Chapter 28 Growing Pains Desperate

In the war of words with the media about fees, Tencent seems to have accumulated some experience.However, what Ma Huateng and his entrepreneurial team did not expect was that in the next intellectual property lawsuit, Tencent lost two consecutive battles. While Tencent is trying its best to build the QQ brand, some webpages such as "QQ Messenger" and "QQ Club" that are very similar to Tencent's business have appeared on the Internet. These webpages come from a website with the domain name qq.com.cn.After being brought to court by AOL, Tencent knew how to use legal means to protect its own interests. In December 2003, Tencent filed a complaint against the qq.com.cn domain name to the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center of the Arbitration Commission).

The complaint stated that Yang Feixue, the original registrant of Beijing Dingyang Technology Co., Ltd. registered and used the domain name qq.com.cn with malicious intent.Tencent has various rights to the combination of QQ characters, and the respondent Yang Feixue should return the registered domain name qq.com.cn. Although the respondent is inextricably linked with Tencent QQ in the content of the website, and is suspected of using the name of QQ, Yang Feixue of Beijing Dingyang Technology Co., Ltd. registered the domain name qq.com.cn earlier than Tencent’s existing domain name. The time of birth of the name. On January 16, 2003, the expert group of the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center of the Arbitration Commission determined accordingly that the disputed domain name in this case was neither identical to, nor confusingly similar to, the name or logo in which the complainant had civil rights and interests, and could not meet the conditions for filing the case.The expert panel did not support the complainant Tencent's complaint request, rejected its complaint, and unanimously ruled to maintain the status of the respondent Yang Feixue as the registrant of the qq.com.cn domain name.

Tencent failed. Two months later, on March 27, 2003, Tencent had a conflict with the domestic second-level domain name registrar - Business China, and declared that "it will be resolved through legal proceedings if necessary." On March 17, 2003, the second-level domain names under China's national top-level domain name .cn were opened for registration globally.In less than 20 minutes after the opening and registration of .cn, Mr. Liu Zhiyong of the Heilongjiang Data Communication Bureau, the holder of the original third-level domain name qq.hl.cn, successfully upgraded the qq.cn domain name. Ten days later, Tencent discovered that the domestic second-level domain name qq.cn had been squatted. The Tencent team, which had been tossed by the domain name, immediately realized the danger, and immediately asked BizChina to return the qq.cn domain name registered by Liu Zhiyong to them.During the communication between the two parties, Tencent insisted that QQ is an instant messaging tool well-known by Chinese netizens, which was carefully developed and promoted by Tencent. QQ has become synonymous with their products and services, and only they can legally register and enjoy the qq.cn domain name.The person in charge of Business China Business Center said in an interview with the media that the successful registration of qq.cn fully complies with the conditions and regulations of CNNIC, the domain name management agency, for priority upgrades.In order to protect the registered third-level domain names under .cn, CNNIC allows third-level domain name holders to register second-level domain names first within a certain period of time before the official registration of .cn second-level domain names. qq.hl.cn is registered first.Subsequently, Liu Zhijiang, director of CNNIC Office, also confirmed this statement. Mr. Liu applied for the registration of the second-level domain name during the priority upgrade period, which was submitted by Business China to the CNNIC database, and successfully registered the second-level domain name qq.cn.

In this domain name dispute, Tencent lost again.Watching oicq.com, oicq.com, qq.com.cn, and qq.cn go away one by one, Tencent fell into confusion in front of intellectual property rights again and again.At this time, Tencent began to look for qq.com, which was its last foothold. Where did qq.com go? Tencent did not have any domain names associated with the QQ brand.Is it to abandon the QQ brand, or to acquire the qq.com domain name? No matter how it is done, Tencent will have to pay a huge price, and Tencent has fallen into a domain name jeopardy. Just at this time, there was a thing that for Tencent, there was no way out, and there was another village. It turned out that in May 1995, on the other side of the ocean, a software engineer named Robert Huntsman registered qq.com domain name.However, at that time, ICQ had not yet been born, and Ma Huateng was still working at Runxun Company. This domain name had nothing to do with instant messaging, and Robert Huntsman used it as the entrance to his personal film art website.Later, Robert bid farewell to the career of software engineer and switched to business consulting. He didn't have much free time to take care of this website.So he put the qq.com domain name up for sale on foreign auction sites, but the asking price of 2 million US dollars made this domain name uninterested for a long time.

Perhaps because no one cares about it, Robert Huntsman seems to have lowered his psychological expectations for the money this domain name can bring.At this time, Tencent made a move. This time, Tencent took a cheap one out and out.The story becomes more exciting in the narration by Xu Chenye, Information Director of Tencent.Tencent bypassed foreign domain name trading companies this time, but directly found the original owner of the qq.com domain name, Robert Huntsman, but the price of 2 million US dollars still made Ma Huateng a little distressed.At this time, Tencent's Wang Dawei, an American, tried to send an email to Robert Huntsman, saying that he planned to build a personal website, liked this domain name very much, and asked Robert Huntsman if he could sell it. Dawei got an extremely positive answer.Then it was logical to talk about the price. Robert Huntsman, who did not sell the domain name after waiting for a long time, lowered his expectations and gave a number that surprised several founders of Tencent. Priced at $100,000, plus legal fees, it only cost $110,000.

In a series of domain name lawsuits, Tencent survived the repurchase of the qq.com domain name.It also made Tencent finally fulfill a long-cherished wish and find a territory of its own.Ma Huateng, who has suffered so much, may never make the same mistake again. More importantly, he has also learned to take up legal weapons and use intellectual property rights to protect his own interests.