Temu’s Trademark Vigilance Meets Domain-Name Cybersquatting
Dec/01/2025
Temu’s global rise continues to draw opportunistic imitators — as underscored by a recent UDRP victory ordering the transfer of temu.africa to Whaleco Inc. and Whaleco Technology. The WIPO panel found the domain identical to Temu’s registered marks and used in bad faith, initially parked for sale at USD 8,000 before redirecting to Temu’s official site, thereby implying a false association. This win arrives as Temu — now one of the world’s most downloaded shopping apps — grapples with intensifying scrutiny over labor practices, data-privacy lawsuits in the U.S., and escalating tariffs on Chinese imports. The company’s meteoric expansion, driven by ultra-low prices and a frictionless TikTok-fuelled marketing engine, continues to collide with mounting legal and ethical challenges across multiple jurisdictions.
