I just got a letter from mm-roku.com regarding a few domains relating to my roku dev work that are parked at GoDaddy.com. Apparently Godaddy sticks advertising on parked domains. Anyone know if this is legitimate entity (mm-roku.com)? Anyone else get anything like this? There was absolutely no contact information in the email, and they aren’t responding to replies. Given my experience with how unresponsive Roku has been to my NDK inquiries, maybe this is legit.
Thanks
Greg
Thanks, good idea (any moderators listening who’d like to PM me to help sort this out?). I didn’t think a domain name like rokudeveloper.com would be a problem, but apparently that’s not the case. The sad thing is that were parked at GoDaddy pending me getting my developer website up and running, which I’m still working on.
The email stated: “Should you require additional information or wish to further discuss this issue, please do not hesitate to contact us.” but they’re not answering emails and provide absolutely no contact information.
“destruk” wrote:
Whois says it looks legit –
Admin Name: Domain Administrator
Admin Organization: Roku, Inc.
Admin Street: 12980 Saratoga Ave.,
Admin City: Saratoga
you sure you didn’t just look at roku.com? That’s a different domain.
mm-roku.com is registered to a company that apparently makes a living by scaring people out of domain names. I’m not sure why they would need that domain name with roku in it, other than to appear more legitimate?
Domain Name: MM-ROKU.COM
Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Whois Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Referral URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
If I put MM-ROKU.COM into a web browser it takes me to roku.com. I guess they could be using forwarding to do this? All very odd.
The MM company looks legit, would they be contracted by Roku? (though their name doesn’t appear on the list of famous companies it works for) My question if this were the case would then be why is Roku using a 3rd party company to hound its own platform developers? It doesn’t make any sense.
It looks like Roku employs their services -
https://www.markmonitor.com/services/br … ection.php
http://www.whois.com/whois/mm-roku.com
Roku has posted here before that any domain names or competing products like RokuDeveloper.com are prohibited.
http://wwwimg.roku.com/static/imagereso … eb2014.pdf
NO USE OF IDENTICAL OR SIMILAR NAMES; NO COMBINATION MARKS
You may not use any name or trademark confusingly similar to the Roku Logos or any other
Roku Mark. You may not use any Roku Mark in such proximity to any of your own trademarks or
third party trademarks so as to create a combination or composite mark. You may not combine
any Roku Mark with your own or other third party trademark to create a telescoped mark or
“mash-up” of the two (or more) marks.
RokuDeveloper isn’t a mashup but a description, just like MercedesSalesman.com, and I don’t see Mercedes banning that. In any event, the email suggests contacting them to discuss, and they’re not responding.
The word Roku is a registered trademark.
© 2014 Roku, Inc. All rights reserved. ROKU, the ROKU Logo, ROKU READY, the ROKU READY Logo, “STOP DREAMING. START STREAMING.”, “HAPPY STREAMING.”, “THERE’S A TON OF ENTERTAINMENT IN THIS LITTLE BOX.”, “STREAMING STICK”, and “NOW THIS IS TV.” are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Roku, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
“kc8pql” wrote:
The word Roku is a registered trademark.
True.
Just ask yourself - do you think “NikeExtreme” could possibly be confused by consumers as being part of the Nike brand due to its similarity to “NikeXtreme”? If yes, don’t use it or they could shut you down.
Do you think perhaps, RokuDeveloper could be assumed by people to be affiliated, endorsed, or owned by Roku considering there is a Roku Developer Agreement that is? If not, get a lawyer to try to defend it or change the name.
If you change your website to be “BBEFilms Development” I’m sure nobody will mind.
A better question will be why does this forum insist on replacing the name " N I K E " with the letter x?
A better question will be why does this forum insist on replacing the name " N I K E " with the letter x?
Not sure what you mean there.
As to infringement - Our patent and trademark lawyers willeventually get around to contacting you if you have the word “Roku” in your domain name. I don’t know if mm-roku is a legitimate contact, there are some people or organizations doing fraudulent takedown notices of late, so I would have to investigate and get back to you.
- Joel
Points well taken, but looking around - there are examples of other developers (for example, Axuretrainer.net), using a domain relating to a specific brand. Like many independent developers, I don’t have the resources to get a lawyer involved, otherwise I’d argue that Roku’s action is questionable. I’ve already expended more time and concern that I should have on this subject.
“RokuJoel” wrote:
A better question will be why does this forum insist on replacing the name " N I K E " with the letter x?
Not sure what you mean there.
As to infringement - Our patent and trademark lawyers willeventually get around to contacting you if you have the word “Roku” in your domain name. I don’t know if mm-roku is a legitimate contact, there are some people or organizations doing fraudulent takedown notices of late, so I would have to investigate and get back to you.
- Joel
Try typing NIKE ( n i k e) as a single word without spaces in a message or PM and the forum software here changes it to x.
I think this was an antispammer tool when we were getting a lot of spam selling shoes.
–Mark
“bbefilms” wrote:
Points well taken, but looking around - there are examples of other developers (for example, Axuretrainer.net), using a domain relating to a specific brand. Like many independent developers, I don’t have the resources to get a lawyer involved, otherwise I’d argue that Roku’s action is questionable. I’ve already expended more time and concern that I should have on this subject.
Then you might easily be bullied into abandoning the domain - including by non-RokuCo entity. My suggestion is not to act rash in any direction. Somebody contacted you - you replied to them, you made best effort - the onus is on them to reply and prove they are the trademark holder, otherwise they are just trolling.
From my observations, RokuCo is not overzealous in legally enforcing their mark. Take for example these apps:
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Roku Remote - RoByte Trial by TinyByte Apps (Android, Jun 2011)
-
Roku Remote by Van Nguyen (iOS, since Aug 2011)
-
Roku Remote 7 by DIGISET (iOS, since Dec 2013)
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Roku Remote with Voice by Jayachandran Kamaraj (Android, 2013)
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Roku Buddy by Pixie Dust Software (Android, Aug 2014)
I remember sometime in 2012 RokuCo was contacting developers about not using “Roku *” names. That’s when the Android classic (since 2009!) “Roku Remote” by Jigawatt Labs had to change its name to Remote for Roku. So i gather the nice guys changed their name when asked, when others ignored the emails and RokuCo did not badger them further (e.g. through motion to Apple or Google app stores). Now that does not mean RokuCo’s rights have been waived - they can choose at any one time to take action against infringing but it does not have to be a lawsuit.
If you have agreed to a Roku Developer Agreement, check what it says - there might be wording to the extent of “at any one point of time, with no reason or explanation, company may terminate this agreement and yank your apps from Roku store”. Also, the “Roku Trademark Guidelines” at the link posted by @destruk seem to apply if you are party to said agreement. So no need being a jerk and say “so sue me” to RokuCo either.
If this ever goes to court (which it won’t, see above), RokuCo will have to prove that the name you use is causing confusion and is detrimental to their business. You on the other hand will have to show why you are entitled to “Roku Developer”, for example are you known in the trade as “the Roku developer”? But if somebody is entitled to be called “the Roku Developer” (as in “the Roku One”), it’s other names (Anthony Wood, TheEndless, NowhereMan, Chris Hoffman… etc… i don’t know, the author of InstantRokuChannel.com maybe…) that come to my mind before you.
PS. https://www.markmonitor.com/cgi-bin/aff … m-roku.com - mm-roku.com has been registered Oct 2014 and Mark Monitor seems to be a “troll-for-pay” company that would have bots automatically scour the Internet and shake low-hanging fruit. No wonder if they are even less responsive than Roku email.
“EnTerr” wrote:
i don’t know, the author of InstantRokuChannel.com maybe…
Unlikely.. I believe Roku made (asked nicely?) them change their name, which is why they’re Instant TV Channel for Roku now…
“TheEndless” wrote:
“EnTerr” wrote:
i don’t know, the author of InstantRokuChannel.com maybe…
Unlikely.. I believe Roku made (asked nicely?) them change their name, which is why they’re Instant TV Channel for Roku now…
I was just enumerating people that are known (outside of Roku’s offices) for their clout as Roku developers - and therefore have better odds of being considered “the Roku developer”. Sorry if mentioning that domain caused confusion, it was hard for me to figure his forum name now. I should have said “OddScott” instead of “the author of…”. And the “i don’t know” was because i have never tried that InstantSomethingChannel but it felt like it might have provided means to publish for multiple err, publishers.
“EnTerr” wrote:
“TheEndless” wrote:
“EnTerr” wrote:
i don’t know, the author of InstantRokuChannel.com maybe…
Unlikely.. I believe Roku made (asked nicely?) them change their name, which is why they’re Instant TV Channel for Roku now…
I was just enumerating people that are known (outside of Roku’s offices) for their clout as Roku developers - and therefore have better odds of being considered “the Roku developer”. Sorry if mentioning that domain caused confusion, it was hard for me to figure his forum name now. I should have said “OddScott” instead of “the author of…”. And the “i don’t know” was because i have never tried that InstantSomethingChannel but it felt like it might have provided means to publish for multiple err, publishers.
I know.. I just thought, given the subject of the thread, that it was ironic that you’d mention them, when they’re one of the websites that Roku actually asked to change their name.
