Jobs.ie sitting on Facebook.ie
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007It looks as though job listing company Jobs.ie Ltd is sitting on the domain Facebook.ie, which currently redirects users to Irish-based social networking site TalkBeans.com.
If the domain was registered after 2004 it would almost certainly be seen by authorities as being registered in bad faith; apart from this the fact that it is directing traffic to a Facebook-esque site could itself be classed as dishonest usage of a registered brand name.
Facebook’s press office has failed to reply to queries made in relation to this situation and it’s unclear if they’re aware of it or if they plan on taking Jobs.ie Ltd through the IEDR’s “dispute resolution” process to gain control of Facebook.ie.
Considering the fact that there are 28,000 people in the Ireland network on Facebook.com it’s hard to deny that the site is popular amongst Irish people - having some of its potential traffic re-routed to a rival’s site couldn’t be considered good for their business or brand and is unlikely to be something Facebook would or should ignore.
There are plenty of other dot-ie domains being squatted on as we speak such as bebo.ie, nike.ie, police.ie and newspaper.ie. They’re all being held by Gabor Varga and Jozsef Petho and tend to redirect users to websites cluttered with pay-per-click ads.
Varga and Petho are serial domain squatters and only recently lost control of buy-sell.ie to the Buy and Sell company; adidas.ie to Adidas Ireland and gogle.ie, googel.ie, googl.ie and googol.ie to Google Inc.
Blogs elsewhere
August 8th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I noticed nike.ie a few weeks ago, and was shocked by it. I’ve registered a few .ie domains in the recent years, and they’ve all been hard to get and required plenty of information.
Rather than ask FaceBook, or Nike or anyone else how they plan to get them back, and I’d be asking the IEDR why the allowed such blatant abuses to happen in the first place. I would assume these guys haven’t registered Companies in all these names, for example.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
That’s a fair point and you’re right - it’s not as easy to get a dot-ie as it is to get a dot-com. From what I’ve seen the IEDR will simply say they have strict rules and a strong arbitration system, which is true enough - but the IEDR cannot intervene unless a complaint is made.
From a bit of snooping at the CRO it seems like the likes of bebo.ie, nike.ie etc. are registered based on company info of the same name - so the people behind it registered nike.ie as a business name in order to buy the domain name nike.ie. I have a feeling this business name would also be revoked if challenged by Nike Intl. but it seems to be good enough for the IEDR or their domain resellers. I suppose it’s not their job to ask questions.
Now, here’s some interesting info - the company names used to set up these domains are registered by a company called Firstpage.ie, or FirstPage Press - the website of which specifies a launch at the end of this month. The website is owned by, you guessed it, Gabor Varga and Jozsef Petho and has a listed address of:
101 JAMES’S STREET
THE DIGITAL HUB
DUBLIN 8
So, the next step from there is to see if this address is legitimate - it looks like it is. Scanning through the Digital Hub Website I couldn’t find a company called FirstPage, FirstPage Press or anything like that but I did find a company called FirstPlex Ltd. which is listed as an internet services company with a website of www.first.ie. That’s resolves at www.firstpage.ie and so they’re one and the same.
I previously thought that these two guys were a couple of chancers who thought they could make a quick buck from dot-ie domain squatting - it now looks like they’re far more organised than that. I think I’ll see if I can give them a call tomorrow.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Well spotted… I’ve come across those guys a few times too when I needed an Irish domain. I’m surprised Facebook haven’t launched a complaint already, but maybe they don’t realise that .ie is (in theory) not a free-for-all.
August 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
So it’s been quite some time since there’s been much in the news about Firstpage or Gabor & co. I’m curious what if any follow up there’s been since and if IEDR are re-considering their position. The fact that they are well organised does not mean they are legitimate and if they are operating 100% legally it doesn’t mean it’s fair trade and good practice. I’m agast that CRO & IEDR have processed such volumes for these guys.