Do I need to register my domain trademark internationally?

Dave's Answer:

You're right to be skeptical. There's a new scam that's traveling the Internet now where "domain name register centers" in China and other nations contact you with the notification that someone wants to "steal" your domain and suggesting strongly that you register it first, to protect your trademark and/or domain identity.

I dug around a bit and here's a typical email that is associated with this scam:

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We are Beijing Inveis Network Information Technology Co.,Ltd which is the domain name register center in China. We received a formal application from a company is applying to register "yourdomain" as their domain name and Internet keyword on Aug 11, 2009. Because this involved your company name or trade marks so we inform you in no time. If you considered these domain names and internet keywords are important to you and there was necessary to protect them by registering them first, contact us soon.
Kind Regards
Linda.yang
Tel: +86-10-82476192-604
Fax: +86-10-62477798
Email: linda.yang@inveis.com
Email: linda.yang@inveis.com.cn
Beijing Inveis Network Information Technology Co.,Ltd
website:www.inveis.com

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You're right to be skeptical.

In addition to the terrible grammar in this message (which is suspicious: a legitimate Chinese business that catered to the US market would hire an English speaker to help craft a coherent message, wouldn't they?) the entire concept is a bit weak, that someone might or might not seek to register your domain in their space so you should get there first.

I further imagine that the domain registration is quite expensive, though this particular company appears to have been shut down. I'm sure that there are a few hundred that have replaced it instead.

Further, I can easily imagine a criminal situation where you then say that you are interested in regsitering your domain in China and they send back a note saying "ooh, so sorry, that other company got the domain. We have contacted them, however, and for $2000USD they've agreed to sell it to you." Meanwhile, no-one has registered anything.

Suffice to say, if it's suspicious at all, just run away from the transaction and you'll be safe.

The bigger question of whether you should register your domain / trademark in overseas markets can be simply addressed by asking if you have a meaningful customer base in those countries. If so, go through legitimate registrars like Network Solutions to find out how much it would cost, and what's involved, in getting a .cn or a .co.uk or similar.