china intellectual property

Hi

Having read past postings in your excellent forum I am pretty much convinced that an email I've just received (copied below) is a scam however I would still value and appreciate your opinion and advice to be doubly sure.

I have not replied to this email.

Incidentally I have checked with my normal Domain Registrar who confirm XXX.asia is available, they do not handle .cn

Copy of Email received (domain names etc have been deleted but can be supplied if necessary)

from "Angela" <[email protected]>
date 21 July 2011
subject Notice of intellectual Propert-Trademark Name

Dear Manager:

We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Anhui, China. On July,20th,2011,, We received HUNDI Company's application that they are registering the name "xxx" as their Internet Trademark and "xxx.cn","xxx.com.cn" ,"xxx.asia"domain names etc.,It is China and ASIA domain names.But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so I am sending you this Email to check.According to the principle in China,your company is the owner of the trademark,In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!

Kind regards

Angela Zhang



Anhui Office (Head Office)
Registration Department Manager
Room 1008 Shenhui Building
Haitian Road, Huli Anhui, China


Office: +86 0553 4994789
Fax: +86 0553 4994789
web: http://www.yg-net.org

Header Copy

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from public.mx3gb1.int.opaltelecom.net (62.24.139.126) by mail.svcgb1.int.opaltelecom.net (8.5.124.04)
id 4E0C3EA80103E4AD for XXX; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:40:54 +0100
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true
X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AhItAI2sJ07NxBZ4hWdsb2JhbABTglOBd4JDgwuORo4NehQBAQEKCwsFFiUdAQGIV5xxjjsIkQQChSk0XwSHU4QcjAaLYw
X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.67,239,1309734000";
d="scan'208,217";a="555599522"
Received: from (my web host) ([205.196.22.120])
by public.mx3gb1.int.opaltelecom.net with ESMTP; 21 Jul 2011 05:40:54 +0100
Received: from [61.150.91.40] (helo=wn40.mail.supernic.cn)
by (my web host) with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256)
(Exim 4.76 (FreeBSD))
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1Qjl44-000CQx-VY
for xxx; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:40:50 -0400
Received: from yiguannetwork.net (unknown [114.98.45.9])
(Authenticated sender: [email protected])
by wn40.mail.supernic.cn (aqcx) with ESMTPA id A21B21FEBEF
for <xxx>; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:40:36 +0800 (CST)
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
From: "Angela" <[email protected]>
To: <xxx>
Subject: Notice of Intellectual Property-Trademark Name
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:52:28 +0800
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0582_017F9F5D.17F49C70"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - (my web host)
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - (my domain)
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [26 6] / [26 6]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - ygnetworks.org
X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 110721-0, 21/07/2011), Inbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean

Look familiar?

http://www.austintechnologylawblog.com/2010/07/articles/internet/trademark-and-domain-name-scams-from-china/

The scammer hasn't even bothered to change fake names. This is a common scam in which the scammers are attempting to extort money from you to "protect" your trademark against a nonexistent threat.

thanks

much appreciated