Baidu Europe, who is not affiliated with the Asian Baidu (baidu.com among others) is looking to sell its domain names along with the Baidu Europe brand. A total of ten domain names, which includes baidu.eu, baidu.tv, baidu.nl and baidu.be are up for sale. Managing Director P. Ufkes of Baidu Europe is resorting to these measures after complications arose when a Dutch agency started to promote the Asian Baidu in Europe. Confusion between the two companies peaked during this year’s Olympics. Ufkes does plan to continue his company but under a different name.

“The mounting popularity of the Asian Baidu, which has grown into the world’s third-biggest search engine; the launch of new services such as Baidu TV – the domain name baidu.tv is already owned by Baidu Europe – and the Chinese company’s activities related to the Olympic Games are making it very difficult to differentiate between the two companies,” explains Ufkes.
The European trademark rights of Baidu Europe along with the ten domain names are being sold through the Amsterdam-based trademark agency De Merkplaats: http://www.demerkplaats.nl/english/trademarks_for_sale.php
Managing director Ufkes expects to attract a lot of interest in the European trademark rights and domain names. “Baidu Europe has gained a very good reputation during the past five years.” Ufkes has already received a number of offers to take over his company’s brand and domain names. “But we weren’t yet ready to take the step.” Ufkes announced plans to build a search engine of his own to compete with Google.
Original article: http://baidu.nl/