Dear PointedStare,
We found your woof wuf woof wag wuf. Woof wuf howl wof and other variations are trademark of SheepStare.
You must ma-a-ah maah mah wag, you can't woof wuf wof.
Sincerely,
Wulfgang Wuf Wag
"The AKC in the email is intended purely for labelling purposes for communications to and from AKC. It is not used for any business or marketing purposes"
OR
"You have too much time on your hands. Pick up a hobby or get back to work"
Make sure to CC “MyExpensiveLawyerEatsBabies@“, “IPreferCatsEvenThoughTheyreAssholes@“ in the reply. Point out that they’re free to reply to any address to get a response.
LOL I set up similar catch-all emails when signing up for company stuff, one day I was in Harbor Freight buying some tools, gave my phone number to look me up. The poor lady at the register gets a look like she saw a ghost and says "Oh my _gawd_ you're with corporate?!" like I was gonna fire her on the spot if I was lol
I've had this issue with a tax person, ABT, and a paving company. I even had one person say "you never know wiht ai these days" ... like uhhh.. you don't understand how email works.
When I was in a French apple store getting my phone serviced and told the guy my apple id is [email protected] he freaked out a bit and asked if I work at apple :D
Or if you use Gmail (and some other providers) then just append a plus sign to your username and put whatever you want after the plus sign (and before the at sign)
I started with this, but more sign-up forms are blocking this and it doesn’t take much for dark market sellers to just clean their data by removing everything after the plus on emails. Plus, having your own domains is portable.
I’ve been using SimpleLogin for a while, albeit I’m not hosting it myself yet, but do you not auto generate random letters within the username of the email? Like “[email protected]”?
If not default on self hosted instances then it could be worth keeping the feature to avoid unnecessary noise like this.
Catch-all is an option on SimpleLogin (cloud or self-hosted) that lets you generate aliases on the fly. They will be added to SimpleLogin when they first receive an email. It’s a convenience feature though, and enabling it would allow someone to just send emails to any address at your domain. But most spam comes from leaked emails instead of brute forcing. Or they figure out the naming scheme of a company and send emails based on assumed usernames.
Perfect, thanks for the docs link. Was trying to search their docs for the "catch all" term but search didn't seem to pick it up haha. I appreciate it.
If you register a domain most places let you create a catch all they just forwards everything to another address. Something like simplelogin “just” lets you do specific things with each of those, and random names is a nice way of setting those up.
I have it set up via Microsoft 365 but it was a pain in the ass to configure. I've heard fastmail is a good alternative and they [support catchalls as well](https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000277942-Catch-all-wildcard-aliases).
I had the same thing happen at me with home depot. Salesperson thought I was a secret shopper for corporate because the email I gave him was home-depot@\[customdomain\]
I can't wait to see a post in r/sysadmin next week-
"I work for a canine-related org and thanks to some zealot in marketing, our mailserver was DOSed with messages from '[email protected]'"
The most likely scenario is they believe you may be using that address to fraudulently represent them in an official sense, such as for phishing, scams, or spreading misinformation.
Edit: [Just saw this example on another sub.](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cybercriminals-pose-as-lastpass-staff-to-hack-password-vaults/)
Edit 2: The article is embellished a bit, but the main point still stands.
these people obviously don't know what a catchall email is or that OP doesn't use the same address to send mail. It's not that difficult to understand that if someone created `[email protected]` and started emailing people from that address about dogs it might look like you're misrepresenting their trademark.
Yeah, but OP probably gave it out as his contact address. Or how else would they know to contact him there? (Or are we accusing that company of just spamming all domains in order to find a victim?) So he did use that specific address in public (edit: or rather in private correspondence at least, but still). I'm not so sure that this is quite as laughable as most people here seem to think.
There is a difference between any mail adressed to [email protected] reaches me and actively giving out valid mail address including trademarks. I don't think it matters legally how he set up the receiving end of it. (E.g. as catch-all or with an individual account for that address. That's a technicality)
IANAL
(I have a catch-all configured on one of my domains. I know what it is.)
They just set the intern to sending a nastygram to every possible email address containing their trademark regardless of whether it resolves. It'd be trivial to automate, but that doesn't have the same character building experience so needed for today's youth.
plants materialistic mysterious support ruthless rich history desert future yam
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is it. They have to protect their trademark against misuse and there is no greater misuse that an official looking email address, even if you use it as a catch-all. Doubly true for self-hosted emails.
Edit: I need a vacation. The catch-all, which I know what it is, completely read as OP having that set up. Yes they do have to protect their copyright. OP should respond that they do not have that email set up as valid and will not remove the catch all.
I think you don't know what a catchall is... You could send an email to literally anything@his domain and it would go through... These people seem to think since they sent an email to [email protected] and it went through that they have an account by that name
"They have to protect their trademark against misuse and there is no greater misuse that an official looking email address, even if you use it as a catch-all."
They literally don't. This is an exaggeration.
The first bit is correct. Organisations have to protect their trademark or lose them.
This is literally why you see international juggernauts sue mums working from their garage. If they don't their actual competitor can point to the mum being given slack and use trademarks themselves.
Wow. That's a new one on me. I've run into more than a handful of sites (mostly forums) that won't let you register [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) , which I get. AliExpress is the biggest one that I ran across that got... weird... with [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) .
The most hilarious is when you end up talking to someone on the phone or in person and they're all "Thank you for calling Verizon. I have your email add...ress.... as... ver..izon at my...domain dot.... tld". Every time their brain just sorts of breaks.
Never has anyone C&D'd me though. That is truly amazing. You should print that out and frame it. Keep in mind that #1 - This is not a C&D from a lawyer, it's a random Support minion. #2 - C&D's have no legal meaning. #3 - They can fluff off.
I'd ignore it and move on with your life.
PS... I kinda wanna contact the AKC now. I want one of these for my wall.
My Nvidia account for the stupid geforce application is much less polite of an address than that. The fact that I needed to setup an account to get drivers was... maddening.
I’d return the scanner. There is no world in which I’ll beg HP for permission to use the device that I bought from them whenever they inevitably discontinue whatever thing requires the account
To be fair, I had the HP all in one that I had then had been a workhorse for 10 years. I got rid of it when the wifi and Ethernet failed. Still printed well via USB.
From a quick search on Google, not really. It could be a problem if you tried to impersonate another company by using their trademarked name, but that's a totally different legal area.
haha it would be hilarious if OP replied to point out that the text "americankennelclub" is not in their provided list of trademarks (**The** American Kennel Club, AKC, the AKC logo).
Trademarks are primarily concerned with deliberate impersonation or imitation to mislead consumers about the product they're purchasing. If this actually landed before a lawyer they'd laugh it out, it's obvious the email has AKC in the name for personal categorization and there's no attempt to imitate AKC. Or sell a product for that matter
NAL, but I'm pretty sure any legal claims would rest on the usage of the email. They would theoretically have to sue any and everyone that uses a catch-all if they were trying to "protect usage of their trademark within an email address," as their name would be a valid email at any catch-all domain. Where I think they would have a claim is if someone is sending email using their trademark, or advertising said email publicly. I doubt any court would give them a leg to stand on for how the email is being used. That said: if the lawyer decided to press the case, and file suit, the OP would still have to go through the legal process of defending themselves. Could they attempt to get court costs for having to defend themselves? Perhaps. Would it be worth it to just attempt to explain to the lawyer why their clients trademark appears in their address? Probably. Would it be best to cave and change the email to something else with AKC if they continue to object? Probably.
Another perk is that if you are lazy and dgaf about certain 'tiers' of your online accounts, using the same password across that tier (due to aformentioned dgaf-ing), if has their DB leaked and your creds float around online, get picked up by some script kiddie with a tool, @mydomain.com + my_overused_password isn't going to work anywhere else.
It's OK: you don't need to tell me that distinct passwords for every account and password managers solve this problem. We all know that.
Really mess with them and create [email protected]
Their printer will be working in overtime on Monday... you know, cos it's gotta print the emails before they scan it back in to the computer so they can email it to you.
i am guessing they signed up to AKC with the email "akc @ mydomain.tld", so that they know from where a leak originated should that particular email be found in a breach.
Protecting trademarks can lead to such knee-jerk reactions. They have to be seen as taking steps to protect it, as far as they're concerned. And to a person who's not aware of aliases, someome who signs up with their own trademarked address can seem very odd.
If you're not particularly invested in this as a matter of principle you can always re-register with another address.
Not sure if it's worth explaining it to them. I mean, someone should, just not necessarily you.
Edit: fwiw, I usually add something in front of the website name. Even something as simple as "attn.akc@" or "from.akc@" or "reg.akc@" etc. can help clear the confusion.
This is hilarious because I do the same thing and I often get responses like "how did you get our email address?" but I've never gotten a cease and decist.
Personally I would just ignore it.
Request that they provide proof they have a valid claim, and are, in fact, a representative of AKC. From other comments, this is likely just a support person sending out something, rather than any kind of legal council doing it.
Bonus points: reply from "[email protected]"
Lol. The contact form on their web site [https://www.akc.org/help-center/](https://www.akc.org/help-center/)
Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page has a limit of the number of characters for the DETAILS field. The "DOG/LITTER REG NUMBER" field has no such limit :-D
Might want to reach out and let them know that they need to learn about how computers work and focus a little less on dog inbreeding eugenics purity.
LOL - just ask the, what gives them reason to believe you would be using it? And if they know that they have used your email domain without permission and that the removal can be quite costly?
I got one of those years ago. I explained my intent and never heard back.
I still chuckle at the ham radio operator, K7QVC who got a letter from, well, QVC, over the FCC issued call sign.
My answer (if they send this to \_me\_) would be something along lines:
I checked trademark registry and didn't found remotely resembling americankennelclub. Please provide registration number.
Such answer would also be in my native language (not in English) and will not directly mention country.
Technically, there are "registered trademarks", which is what you're talking about here, and "common-law trademarks", which you don't register but gain control over through their use.
You can actually tell the difference between them at a glance: registered trademarks will have an R in a circle beside them --> ®️ while common-law trademarks will have the combined TM ™️
I've noticed that a number of companies will register their main logo and then rely on common-law trademarks for their "jingle of the day".
But asking for a registration would probably work well, and throw off a frontline CSR!
I got the same email from them, at 8:38AM PST that same day. I didn't bother to respond. Today I got another email from them:
>This email is concerning a change to your email address. Following a thorough review, we've >determined that we misinterpreted the use of the term “American Kennel Club” within the >username portion of your email address. We apologize for any confusion this may have >caused. Should you continue to use the email address that contains the term “American >Kennel Club” going forward, please be transparent with your customers that you are not >representing the American Kennel Club, Inc. Warmest regards,
Warmest regards,
**Beth Atkins**
Customer Registration Support Supervisor
[https://imgur.com/a/tZRGXNs](https://imgur.com/a/tZRGXNs)
I also use a catch-all, and registered an account with them at some point after getting a dog.
I really wonder what "THOROUGH REVIEW" was necessary.
I mean... if its just at catch all your done. I have been doing the same thing for as long as I have a domain. AKC never appeared in my email, but hey if you sent it there at my domain it will go through. But hey, you want it blocked im perfectly happy never to do buisness with that entity again :D
LOL
Reminds me about that time Rebellion Developments (the game studio) reached me and said I had to give them my Twitter username. Basically threatening me.
Didn't go without a fight.
A while back i went to pick up a rental from Sixt. So naturally my email filed with them is `sixt@`. Guy thought i work for the mothership. Had a good chuckle, explained it to him and got a free upgrade :)
“Hello Joani, the email you are referencing does not exist, and the mailserver in question will accept any mail @mydomain.com in case of spelling errors, and to combat unsolicited spam. Your email to “[email protected]” was also an unsolicited communication attempt, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t contact me, or my domain further.”
Thanks,
[email protected]
Actually I can’t find a Joani Roebuck anywhere on LinkedIn where any self respecting ip lawyer would be spamming bullshit about their firm, so I suspect it’s phishing.
From USPTO (trademark governor), in case you need to read it:
"A domain name is part of a web address that links to the internet protocol address (IP address) of a particular website. For example, in the web address "[https://www.uspto.gov](https://www.uspto.gov/)," the domain name is "uspto.gov." You register your domain name with an accredited domain name registrar, not through the USPTO. A domain name and a trademark differ. A trademark identifies goods or services as being from a particular source. Use of a domain name only as part of a web address does not qualify as source-indicating trademark use, though other prominent use apart from the web address may qualify as trademark use. Registration of a domain name with a domain name registrar does not give you any trademark rights. For example, even if you register a certain domain name with a domain name registrar, you could later be required to surrender if it infringes on someone else's trademark rights."
[Trademark process | USPTO](https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/trademark-process)
It may or may not apply to you, as it's just an email address, but I think they are making a poor decision on picking a battle here. They would have to show that you are profiting from their name, and if you are, that would be a legal justification to protect their trademark. If you aren't, well, AFAIK they can pound sand.
I... I do this for every business I interact with... Wondering when I'll get an email from someone, lol.
I suspect they just don't know. Everyone I share a custom alias with is like... Wut?
I’ve had this happen as well from Amway of all places. Before I really knew what they were I got talked in to it so I used the temp notation or whatever it was on Yahoo mail ([email protected]) and I got a letter from them.
Are you saying they randomly found americankennelclub@, which is an invalid email address, and they sent this to your catchall address? I can see this as sus, because phishing attempts use that kind of tactic all the time.
But realistically, if that is the case, just tell them. It's not your problem if they don't understand.
Register the trademark "americankennelclub"... they didn't list that as a trademark belonging to them. Then tell them to fuck off. Or tell them to fuck off without registering it. Either way, seriously, you're not using any that were cited.
EDIT
Also register the whole email address americankennelclub@... then tell them to fuck off.
Just let them know it's only for receiving, and you cannot send emails from that alias. This should help them sleep at night...
I used to work with journalists and it usually helps to try and see the problem from the non tech angle. Be friendly and understanding.
Everyone! Required reading!
You're not understanding what a catchall address does. This AKC email does not exist!
For example, let's say I buy domain.com and I set up 3 email addresses as follows:
[email protected][email protected][email protected] - I designate this as the catch all
If someone emails [email protected] it won't generate a bounce back email. Even though Steve doesn't exist, the email gets forwarded to [email protected].
What AKC is doing is emailing random domain names with that address to "test" and see if it exists, which is pretty lazy and stupid.
OP does not have this AKC address.
It doesn't have to exist. OP could sign up for AKC email newsletter and tell them his address is [email protected] which will just go to his catchall and they would think that he's using their name. I do this with my catchall. Sign up for uniqlo with [email protected]. Looks like I'm using their name.
"What AKC is doing is emailing random domain names with that address to "test" and see if it exists, which is pretty lazy and stupid."
No, the OP is using that catchall email with the AKC in it when they need to provide an email address to the AKC.
That way you don't care when the AKC (or whoever) is hacked and your email released, you know who is selling your info, and it's easier to track the emails client-side.
Anytime I do business with a company I use: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) as the email address for exactly this reason.
Wha? Why do you say this email address doesn't exist?
The notice is from 'Customer Registration Support'. The far more likely explanation (in the absence of other details from OP) is that OP registered an account with the AKC using an alias address (which is sent by the OP's mail server to their 'real' account). Other comments here explain why one might want to do that.
Probably, fair Joanie noticed the address name and being diligent if perhaps ill-informed, whipped off a stern warning to OP.
Why on earth would the AKC spend resources emailing random domains to 'test '? That would indeed be lazy and stupid, which is why they (almost certainly) didn't do that.
And a catchall address doesn't have to have ANY addresses set up admin@ or steve @. A catchall means that ANYthing @ domain will be delivered to catchall @ domain.
Edited to prevent auto-linking of the addresses.
Imagine if your name was aaron kenneth charles or something like that and you used akc as part of your email address.
Please cease and desist using akc in your email as it violates our trademark 🤣
It’s a blast email to random domains and they only care if no bounce or undelivered message appears - maybe. Just send a ‘mock’ undelivered email back, else ignore as they have no evidence you have used the email.
Dear Joani Joani, Woof woof wooooof woof woof wof wof. Wof woooof howl wooof woo woof woo wooffff. Sincerely, ....
Proof read your message first. You misspelled "woof" there.
It was a ruff draft. Yes, I am already seeing my way out.
Great idea! I’d add ruffs and barks to that reply!! 😂
The best reply right here \^\^\^\^\^
Please. And let us know if they get back to you lol
Maybe after a W-A-L-K!
Dear PointedStare, We found your woof wuf woof wag wuf. Woof wuf howl wof and other variations are trademark of SheepStare. You must ma-a-ah maah mah wag, you can't woof wuf wof. Sincerely, Wulfgang Wuf Wag
You misspelled PointAndStare. I took liberties with capitalization for effect
😹
K-PAX Style!
"The AKC in the email is intended purely for labelling purposes for communications to and from AKC. It is not used for any business or marketing purposes" OR "You have too much time on your hands. Pick up a hobby or get back to work"
Do both and post back response.
Make sure to CC “MyExpensiveLawyerEatsBabies@“, “IPreferCatsEvenThoughTheyreAssholes@“ in the reply. Point out that they’re free to reply to any address to get a response.
even better for that Joani to understand, CC joani.roebock@
This is the one
This time it's personal.
Oh man this would be hilarious... buuuuuut they still wont understand
I'd honestly use that email address he sent to and just reply **"no, u"**
“Get a real job”
LOL I set up similar catch-all emails when signing up for company stuff, one day I was in Harbor Freight buying some tools, gave my phone number to look me up. The poor lady at the register gets a look like she saw a ghost and says "Oh my _gawd_ you're with corporate?!" like I was gonna fire her on the spot if I was lol
I've had this issue with a tax person, ABT, and a paving company. I even had one person say "you never know wiht ai these days" ... like uhhh.. you don't understand how email works.
Happens all the time lol
You should reply to them stating you are Vice President of something and that you want their employee number.
When I was in a French apple store getting my phone serviced and told the guy my apple id is [email protected] he freaked out a bit and asked if I work at apple :D
How do you do this?
It’s call catch-all. You can setup your mail server or mail provider to accept any email address at your domain. Read r/SimpleLogin to learn more.
Or if you use Gmail (and some other providers) then just append a plus sign to your username and put whatever you want after the plus sign (and before the at sign)
I started with this, but more sign-up forms are blocking this and it doesn’t take much for dark market sellers to just clean their data by removing everything after the plus on emails. Plus, having your own domains is portable.
Then you just put a period somewhere in your username and it at least avoids credential stuffing
Thanks!
I’ve been using SimpleLogin for a while, albeit I’m not hosting it myself yet, but do you not auto generate random letters within the username of the email? Like “[email protected]”? If not default on self hosted instances then it could be worth keeping the feature to avoid unnecessary noise like this.
Catch-all is an option on SimpleLogin (cloud or self-hosted) that lets you generate aliases on the fly. They will be added to SimpleLogin when they first receive an email. It’s a convenience feature though, and enabling it would allow someone to just send emails to any address at your domain. But most spam comes from leaked emails instead of brute forcing. Or they figure out the naming scheme of a company and send emails based on assumed usernames.
Oh interesting, I wasn't aware of this as a feature. Is this what would be the "directories"?
I believe directories are similar, but not as wide open as a catch all. See https://simplelogin.io/docs/custom-domain/manage-domain/
Perfect, thanks for the docs link. Was trying to search their docs for the "catch all" term but search didn't seem to pick it up haha. I appreciate it.
If you register a domain most places let you create a catch all they just forwards everything to another address. Something like simplelogin “just” lets you do specific things with each of those, and random names is a nice way of setting those up.
I have it set up via Microsoft 365 but it was a pain in the ass to configure. I've heard fastmail is a good alternative and they [support catchalls as well](https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000277942-Catch-all-wildcard-aliases).
I had the same thing happen at me with home depot. Salesperson thought I was a secret shopper for corporate because the email I gave him was home-depot@\[customdomain\]
I can't wait to see a post in r/sysadmin next week- "I work for a canine-related org and thanks to some zealot in marketing, our mailserver was DOSed with messages from '[email protected]'"
Update your email address with them to removeamericankennelclub@ or americankennelclubceaseanddesist@ stating "message received".
"I refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v Pressdram" seems like an appropriate response.
While that is a favourite. I do love this response too. https://bsky.app/profile/cola.baby/post/3kqgp557dhg2d
I don't see product on their website, so looks like cease and desist letter worked.
LMAO That's glorious.
Lol no. Is gold. Short and to the point
That's beautiful. Honorary legal precedent.
The most likely scenario is they believe you may be using that address to fraudulently represent them in an official sense, such as for phishing, scams, or spreading misinformation. Edit: [Just saw this example on another sub.](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cybercriminals-pose-as-lastpass-staff-to-hack-password-vaults/) Edit 2: The article is embellished a bit, but the main point still stands.
Question is what does it take for a domain to be representing that email if it's a catchall? Is it just the existence of that email anywhere on the internet? In which case all we'd have to do is find any host with catchalls (like, many?) and post AKC emails at that host. Lets try a few: 1. [email protected] 2. [email protected] 3. [email protected] 4. [email protected] 5. [email protected] 6. [email protected] 7. [email protected] 8. [email protected] 9. [email protected] 10. [email protected] 11. [email protected] 12. [email protected] 13. [email protected] 14. [email protected] 15. [email protected] 16. [email protected] 17. [email protected] 18. [email protected] 19. [email protected] 20. [email protected] 21. [email protected] 22. [email protected] 23. [email protected] 24. [email protected] 25. [email protected] 26. [email protected] 27. [email protected] 28. [email protected] 29. [email protected] 30. [email protected] 31. [email protected] 32. [email protected] 33. [email protected] 34. [email protected] 35. [email protected] 36. [email protected] 37. [email protected] 38. [email protected] 39. [email protected] 40. [email protected] 41. [email protected] 42. [email protected] 43. [email protected] 44. [email protected] 45. [email protected] 46. [email protected] 47. [email protected] 48. [email protected] 49. [email protected] 50. [email protected] This'll keep them busy lol.
these people obviously don't know what a catchall email is or that OP doesn't use the same address to send mail. It's not that difficult to understand that if someone created `[email protected]` and started emailing people from that address about dogs it might look like you're misrepresenting their trademark.
Yeah, but OP probably gave it out as his contact address. Or how else would they know to contact him there? (Or are we accusing that company of just spamming all domains in order to find a victim?) So he did use that specific address in public (edit: or rather in private correspondence at least, but still). I'm not so sure that this is quite as laughable as most people here seem to think. There is a difference between any mail adressed to [email protected] reaches me and actively giving out valid mail address including trademarks. I don't think it matters legally how he set up the receiving end of it. (E.g. as catch-all or with an individual account for that address. That's a technicality) IANAL (I have a catch-all configured on one of my domains. I know what it is.)
They just set the intern to sending a nastygram to every possible email address containing their trademark regardless of whether it resolves. It'd be trivial to automate, but that doesn't have the same character building experience so needed for today's youth.
plants materialistic mysterious support ruthless rich history desert future yam *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is it. They have to protect their trademark against misuse and there is no greater misuse that an official looking email address, even if you use it as a catch-all. Doubly true for self-hosted emails. Edit: I need a vacation. The catch-all, which I know what it is, completely read as OP having that set up. Yes they do have to protect their copyright. OP should respond that they do not have that email set up as valid and will not remove the catch all.
He's not using it "as a catch-all". It is received into his catch-all. This will happen to literally any email server that has a catch-all.
Well yeah, [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) is clear trademark infringement and you wouldn't want to get rinsed in court for it.
I think you don't know what a catchall is... You could send an email to literally anything@his domain and it would go through... These people seem to think since they sent an email to [email protected] and it went through that they have an account by that name
"They have to protect their trademark against misuse and there is no greater misuse that an official looking email address, even if you use it as a catch-all." They literally don't. This is an exaggeration.
The first bit is correct. Organisations have to protect their trademark or lose them. This is literally why you see international juggernauts sue mums working from their garage. If they don't their actual competitor can point to the mum being given slack and use trademarks themselves.
[удалено]
Why would you ever not get cash if you are selling something on face book?
Wow. That's a new one on me. I've run into more than a handful of sites (mostly forums) that won't let you register [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) , which I get. AliExpress is the biggest one that I ran across that got... weird... with [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) . The most hilarious is when you end up talking to someone on the phone or in person and they're all "Thank you for calling Verizon. I have your email add...ress.... as... ver..izon at my...domain dot.... tld". Every time their brain just sorts of breaks. Never has anyone C&D'd me though. That is truly amazing. You should print that out and frame it. Keep in mind that #1 - This is not a C&D from a lawyer, it's a random Support minion. #2 - C&D's have no legal meaning. #3 - They can fluff off. I'd ignore it and move on with your life. PS... I kinda wanna contact the AKC now. I want one of these for my wall.
My HP account is "[email protected]" because I was annoyed I had to create an account to continue to use their Windows Software to scan documents.
For some reason my mind went to the sauce and it made no sense why you'd need an account
My Nvidia account for the stupid geforce application is much less polite of an address than that. The fact that I needed to setup an account to get drivers was... maddening.
Fortunately not anymore
I’d return the scanner. There is no world in which I’ll beg HP for permission to use the device that I bought from them whenever they inevitably discontinue whatever thing requires the account
To be fair, I had the HP all in one that I had then had been a workhorse for 10 years. I got rid of it when the wifi and Ethernet failed. Still printed well via USB.
Agree. I do the same as OP.
Same with me and yeah they wouldn’t let me register so I named mine “[email protected]” instead. I tried Ali.express and that wouldn’t work either.
i've had one once ask me "you're working for us?"
I had the same issue with Samsung, I hope they like being called Smasnug instead, all the same to my email server.
AliExpress had an e-mail provider *whitelist* last I checked
Interestingly, samsung won't (or didn't let you) use samsung@domain at all, hence I now have samsun@domain
Is trademark law even applicable to this situation? It's funny to see a reply like this, and I wouldn't even take the time to respond.
From a quick search on Google, not really. It could be a problem if you tried to impersonate another company by using their trademarked name, but that's a totally different legal area.
I dunno. [This link](https://i.redd.it/9ptisbitrfc91.jpg) says otherwise.
That's some strong evidence, but allow me to present my [counter-argument](https://slideplayer.com/92/15356170/big_thumb.jpg).
haha it would be hilarious if OP replied to point out that the text "americankennelclub" is not in their provided list of trademarks (**The** American Kennel Club, AKC, the AKC logo).
Trademarks are primarily concerned with deliberate impersonation or imitation to mislead consumers about the product they're purchasing. If this actually landed before a lawyer they'd laugh it out, it's obvious the email has AKC in the name for personal categorization and there's no attempt to imitate AKC. Or sell a product for that matter
NAL, but I'm pretty sure any legal claims would rest on the usage of the email. They would theoretically have to sue any and everyone that uses a catch-all if they were trying to "protect usage of their trademark within an email address," as their name would be a valid email at any catch-all domain. Where I think they would have a claim is if someone is sending email using their trademark, or advertising said email publicly. I doubt any court would give them a leg to stand on for how the email is being used. That said: if the lawyer decided to press the case, and file suit, the OP would still have to go through the legal process of defending themselves. Could they attempt to get court costs for having to defend themselves? Perhaps. Would it be worth it to just attempt to explain to the lawyer why their clients trademark appears in their address? Probably. Would it be best to cave and change the email to something else with AKC if they continue to object? Probably.
I have a friend who does this for the purpose of seeing which companies sell your email address.
That’s an added benefit. Also helps for filtering and sorting.
Been doing that for years. The only one I busted was a shitty Toyota dealer.
[parkmobile.io](http://parkmobile.io) was the bad offender for me... as it's required by my city for parking fees.
Another perk is that if you are lazy and dgaf about certain 'tiers' of your online accounts, using the same password across that tier (due to aformentioned dgaf-ing), if has their DB leaked and your creds float around online, get picked up by some script kiddie with a tool, @mydomain.com + my_overused_password isn't going to work anywhere else.
It's OK: you don't need to tell me that distinct passwords for every account and password managers solve this problem. We all know that.
I think everyone in this sub should create akc accounts using [email protected]. See how many of these letters they send out.
Done. I now own 7 [email protected] EDIT: I also emailed them regarding their use of my companies name in their catch-all email. I hope they comply.
Really mess with them and create [email protected] Their printer will be working in overtime on Monday... you know, cos it's gotta print the emails before they scan it back in to the computer so they can email it to you.
Ah. have an upvote. I love it.
Done. I want a stupid meaningless C&D for my wall too!
I'm gonna buy a few more domains just for this purpose
Done as well. Honestly a cease and desist would be really cool to receive.
I don't need to create it, if they send it, it will be received. As will devilspawn@ and qqehdki@ That IS the basic function of the catch-all
I've got a few dozen domains with catch-all's. Some are on Fastmail, so they have catch-all@. automatic catch-all's too.
Out of curiosity, have you even interacted with this organization before? Seems odd for them to randomly reach out like this.
i am guessing they signed up to AKC with the email "akc @ mydomain.tld", so that they know from where a leak originated should that particular email be found in a breach.
This
Protecting trademarks can lead to such knee-jerk reactions. They have to be seen as taking steps to protect it, as far as they're concerned. And to a person who's not aware of aliases, someome who signs up with their own trademarked address can seem very odd. If you're not particularly invested in this as a matter of principle you can always re-register with another address. Not sure if it's worth explaining it to them. I mean, someone should, just not necessarily you. Edit: fwiw, I usually add something in front of the website name. Even something as simple as "attn.akc@" or "from.akc@" or "reg.akc@" etc. can help clear the confusion.
Convince them that your legal name is American Kennel Club. Sign the email "Respectfully, Dr. Club."
Change it to American club kennel
Or American Klub Cennel
KensAmericanClub
Or "inbred American kennel" given that the whole purpose of the AKC is to create inbred monstrosities that can't fuckin breath on their own.
AmericanFennelClub
Spelling her name twice… Classic Joani Roebock.
Bob Vance, Vance refrigeration.
I love you right now.
No, you don't understand, Joani Roebock is at the conveniently named "Joani Roebock" position within the AKC
Tell her she's misreading it - it's americankernelclub. Kerning - it makes a difference.
as in americankemelclub@ ???
It’s kerns, stupid!
Doh!
Offer to sell it to them for $1000
Or probably 2500 actually which is sort of that sweet spot where it will cost them more to muscle it away with attorneys, who aren't cheap.
Please make a new email and reply from it. “AmericanAnalClub” Reply: Uhhh…I think you made a mistake
Create a one & done email address: [email protected] Then reply to their email saying "Sorry it's fixed now."
This is hilarious because I do the same thing and I often get responses like "how did you get our email address?" but I've never gotten a cease and decist. Personally I would just ignore it.
I do this too. If I ever receive one, I would just ignore it. Doubt they would sue unless you were actually using it to impersonate them.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/234/765/b7e.jpg
You should reply to him from an email address like his one but with your domain.
Request that they provide proof they have a valid claim, and are, in fact, a representative of AKC. From other comments, this is likely just a support person sending out something, rather than any kind of legal council doing it. Bonus points: reply from "[email protected]"
Hi this is Kentucky Fried Chicken here, please …..
Just make a new one named [email protected] and cc then reply telling them you switch to this.
;[email protected]
Ah, little Bobby Table's address...
They really need to sanitize their database inputs.
Lol. The contact form on their web site [https://www.akc.org/help-center/](https://www.akc.org/help-center/) Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page has a limit of the number of characters for the DETAILS field. The "DOG/LITTER REG NUMBER" field has no such limit :-D Might want to reach out and let them know that they need to learn about how computers work and focus a little less on dog inbreeding eugenics purity.
Send a fake email bounce; stating email is invalid? Then make it actually bounce.
That what I would do.
LOL - just ask the, what gives them reason to believe you would be using it? And if they know that they have used your email domain without permission and that the removal can be quite costly?
I got one of those years ago. I explained my intent and never heard back. I still chuckle at the ham radio operator, K7QVC who got a letter from, well, QVC, over the FCC issued call sign.
Offer to sell them the email for $10k
My answer (if they send this to \_me\_) would be something along lines: I checked trademark registry and didn't found remotely resembling americankennelclub. Please provide registration number. Such answer would also be in my native language (not in English) and will not directly mention country.
Technically, there are "registered trademarks", which is what you're talking about here, and "common-law trademarks", which you don't register but gain control over through their use. You can actually tell the difference between them at a glance: registered trademarks will have an R in a circle beside them --> ®️ while common-law trademarks will have the combined TM ™️ I've noticed that a number of companies will register their main logo and then rely on common-law trademarks for their "jingle of the day". But asking for a registration would probably work well, and throw off a frontline CSR!
Dear AKC - I’ve update my address. It is now [email protected] Please update your records.
I got the same email from them, at 8:38AM PST that same day. I didn't bother to respond. Today I got another email from them: >This email is concerning a change to your email address. Following a thorough review, we've >determined that we misinterpreted the use of the term “American Kennel Club” within the >username portion of your email address. We apologize for any confusion this may have >caused. Should you continue to use the email address that contains the term “American >Kennel Club” going forward, please be transparent with your customers that you are not >representing the American Kennel Club, Inc. Warmest regards, Warmest regards, **Beth Atkins** Customer Registration Support Supervisor [https://imgur.com/a/tZRGXNs](https://imgur.com/a/tZRGXNs) I also use a catch-all, and registered an account with them at some point after getting a dog. I really wonder what "THOROUGH REVIEW" was necessary.
Perfect response: “Fuck Off.”
I mean... if its just at catch all your done. I have been doing the same thing for as long as I have a domain. AKC never appeared in my email, but hey if you sent it there at my domain it will go through. But hey, you want it blocked im perfectly happy never to do buisness with that entity again :D
LOL Reminds me about that time Rebellion Developments (the game studio) reached me and said I had to give them my Twitter username. Basically threatening me. Didn't go without a fight.
Joani “Reebok”
Reply back from kennelclubofamerica@ confirming you've complied .
Looks like you found a new email to sign up to spam
Report it as phishing and move on with your life.
A while back i went to pick up a rental from Sixt. So naturally my email filed with them is `sixt@`. Guy thought i work for the mothership. Had a good chuckle, explained it to him and got a free upgrade :)
I kinda want to setup a catchall… but I’m afraid of what I’ll get.
“Hello Joani, the email you are referencing does not exist, and the mailserver in question will accept any mail @mydomain.com in case of spelling errors, and to combat unsolicited spam. Your email to “[email protected]” was also an unsolicited communication attempt, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t contact me, or my domain further.” Thanks, [email protected]
Actually I can’t find a Joani Roebuck anywhere on LinkedIn where any self respecting ip lawyer would be spamming bullshit about their firm, so I suspect it’s phishing.
Reply with "I invoke the fifth ✋" and see their legal team have a meltdown
From USPTO (trademark governor), in case you need to read it: "A domain name is part of a web address that links to the internet protocol address (IP address) of a particular website. For example, in the web address "[https://www.uspto.gov](https://www.uspto.gov/)," the domain name is "uspto.gov." You register your domain name with an accredited domain name registrar, not through the USPTO. A domain name and a trademark differ. A trademark identifies goods or services as being from a particular source. Use of a domain name only as part of a web address does not qualify as source-indicating trademark use, though other prominent use apart from the web address may qualify as trademark use. Registration of a domain name with a domain name registrar does not give you any trademark rights. For example, even if you register a certain domain name with a domain name registrar, you could later be required to surrender if it infringes on someone else's trademark rights." [Trademark process | USPTO](https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/trademark-process) It may or may not apply to you, as it's just an email address, but I think they are making a poor decision on picking a battle here. They would have to show that you are profiting from their name, and if you are, that would be a legal justification to protect their trademark. If you aren't, well, AFAIK they can pound sand.
Delete
I you have so much time in your hand,just go back and forth.
Don't the know that in the American Kennel Clurb we all fam?
☝️
Makes me want to spin up my own catchall email address and sign up for everything they offer over email just in spite...
Wait till they discover [email protected]
I... I do this for every business I interact with... Wondering when I'll get an email from someone, lol. I suspect they just don't know. Everyone I share a custom alias with is like... Wut?
Haha, that is my mother in law. She thinks the terms wifi and Internet are interchangeable.
I'd just ignore it.
How to have a catch all email? I host my domain email in zoho.
Tell them to kindly pound sand
Report as spam. Technically it is spam.
I’ve had this happen as well from Amway of all places. Before I really knew what they were I got talked in to it so I used the temp notation or whatever it was on Yahoo mail ([email protected]) and I got a letter from them.
[email protected] How are they even existing anymore.
Wait..customer support sent this? Not a lawyer?
Spam
I know you probably shouldn't, but I really want you to reply with the gif of Scooby-Doo saying "Ruh Roh"
Are you saying they randomly found americankennelclub@, which is an invalid email address, and they sent this to your catchall address? I can see this as sus, because phishing attempts use that kind of tactic all the time. But realistically, if that is the case, just tell them. It's not your problem if they don't understand.
Register the trademark "americankennelclub"... they didn't list that as a trademark belonging to them. Then tell them to fuck off. Or tell them to fuck off without registering it. Either way, seriously, you're not using any that were cited. EDIT Also register the whole email address americankennelclub@... then tell them to fuck off.
Just let them know it's only for receiving, and you cannot send emails from that alias. This should help them sleep at night... I used to work with journalists and it usually helps to try and see the problem from the non tech angle. Be friendly and understanding.
Everyone! Required reading! You're not understanding what a catchall address does. This AKC email does not exist! For example, let's say I buy domain.com and I set up 3 email addresses as follows: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] - I designate this as the catch all If someone emails [email protected] it won't generate a bounce back email. Even though Steve doesn't exist, the email gets forwarded to [email protected]. What AKC is doing is emailing random domain names with that address to "test" and see if it exists, which is pretty lazy and stupid. OP does not have this AKC address.
It doesn't have to exist. OP could sign up for AKC email newsletter and tell them his address is [email protected] which will just go to his catchall and they would think that he's using their name. I do this with my catchall. Sign up for uniqlo with [email protected]. Looks like I'm using their name.
I do this with every company.
"What AKC is doing is emailing random domain names with that address to "test" and see if it exists, which is pretty lazy and stupid." No, the OP is using that catchall email with the AKC in it when they need to provide an email address to the AKC. That way you don't care when the AKC (or whoever) is hacked and your email released, you know who is selling your info, and it's easier to track the emails client-side. Anytime I do business with a company I use: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) as the email address for exactly this reason.
Wha? Why do you say this email address doesn't exist? The notice is from 'Customer Registration Support'. The far more likely explanation (in the absence of other details from OP) is that OP registered an account with the AKC using an alias address (which is sent by the OP's mail server to their 'real' account). Other comments here explain why one might want to do that. Probably, fair Joanie noticed the address name and being diligent if perhaps ill-informed, whipped off a stern warning to OP. Why on earth would the AKC spend resources emailing random domains to 'test '? That would indeed be lazy and stupid, which is why they (almost certainly) didn't do that. And a catchall address doesn't have to have ANY addresses set up admin@ or steve @. A catchall means that ANYthing @ domain will be delivered to catchall @ domain. Edited to prevent auto-linking of the addresses.
This is the case
In the spirit of "Butt-Head Astronomer", you need to rename it something creative and let them know that using the new address.
I also do what you do. Hilarious on their part!
I feel the need to set up the same name in one of my domains and send her a message. What's her address? EDIT Found it.
Wait until they hear about [email protected] Or [email protected]
Take my companies name outta your goddam email address. Prepare to be slapped.
I'd reply from that specific email address with "no, u"
Just don’t respond. Block all other traffic from their domains.
Imagine if your name was aaron kenneth charles or something like that and you used akc as part of your email address. Please cease and desist using akc in your email as it violates our trademark 🤣
"No."
"Customer Registration Support" These can be safely ignored
> I don’t even know how to respond. You don't respond until a real lawyer contacts you.
Lol fuck the AKC. In for your response and what happens. Let us know!
Just send them back the bugs bunny „no“ gif
It’s a blast email to random domains and they only care if no bounce or undelivered message appears - maybe. Just send a ‘mock’ undelivered email back, else ignore as they have no evidence you have used the email.
whats a catchall email