'$1.3m bid for Qant.as' domain

[futaris]

'$1.3m bid for Qant.as' domain. claims Dominic Holland | The Australian

"The domain name Qant.as could be snapped up by a competitor so damage to Qantas's business could be in the millions of dollars," Mr Holland claimed.

"By not participating in the bid process this shows gross oversight on behalf of Qantas's entire marketing department."

Mr Holland originally purchased the domain name for around $20.

He said that bidding started at $1m and finished at $1.35m.

Odd story to say the least.

 

[gilby08]

Why on earth would anyone in their right mind try to go to the QF website by typing in qant.as????
Even doing, qant.as.com wouldn't be the same. Good on QF for not even listening to this persons demands.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I must be missing something.

I cannot see someone accidently typing Qant.as

I mean how many names do you want to reserve?
Some obvious typos perhaps..or American spellings!! Quantus

But all $million a throw it could be expensive..
Q.A.N.T.A.S

 

[serfty]

...
Some obvious typos perhaps..or American spellings!! Quantus ...

Qantas actually has the rights to www.quantas.com

 

[Travel Guru]

I must be missing something.

I cannot see someone accidently typing Qant.as

I mean how many names do you want to reserve?
Some obvious typos perhaps..or American spellings!! Quantus

But all $million a throw it could be expensive..
Q.A.N.T.A.S

I dont think it's direct traffic which would become an issue, but if the owner of the domain could somehow get it high on the search engines, they might be able to generate some traffic that way, but I would still have thought it would be minimal.

I hope they do find a way to take action against this individual

TG

 

[futaris]

Odd Domain Hack.

AS Domain Registry

Quick ant.as isn't registered. You could then have http://q.ant.as as a subdomain, as well as http://qu.ant.as

NB, if someone wants to waste $50 on the domain, feel free... Of course if you make $1 million dollars, let everyone here know. :shock:

NB, Dominic Holland of Manly only registered it on 22 Feb 10.

 

[Mal]

Qantas should just go to WIPO (Domain Name Dispute Resolution ) and prove they own the Qantas trademark, and that "Dominic Holland" had registered it in bad faith.

If they win, then Qantas gets the domain name transferred to them. He claims it won't happen ... but I'm not sure of that!

Cybersquatting is alive and well, although his claim that he has had bids of 1 million (which currency?) dollars sound exaggerated to me.

 

[samh004]

I seem to recall if someone buys a domain name intending to mislead customers of another domain that the company can go to ICANN (or whoever they are now) and generally they’ll just hand the domain over. Or something like that, either way, I’m pretty sure they frown upon these sorts of things.

If Qantas really feels threatened I’m sure it’ll end up in their possession for a lot less.

Edit: I knew I was on the right track, see above.

 

[futaris]

Agreed. On the other hand if you wanted to sell ant size planes or Q's in American Samoa...

NB, qantas.co.nz was once registered by a cybersquatter, who went to court. See here.

Qantas Airways had a cybersquatter register qantas.co.nz. This case went to the New Zealand High Court and the Court found that such actions were a deliberate blocking of the lawful exploitation of the name and a fraudulent use of Qantas’s goodwill.

Oh, and I'm not sure this applies to qant.as, since del.icio.us, blo.gs are domain hacks that are worth a bit...

 

[Mal]

Agreed. On the other hand if you wanted to sell ant size planes or Q's in American Samoa...

His problem (as I see it), is that by asking Qantas to buy it, he has in fact indicated that he registered it in bad faith.

It would be nice if I could find some WIPO decisions that actually covered similar ground rather than relying on his "press release" so happily lapped up by NoNews.

 

[docjames]

The question really must be who would waste $1.35 million on this, and what possible use could there be to recoup the $3.5m (+ interest / opportunity cost) by buying qant.as ??

- Someone with deep pockets and a deep vendetta??
- Someone wanting to extort >$1.35m from qantas?

 

[Nigelinoz]

There was a similar case a few years ago involving the CSR Sugar company,
CSR Limited v Resource Capital Australia Pty Limited [2003] FCA 279 (4 April 2003)
If Qantas wants to take it to court I doubt that they would have much difficulty winning based on the precedent set in that case.

 

[Mal]

Same guy also appears to have registered westP.ac

He should also be more careful with the registration details on his other websites. Registering a website with false or incorrect information can lead to the domain being suspended.

There's a lot more I could say about him, but probably shouldn't.

 

[notzac]

His problem (as I see it), is that by asking Qantas to buy it, he has in fact indicated that he registered it in bad faith.

It would be nice if I could find some WIPO decisions that actually covered similar ground rather than relying on his "press release" so happily lapped up by NoNews.

I'm not sure it's within the jurisdiction of WIPO. It's certainly registered contrary to the ccTLDs own policy statement:

AS Domain Registry Policy

I suspect QF would have exactly zero hassle getting the domain registration cancelled or transferred to them.

 

[Nigelinoz]

There's a lot more I could say about him, but probably shouldn't.

Why not just call him a w****r,(Insert characters as appropriate) and be done with it,personally though I wouldn't have any problem calling the bloke a wonker.

 

[Mal]

Why not just call him a w****r,(Insert characters as appropriate) and be done with it,personally though I wouldn't have any problem calling the bloke a wonker.

lol. There was that, but I was going to go into details about some of his Internet Ventures and my opinions of them, as well as compare him to another "online entrepreneur" (cough) that made lots of news in recent times.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Yes,well,let's hope that the Qantas legal department tell this "online enterpreneur" where he can file his opinion about their "gross oversight".

 

[futaris]

Westp.ac domain 'sale' raises bank's ire | The Australian

"Qantas used hostile tactics and bullied my previous host into suspending my account by stating the domain infringed on their trademark," he claimed.

He has since changed hosting providers.

A Qantas spokeswoman declined to comment on legal proceedings, saying the airline was "currently assessing its position".

Today http://Qant.as and http://Westp.ac displays a URL shortener.

Mr Holland has yet to reveal the identity of the individual or company whom he claims bid $1.3m for Qant.as.

 

[samh004]

That’s about all he could put on his site, if he puts anything up that confuses travellers or points to a competitor Qantas wont have to even speak to win the domain.

He does seem hellbent on making money out of this though, he must really need the money.

I got us a short link for this thread anyway, http://qant.as/aff

 

[v8Statesman]

I'm helping Qantas out

Book - Manage Your Booking - Flight Booking (qant.as/mmb)