Squire Patton Boggs has lost its battle with Chinese cybersquatters to use the domain name squirepattonboggs.net.
When Squire Patton Boggs was created from the merger of Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs in March 2014, it registered the web address squirepattonboggs.com. But a Chinese company, Qinhuangdao Hongshun, nipped in and registered squirepattonboggs.net two months later. Squire Patton Boggs appealed to the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center. But a single-member panel has now ruled in favour of Qinhuangdao Hongshun. It said that the US firm didn't own the legal right to 'Squire Patton Boggs' until May 31, when the merged firm officially changed its name. And that because Squire Patton Boggs waited until December to file its own trademark application in China, where it has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, it couldn't argue that Qinhuangdao Hongshun had acted in bad faith.
Squirepattonboggs.net appears to have been specifically designed to confuse the genuine firm's clients in the region in order to compel Squire Patton Boggs to buy back the address. In a twist of the knife, Squirepattonboggs.net is not only presented as a law firm, but as a specialist in solving intellectual property issues in China. Introducing itself with the line, "Squire Patton Boggs is a professional IP agert [sic]" it sets out a FAQ section which appears to exist solely to troll Squire Patton Boggs over its IP bollock-drop:
Visitors to squirepattonboggs.net are presented with a gallery of fake lawyers. They include 'Zhijun Fang', billed as a partner, who comes with the testimonial, "One of the best attorney in our mind [sic]". In fact he only exists in Qinhuangdao Hongshun's mind, since his photo is a Getty stock image labelled "Mixed Race male lawyer at desk". The other three partners and managers are equally bogus.
Resemblances between squirepattonboggs.net and a cynical extortion racket do not end there. While Qinhuangdao Hongshun told the tribunal that it only asked Squire Patton Boggs to terminate separate trademark invalidation proceedings in exchange for the web address, Squire Patton Boggs claimed that the Chinese company demanded a $450,000 payoff. RollOnFriday emailed Zhijun Fang and offered him 20p and a banana for the domain name, but he has not replied.
A spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs told RollOnFriday, "The ADNDRC decision simply pushes the resolution of the domain dispute to a later time when the currently pending trademark invalidation proceedings will be concluded". It could always just change its name. When RollOnFriday cybersquatted masonspinsents.com in anticipation of a merger between Masons and Pinsent & Co, the firm cleverly avoided paying a massive ransom. That option is also open to Squire Patton Boggs, as checks reveal that SquirtingPatternedBogs web addresses are available and very affordable.
Tip Off ROF
When Squire Patton Boggs was created from the merger of Squire Sanders and Patton Boggs in March 2014, it registered the web address squirepattonboggs.com. But a Chinese company, Qinhuangdao Hongshun, nipped in and registered squirepattonboggs.net two months later. Squire Patton Boggs appealed to the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center. But a single-member panel has now ruled in favour of Qinhuangdao Hongshun. It said that the US firm didn't own the legal right to 'Squire Patton Boggs' until May 31, when the merged firm officially changed its name. And that because Squire Patton Boggs waited until December to file its own trademark application in China, where it has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, it couldn't argue that Qinhuangdao Hongshun had acted in bad faith.
Squirepattonboggs.net appears to have been specifically designed to confuse the genuine firm's clients in the region in order to compel Squire Patton Boggs to buy back the address. In a twist of the knife, Squirepattonboggs.net is not only presented as a law firm, but as a specialist in solving intellectual property issues in China. Introducing itself with the line, "Squire Patton Boggs is a professional IP agert [sic]" it sets out a FAQ section which appears to exist solely to troll Squire Patton Boggs over its IP bollock-drop:
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Hey, maybe SPB should instruct these guys to get back its name from these guys. |
Visitors to squirepattonboggs.net are presented with a gallery of fake lawyers. They include 'Zhijun Fang', billed as a partner, who comes with the testimonial, "One of the best attorney in our mind [sic]". In fact he only exists in Qinhuangdao Hongshun's mind, since his photo is a Getty stock image labelled "Mixed Race male lawyer at desk". The other three partners and managers are equally bogus.
Resemblances between squirepattonboggs.net and a cynical extortion racket do not end there. While Qinhuangdao Hongshun told the tribunal that it only asked Squire Patton Boggs to terminate separate trademark invalidation proceedings in exchange for the web address, Squire Patton Boggs claimed that the Chinese company demanded a $450,000 payoff. RollOnFriday emailed Zhijun Fang and offered him 20p and a banana for the domain name, but he has not replied.
| Whoosh, swish, weee - why isn't SPB happy to piggyback this slickness? |
A spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs told RollOnFriday, "The ADNDRC decision simply pushes the resolution of the domain dispute to a later time when the currently pending trademark invalidation proceedings will be concluded". It could always just change its name. When RollOnFriday cybersquatted masonspinsents.com in anticipation of a merger between Masons and Pinsent & Co, the firm cleverly avoided paying a massive ransom. That option is also open to Squire Patton Boggs, as checks reveal that SquirtingPatternedBogs web addresses are available and very affordable.
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