Since December 2005, I have had no less than four phone calls from Chinese ISP and domain registrars telling me that some one wants to register a domain name that corresponds to or sounds like our company name in Chinese. I’m told the only way to stop this third party from registering my domain name is by paying them RMB 13,000. Whatever!

I don’t think there is anyone wanting to register a domain. I think they’re just going through the phone book or Googling companies — making this up as they go along. Anyhow, domains don’t have the value that they used to thanks to Google Base, Del.icio.us, etc.