Anyone who watches the hit tv show Pawn Stars will be familiar with Chumlee (Austin Lee Russell). Well it seems Chumlee is in the candy business but did not secure the domain names for his business.
TMZ posted a story this morning about the owner of chumleescandy.com and chumleescandyontheblvd.com admitting that he regged the domains in order to sell them to Chumlee.
From the article:
Keys tells TMZ … he’s been making his living for 20 years buying and selling domain names, and when news broke in May that Chumlee was opening the candy store … he made a smart business move by swiping the domains. He says he tried contacting Chumlee several times to work out a deal for the names, but never heard back.
Apparently Chumlee has had his counsel send a cease and desist. Next step UDRP.
Interestingly the comments don’t reflect what we normally see, usually it’s like those damn cybersquatters. But the crowd over at TMZ don’t seem to care for Chumlee, so they are telling him to pay up and are taking pleasure in seeing him in this dispute.
I would suspect that when the owner publically stated that he registered the names in order to sell them to Chumlee, that alone would be considered bad faith for him to lose the names in a UDRP.
Exactly Michael, I mean they played that stupid in my opinion. You tell TMZ you set out to do the textbook definition of cybersquatting?
So this guy below is claiming to be the guy who did it, unreal. Real?
I’ve been thinking of this one lately before I even saw this thread. I was quite unhappy about this one.
And definitely a big “IKR” to both of you, as in it doesn’t get any plainer.
My conversation with TMZ lasted approximately twenty minutes. The comments attributed to me were not exact quotes and taken out of context. I have a license to practice law and four-year undergraduate degree in business management. There was nothing illegal or unethical about what I said or did. Like I said, the comments on TMZ were not exact quotes and taken out of context.
Well Patrick, I have learned in life that people who have a license to practice medicine and actually do practice can often be clueless, and so can lawyers. Now I just don’t know how much more off-base and I hate to say even delusional it can get to imagine you are not grossly infringing on the nationally famous “Chumlee’s” trademark rights and engaging in an ill conceived predatory practice that has no place in the domain name industry. If indeed you are really the guy…
You’re just jealous that you didn’t think to register those domains.
If TMZ put a mic in your face you should have proposed to Lana Del Rey and not a guy named Chumlee.
Your chance!
(Disclaimer: The last variety program I watched was TalkSoup in 1993 therefore not familiar with TMZ or PawnShop, no offense)
ChumleeEatsTooMuchCandy.com
Hey there. I’m the owner of those domains. All legal research was done before purchasing those domain names. There was not only no business yet, but also no trademarks or even trademark applications. Both domains are still for sale, by the way. 😉
Seems like you got some crappy legal advice. We’re expected to believe that one day you thought to yourself, I believe an individual named Chumlee might someday decide to start a candy business, so I should register some corresponding domain names and then try to sell them if such an individual does in fact come along and starts a candy business? Seriously? LOL
Wow, if you are telling the truth here, I must say I never thought I’d actually have such a chance to say exactly what should be said about this to the guy who did it. Okay, so to summarize, if you really are the guy:
What you have done is very bad, wrong, and you are apparently even ten times more clueless about cybersquatting than some people have been lately about “conflict of interest” regarding another little matter of recent note. What you have done also gives a black eye to the industry and perpetuates all the negative attitudes and beliefs people have about it. Wow, you are some piece of work, dude. But people make mistakes and can be given second chances.