumers, business, public-benefit organisations, and others understand the benefits and take advantage of the upcoming expansion of the Internet name space. It is the first-ever industry trade association to represent the interests of the domain name industry and will promote, advance, and support the common interests of the industry with regards to the provisioning, expanded adoption, and use of domain names.
The intent of the Domain Name Association is to build trust, exchange ideas, educate, and raise awareness of domain related issues.
We invite all stakeholders in the domain name industry to join the Domain Name Association to work together to support our shared objectives.
ERIC LUDWICK is a director? WHY, And HOW?? BUILD TRUST??? Seriously the board needs to rethink this, has to be consequences…
http://thedna.org/leadership.html
Seriously??? Stealing from other board members (Donuts)?
I officially don’t have time to find all this crap…
everyone else should do the same thing. if no one cares, lets all game the system until it breaks.
I agree, I am creating a pencil company with special eraser technology which I will call cloud
Good luck in sunrise auction with Thomas A. Brackey the 2nd.
I will bid him up, then bail:-)
tmch should also be notified.
Sorry to say nobody cares, because everyone’s pockets are being greased along the way. The only real losers are the ones buying into this hype right now. Sure there are guys who got money to burn, but if you are taking savings, or money from other investments, please do your homework first, as this is turning into one giant shitstorm, pardon my Swiss. For an extension to gain traction it needs to be marketed, and utilized, if all the names are held by sketchy tm holders, domainers, and the internal registries who in the general population will care about them.
Large corporations so far have just been buying brand protection, or forwarding to .com homepage’s. Before I was worried gtld’s would affect .com’s, now I realize these guys have done themselves a disservice, and killed off any chance they had of actually gaining traction. All the cheerleaders left in the game are profiting from your losses, so stop the madness.
If it’s allowed by the system, why blame the gamer? 😀
http://domainincite.com/16492-how-one-guy-games-new-gtld-sunrise-periods
So now if you want to complain, find the address of ICANN and attend their meetings.
Cause he’s an asshole.
Why wasn’t this article on domaining.com?
So I should complain to ICANN? They don’t care about widespread issues. Why should they care about this?
Yes he read this article and build a fake website. Good job!
ICANN oversees the process as they set the rules exploited (legally or otherwise). It’s not news that one can get a ‘bogus’ tm in some country (popular ones used to be Algeria, Morocco etc.) but apparently Switzerland is more trendy. The news is that this method was used to tap into valuable gTLD domains.
it’s not about trendy, it’s about setting precedence, Lugano is not that far from Bern …-that includes registering very bad names along with those premiums, in the hopes of securing a few, legally, …. the Swiss are very smart people., they charge you to take care of your own money … and ips ..
One thing to do this in secret, another thing to do it out in the open, and flaunt it, and brag about it, and shrug it off as no big deal.
Can ICANN, Registry operators, and others involved be so clueless.
This attorney’s client WhatBox! Eric Ludwick is part of the Domain Name Association, which has some big names on their leadership team, please someone send this article out to them, and let’s see how long Ludwick stays on that panel. This association is basically setup to make sure things like this don’t happen.
All this states is the GTLD space is a joke, nothing more, as it can be gamed by a guy selling pens!
Are you sure What Box is behind .luxury? I believe they just have a common lawyer, which is the central figure in all of these trademark filings.
This post MUST BE on the home page of domaining.com ALWAYS, until Swiss PTO will withdraw those F A K E B A S T A R D TRADEMARKS.
PTOs were respectable Offices until 8-10 year ago, after they became SCUM, even wIPO, uSPTO and oAMI! People in Rue de Colombettes have to move their asses and make few kilometers to go to cancel those bastard trademarks by themselves, in person.
As said before: where are the so called respectable intellectual property lawyers of the industry? For cases like the ones exposed here they would receive great support from domainers and not only them, but from all!, to start some class actions against those FUCKING BASTARDS!
Please Kosta keep the FUCKING BASTARDS clear written, bolded and underlined if possible. I hope someone will come to me asking damages repair. I will repair him, for sure.
These stories don’t get a lot of coverage. These are not very loved by sponsors so people avoid to comment or even mention…
Only positive stories get attention.
Today (10 Apr. 2014) he register University.Guide. The strangeness that uses an e-mail
@mac.com (Apple?) eludwick@mac.com
Apple is offering email addresses such as @icloud.com.
Sorry for the mistake, he register: events.guide http://whois.domaintools.com/events.guide
NIce work KZ!
Konstantinos thanks for posting another great story. Time and Time again you pull out these crackers.