Industry sources have been able to reveal that Tyco is currently in a push to haul in the misuse of its Sensormatic brand (Tyco owns Sensormatic Electronics LLC). The company has targeted several registrants of domain names containing the word ‘Sensormatic’ with a cease and desist notice. The notice also makes demands to the effect that domain name ownership must be transferred to Sensormatic in order to prevent further legal action.

So far, we’ve been able to confirm the following domain names have been targeted:

• sensormatic-hook.com (SHUT DOWN)
• sensormatichooks.com (SHUT DOWN)
• sensormatichook.com (TRANSFERRED TO TYCO)
• sensormatic.co (TARGETED TRANSFERRED TO TYCO)
• More to be announced as information comes to hand

At present, it seems that Tyco have stopped short of requesting the removal of certain products which contain the Sensormatic brand name in their description. The irony here is that these products are in fact used to defeat their own intellectual property (e.g. SuperTags). We’ll keep a close eye on this to see if this position changes.

In regards to the rights and obligations of the original domain name owners, we are of the view that they should accept Tyco’s assertion and make efforts to proceed with the transfer. In no way can the ownership of the word Sensormatic be disputed, because it is a wholly owned and registered trademark belonging to the aforementioned company.