Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can even have groupon.com/australia/... For example, when you go to www.apple.com.au it redirects you to www.apple.com/au and no one thinks anything of it. So this is either silly, or it is about more than the domain name, and more about the trademark in use locally.
Are you allowed to do this if you don't own the trademark on groupon in australia? I don't know!
Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#22Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#23Quote: "and this was after you did the same thing to some poor guy in england."
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#24There's a comment which suggested that this happened in "England" (the UK, grrr) but the roles were reversed and Groupon did this to a local competitor. Does anyone know anything about this? Quote: "and this was after you did the same thing to some poor guy in england."
He didn't hold anything against them for it, just said they had better vision and iterated faster.
(that's probably not the story you were thinking of, but your comment happened to remind me of our conversation)
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#25There's a comment which suggested that this happened in "England" (the UK, grrr) but the roles were reversed and Groupon did this to a local competitor. Does anyone know anything about this? Quote: "and this was after you did the same thing to some poor guy in england."
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#26Domain squatters may not be OK, but identical business models are just another legitimate challenge (business models can't be patented). They need boots on the ground and it may not be possible for Groupon to physically get there before the competition. Either way, it's good for the end user, who will go from zero to several choices practically over night. It also prevents Groupon from becoming a monopoly.
There are multiple Groupon "clones" on the ground in Australia, a few doing some fairly big numbers. Groupon have acquired one of the biggest (if my sources are correct) in JumpOnIt.com.au. Scoopons behaviour is pretty low IMHO. Registering not only the domain name groupon.com.au but also the company name and the trademark?
Scoopon (and the guys behind Scoopon and CatchOfTheDays.com.au) also registered other domain names such as Woot.com.au and DealExtreme.com.au. So I think it's a pretty trivial squatting case.
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#27What's wrong with using au.groupon.com?
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#28Note to self: If I ever start a company that secures significant VC funding, immediately buy domains related to my company in all major markets and begin securing trademarks as well.
It's not always as simple as registering a domain name on GoDaddy or a local registrar though. To register a .com.au domain name, you're required to have an Australian Business Number (i.e. incorporate locally). It's easy to get one, but how many other international domain names do you want to register that require extra work?
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
#299MSN and Microsoft are partnering to launch Cudo: http://cudo.com.au/ConfirmUser
Re: Why Groupon is not in Australia (domain squatter)
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