Site could be tracking trademark searches.
Attorney John Berryhill is warning people about a website that he says is spoofing the popular TMview trademark search database. It appears that a business tied to Michael Gleissner is running the site.
fake TMVIEW page at tmview .com – records your search and then falls over to the actual TMDN page. Using lookups for domain regs.
— John Berryhill (@Berryhillj) August 11, 2017
The official TMview website run by EUIPO is at tmdn.org. It lets people search across multiple trademark databases, and is a popular site for trademark attorneys running preliminary checks.
If you go to TMview.com, however, you’ll see a site that looks very much like TMDN.org. The links at the top for “about” and “news” etc. don’t work, and the news updates are a couple years old. Here’s a comparison:
If you submit a search on the fake site it forwards you to the real site but doesn’t perform the search. Berryhill believes it’s set up to record searches that attorneys are using to run preliminary checks before filings trademarks.
In case that was not clear – Tmview .com is a phishing page copied from @EU_IPO to fool IP lawyers doing preliminary clearance searches.
— John Berryhill (@Berryhillj) August 11, 2017
So who is behind the spoof site? The domain is registered to Institute of Advanced Networking Technologies LLC, but the whois email address is [email protected].
Bigfoot is a company connected to Michael Gleissner, who has been criticized for questionable trademark filings and activities. His companies have lost many UDRPs for dictionary words, were ordered by UK’s Intellectual Property Office to pay a fine to Apple, and have filed trademarks matching .com domain names they don’t own. One of Bigfoot’s employees even suggested on his LinkedIn page that he was in the business of reverse domain name hijacking domain names.
So you can understand why Berryhill says this site is up to no good. Could trademark searches performed on the spoof site be correlated to trademark applications made by firms tied to Gleissner or domains registered?
John Berryhill says
Depending on one’s browser configuration, some browsers will automatically fall over to the .com if one does an “address bar search” for “tmview”.
Andrew Allemann says
TMview.com also shows up #4 for me in Google when I search for tmview
JohnUK says
Very very interesting and perhaps this shows their (I leave that vague) true colours ?. This could well be a Civil and/or Criminal Tort in Europe if not USA. Obtaining a pecuniary advantage maybe ??.
Andrea Paladini says
That’s crazy … I’ve already informed the guys at legitimate TMview and those at EuIPO.
I think they should take appropriate actions.
Gordon Grecko says
Love it
The guys a true domainer at heart
Andrea Paladini says
Digged a bit and found out some more crazy stuff about TMview …
A company called TALAUDJONG BAY CORPORATION, based in Cebu, in the Philippines, and linked to Mike Gleissner, filed a TM on the term “TMview” in 2014, for Classes 35 and 42, particularly for “COMPILATION AND INPUT OF INFORMATION IN DATABASES RELATING TO PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, DESIGNS, COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.”, but (obviously …) the application was REFUSED.
Representative EDGARDO S. ZAFRA, JR., address ONE HOLLYWOOD BLVD., BIGFOOT I.T. & MEDIA PARK, MACTAN, LAPU-LAPU CITY, CEBU.
But that’s not all … in 2015 someone else filed a TM application for “TMview” in Japan, for Classes 9,35,38,41,42,45 … guess what? Application Refused again … 🙂
Do you think it ended here? … unfortunately not … lol
Someone else filed the same TM application in 2016 in Japan again … refused again!
The same application for “TMview” was filed again in Japan in 2017, application nr 2017037485, Classes 9,35,38,41,42,45, still pending …
Wtf … 😀
BellsDeals.com says
well to kill time or just for fun – or just to be mean…
go search for this and that so they register crappitycrapcrap
steve brady says
Not to derail the thread but on the topic of Trademark Law, CarBuzz is saying a German court is stripping Ferrari’s rights to the name Testarossa because Kurt Hesse is suing for the name Testarossa for his line of electric shavers claiming Ferrari didn’t protect their rights by discontinuing production of the famous car.
carbuzz.com/news/2017/8/4/Ferrari-Loses-Trademark-Rights-For-Testarossa-Brand-7740433/
Ferrari has 2 live US TM’s for Testarossa. A 3rd TM is registered to a Wine co.
john says
On this , I have a feeling that the German Appeals Court
(Kammergericht ) will have a totally different decisions/opinion and reinstate the TM to Ferrari(tm)
C.S. Watch says
Jesum Crow. Thank you very much, J. Berryhill.
I assumed it was link sloppiness by TMDN—hasn’t that spoof been there for years? I’ve certainly bounced off it a hundred times. How have they failed to catch this, and more importantly, failed to alert users, for all this time? They would have periodically looked into the availability/legitimacy of TMVIEW.COM surely.
Time’s up for this demented little upskirter. Better turn down the Jamiroquai and swap some escorts for esquires.