Trademark Troll Targets Car Companies, Others

Trademark King, a Portage Ind.-based company, is applying to trademark dozens of internet domain names covering a variety of businesses including websites for 28 automakers in the U.S.

The salvo of trademark applications began late last year on November 26 when the company filed to protect 155 names and domains including Porsche.com, HyundaiUSA.com and many others including Apple.com and YouTube.com. In the initial application, the company said its intended purpose was “creating trademarks for others.” Since then, the company revised its application to say that it still intends to create trademarks for others, but that it wants to sell or lease the domain names in question “to anyone in the world for a legal business activity.”

Douglas LeHockey, the signatory on the applications, refused to comment during a phone inquiry.