To take down copycat blog — TechCrunch fights
TechCrunch demands NewTechCrunch.com domain; site owner tries to rebrand.
TechCrunch’s parent firm AOL has filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum to take down the copycat blog NewTechCrunch.com.
As of right now, NewTechCrunch.com does not resolve. But until recently the domain resolved to a web site that included articles regarding laptops, tablets, and phones (see photo from Archive.org, March 11).
Likely due to TechCrunch’s actions, the owners of the site are now trying to rebrand it as Techij.com. A news notice in broken English from this month reads “No more NTC, Now We are Techij“. There’s also a scrolling notice on the web site announcing the change.
Prior to the rebrand, the owner had shamelessly tried to copy the TechCrunch brand, counting using a green color palette. The owner also had a Pinterest page for NewTechCrunch.
The owner of the web site created multiple “articles” and solicited direct advertising:
By now have a Business, Events, Products & services and looking to spread or promote them? Then Don’t Worry since NTC have some hot advertising zones, and Paid reviews offering at very cheap rates. For more detail Contact us at [email protected]
The current whois record for NewTechCrunch.com lists an owner in Pakistan. The domain was most recently registered in July 2012, but prior to that was registered by someone in China.
I believe this is the first time AOL has turned to the uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP) to demand a domain name that infringes on the TechCrunch brand. It has filed multiple UDRPs on behalf of its other blogs, counting Huffington Post.
