Copyright © 2005 - Rod Elliott (ESP)
Page Created 07 March 2005, Updated 06 October 2010

Just like the WorldWideWeb Register, this is another scam designed to look like an official invoice, but is simply a way of separating businesses and companies from their money. This bunch of crooks can be found (allegedly) in Austria at the following address ...

Trademark Publisher GMBH
A-1190 Wien, Postfach 73

office@trademarkpublisher.info

Or in Sydney Australia ...

TRADEMARK PUBLISHER
Suite 65
Seabridge House
377 Kent Street
Sydney NSW 2000

No phone number is provided, but for your amusement and to allow possible harassment (entirely justified), I have reproduced the document that was sent to me - see below. I have also included the domain name registration details for these bastards (the phone number is available from the domain name info). The more information that is available to people the better, since it may encourage further investigation to track down the perpetrators. According to the info I have available, Wolfgang Kurz and Roland Kreutzer of Tripple Internet Services in Austria seem to be the ones to target. Also a very good reason to avoid Tripple Internet as a service provider or anything else Internet related.

A complete scan of the document is shown below (including some changes I made for privacy reasons). While it looks innocuous enough at a quick glance, you quickly discover the real agenda buried in the fine print on the reverse side of the form.

Trademark Publisher GMBH Document

There's no "legally binding signature" required for this scam, just send your money to them and get bugger all that's of any use to man or beast in return. They will almost certainly include your trade mark in their database, but this does you no good at all. Every bit of information they publish is available from the official trademark registers held by each country targeted by their nasty little ploy.

The website is nicely crafted (although it has many HTML warnings), but the amount of information provided about the company is woeful. For this pathetic "service", they ask the measly sum of AU$1,450.00 (plus GST of AU$145.00), but this is not included in the amount shown). The miseable bastards don't even have the basic courtesy to include a reply paid envelope, so the sucker pays postage as well. Mind you, if a reply paid envelope was provided, I'd promptly post it back to them stuffed with old newspaper .

However, to avoid postage costs entirely, they have kindly included their bank details. Needless to say, these details are now available for all to enjoy.

While the document does state that payment does not replace or extend a trademark registration with IP Australia (the Australian Patents and Trademarks office) and includes information that they hope makes it legal in Australia, it is quite clear that the form is intended to be misinterpreted by busy company accounting personnel, and be paid as if it were a legitimate invoice. I did a double-take when it arrived, and it took a few seconds before I realised that it was nothing more than a scam.

Trademark Publisher GMBH Fine Print

How generous of them ... for no additional fee, they will include my website URL, email address, FAX and phone number. Goodness me - and to think that Google, Yahoo, MSN and various other search engines do that for nothing too, and I don't have to pay them $1,595.00 for the privilege.

This is almost identical to the WorldWideWeb Register Scam, and is simply a way to try to get the unsuspecting company or webmaster to commit to paying these scoundrels 695 Euros (or AU$1595 at the time of writing) for a 3-year registration to an utterly worthless database. The people running this are nothing more than unscrupulous thieves, and it is important that as many people as possible know about them.

There doesn't seem to be much that's easily found about this scam on the Net, but Simple IT (in France) shows an almost identical form, and has the same complaints that I do.

In addition, IP Australia has a warning about TMP, and there are a few others if you know where to look. A search using Google finds a few, but you need to dig a little deeper to get much that's worthwhile.

The letter below arrived by post just a few days ago. My first reaction was "who are these people?" since I know I've never registered a domain name with them. A quick read of the letter told me everything I needed to know. Be very careful of this one, because legally, you may not have a leg to stand on.

Front of the DRG Letter

The letter looks harmless enough, but is close enough to an invoice to fool anyone who doesn't look too closely at the details. A web search reveals that quite a few people have been caught, and as a result are paying at least 4 times more for their domain name than would normally be the case. It's the back of the form that had me in disbelief!

The Fine Print !

As you can see, there is a vast amount of fine print, and quite frankly I can't even imagine how they could have dreamed up that much drivel. As if there isn't enough there, it's suggested that you visit their website for "further details on the terms and conditions". Good grief!

Essentially, their fine print states that you absolve them of everything, regardless of what happens to anything, anywhere, for any reason. They also disclose the raft of fees they might charge you if you should have the temerity to initiate a credit card charge-back (which you will naturally do once you realise you've been had). By then it's too late - they have your domain name, and will claim ownership of it if you don't pay the yearly renewal fee plus a "reinstatement" fee.

And just to rub salt into the wound, by signing the front, you have agreed that if you or anyone else attempts to sue the DRG, you may be expected to pay for their legal fees as well as your own ... in advance! This could become a very costly exercise.

This is a nice simple one. They send a document that looks like an invoice, but they do include a note to say that it is not an invoice - this gets around the laws of most countries and states, because they appear to be upfront about what they do. They also imply that their multi-year registration represents a significant saving. It is a saving compared to DRG's "normal" rates, but is anything but a saving compared to other registrars. Normally, you would not expect to pay more than about US$15.00 to renew a domain name (and even that's fairly expensive).

Some time ago all domain names cost the same ... US$70 to register the name for the first two years and US$35 a year thereafter. Today, increased competition means you'll pay much less to register a domain name. Some registrars charge less than $10 per domain name, and may charge even less if you buy more than one domain name at a time.

The main problem is (of course) that a busy accounts department will be unlikely to read the document and are unlikely to check prices elsewhere. They will probably assume that it actually is an invoice and make the payment. No-one will read the fine print on the back which is unbelievable - you need a magnifying glass to read it. This is the finest fine print I think I've ever come across.

The perpetrators of this scam have apparently become quite irate at being called scammers (by people who've been caught), and say that they aren't doing anything illegal. Perhaps not, but it is certainly immoral and is clearly designed to catch the unwary. There are many things that may not actually be illegal, but are designed to trick or deceive nonetheless. DRG is operating one such business, and there are many complaints on the Net about their practices.