Legal Claim -> Welcome, Skin Doctor (1 Viewing)

Welcome to Domain Names Canada, @Skin Doctor.

Thank you Admin could you please direct me to who own skkn.ca?

I own that domain, it's already pointed to a for sale page where you can make an offer on it.

May I inquire how you came to be here asking about it?

Of all the kardashian brands, I don't think a single one makes use of the .ca... I don't think they care - they're just sticking with the .com/country

MapleDots said:

May I inquire how you came to be here asking about it?

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The skkn brand belongs to me in Canada, I will reimburse you for the registration fee but ask you to immediately refrain from advertising the domain. Should you sell the domain to another party I will start legal proceedings to reclaim all costs associated with recovering the domain.

Skin Doctor said:

The skkn brand belongs to me in Canada, I will reimburse you for the registration fee but ask you to immediately refrain from advertising the domain. Should you sell the domain to another party I will start legal proceedings to reclaim all costs associated with recovering the domain.

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So I've got no horse in this race, but, I do have a whole bunch of thoughts.

First off, there is only one set of trademarks that give anyone any bit of claim to SKKN as a trademark in Canada.

http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/home?lang=eng

Searching for SKKN shows 3 active trademarks, all by "Kimsaprincess Inc."

There is also evidence of a corporation being created in Alberta called "SKKN INFOTECH LTD" in October 2021, which was several months later than the domain in question was registered. I'll also note that there are no results in Google when searching for "SKKN INFOTECH", nor any results when searching LinkedIn Canada for "SKKN". So there is no obvious evidence to the public of the existence of SKKN INFOTECH. SKKN INFOTECH LTD would have zero case against the owner of the skkn dot ca domain name - due to a later registration date, not to mention that would be a very weak mark in that its just a provincial corporation name, no actual trademark was even applied for.

If by chance you were licensing the rights to SKKN from "Kimsaprincess Inc.", then its 99.9% likely that your agreement does not grant you the rights to ownership of the term "SKKN" either, they will still want to control their brand, you would be a licensee for marketing/distribution/sales/etc... Furthermore, it is Kimsaprincess that holds the trademark, therefore they would need to be the ones to bring it up with the skkn dot ca owner, and if they negotiated ownership of the domain from the current owner, then Kimsaprincess could then grant you permission to use the domain as part of your licensing right to SKKN in Canada.

I'd also like to point out that there could also be other potential legitimate uses for SKKN as it could be an acronym for something else. Acronym domains are generally any 2, 3 and 4-letter domain names and regarded as one of a dozen or so generic investment grade classes/categories of domain names. Investors in these types of domains will generally have many similar 4-letter domains as part of their investment strategy. The mere existence of SKKN INFOTECH LTD helps reinforce the fact that there are multiple potential uses for SKKN - not just solely used by Kimsaprincess Inc. I'd also like to point out that the past is the best indicator of the future. So if multiple companies have tried to use the term SKKN in different industries in the past, then it is equally likely there will be others in the future - meaning that the domain owner has a real potential for making an eventual sale of the domain in the next 20 years or more (which a hold time that long would not be uncommon in the industry). Obviously the argument would be much stronger if there were more than two existing users of the term SKKN in Canada, but two is still way better than one.

Furthermore, the trademarks held by Kimsaprincess would only give protection in certain approved products and/or services - not every potential use. Unless you've seen the owner using the domain to provide similar goods or services in those categories, no infringement would have taken place either.

Are you (@Skin Doctor) related to either of the above mentioned entities? Its just a pretty big claim to stake without any evidence, so I'm just curious where your claim of ownership to the term skkn originates? I'll be honest, I'm hoping we have Kim Kardashian right here on our little dn.ca board, lol !!!

Skin Doctor said:

The skkn brand belongs to me in Canada, I will reimburse you for the registration fee but ask you to immediately refrain from advertising the domain. Should you sell the domain to another party I will start legal proceedings to reclaim all costs associated with recovering the domain.

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I thank you for the private message but for the sake of transparency I will fill the members in with some of the details.

Lots of brands belong to lots of people but that does not give them the automatic rights to domains. I don't know how you get SKKN or ownership thereof out of Skin Kinetics, in fact I don't even remotely see the correlation to the skkn.ca domain name.

@Skin Doctor I appreciate you took the time to register here and the first thing I ask you to do is to actually read through the forum and educate yourself about .ca and .ca ownership. You are welcome to bid on the domain but quite honestly you will get it nowhere near registration price.

If you still think you have a claim against the domain name I ask you to send an email to legal@mapledots.ca with proof of trademark and how you think the domain is infringing on the mark.

rlm said:

Of all the kardashian brands, I don't think a single one makes use of the .ca... I don't think they care - they're just sticking with the .com/country

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The domain is getting a nice traffic boost since the skkn brand went live, but KK owns the .com and I highly doubt she has any plans to pursue any ccTLD's. She did purchase most of the social media handles like twitter/skkn etc but that is probably as far as that will ever go.



I can see a future where maybe a Canadian reseller may want the domain or it could sell for a completely different purpose. That is the beauty (pardon the pun) of domain name acronyms, they can be used for a number of purposes without infringing on trademarks. The SKKN.ca domain name has not been used for ANY commercial purpose and therefore does not, has not, and will not infringe on anyone's mark.

I am changing the title and moving this to LEGAL

Skin Doctor said:

The skkn brand belongs to me in Canada, I will reimburse you for the registration fee but ask you to immediately refrain from advertising the domain. Should you sell the domain to another party I will start legal proceedings to reclaim all costs associated with recovering the domain.

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You have to be kidding me!! I will gladly support @MapleDots in funds in any type of legal proceeding against him. What a complete joke that you would register on this forum with your ridiculous claims.

Domain recovery in progress

You do realize that you cannot recover something you have never owned or have no legal claim to own right?

You are probably a good skin doctor but you seriously need to do some research before moving forward with this ridiculous endeavor.

Skin Doctor said:

Domain recovery in progress

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If Kim Kardashian can use the term SKKN knowing full well their was a skincare service that started in 2018 called skknplus.com (pending lawsuit) then not sure why you think you can recover a 4 letter domain that is not being used in anyway with whatever business you seem to have.

As you stated though it is in progress…and it will FAIL.

They own skin.ca and they don't seem to be using it.
WHOIS Search | Domain Name Lookup Tool - skin.ca

I would say try sending them a couple of threatening emails and offering to buy it for the registration fee.

Sounds kind of silly right?

I mean after all most anything you do has the word skin in it so you have to have the rights to anything with the domain skin.ca too right?

Might see a reverse domain hijacking here… costs fall to the person trying to hijack it

Lots of people skewering @Skin Doctor about his claim, but I know there are always at least two sides to every story. As a forum, we have experts well versed in the area of domain name law and we are happy to provide some feedback - that's what this forum exists for and I guarantee there is a wealth of knowledge here that would be useful. Feel free to post more details and get feedback from the forum, or feel free to message me directly for a more private discussion.

Skin Doctor said:

Domain recovery in progress

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Good luck with that there Leroy.

Skin Doctor said:

Domain recovery in progress

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So an email from your so called lawyer asking to give up the domain immediately is Domain Recovery in progress?

How come there is no address for the lawyer on the letterhead?

Lots of fancy words but absolutely no content that would convince me you have any claim to the domain.

What a joker…as if anyone comes on a board to recover a domain name from an owner. That’s a first.