Domain Names and Cybersquatting

Domain names are incredibly valuable assets. Not only do they identify the source of a company’s products and services, but they also provide a ‘virtual location’ of that source which, nowadays, is potentially more useful than an address or telephone number. 

With the increasing importance of web marketing and the realization by millions of companies in the last decade that domain names not only give their business credibility, but also access to customers worldwide, the .com boom has seen billions of domain name registrations. 

The increased number of domain name registrations has, in turn, increased the number of ‘cybersquatters’.  Cybersquatting is a term used to describe an individual or company that uses or registers a domain name with “bad-faith intent” to profit from the goodwill associated with another entity’s trade-mark. This is usually done either by registering the exact domain at a different level (i.e. the cybersquatter would register the .net version of a domain when an active business has already registered the .ca or .com) or by registering mis-typed spellings of other companies’ web sites as a way to re-direct website traffic to the cybersquatter’s own business.  Unfortunately, the domain name registries that facilitate the purchase and registration of domain names, do not have a system that enables them to determine whether the domain name being registered is a legitimate one or not. This has made it very simple for cybersquatters to apply for and successfully register domain names that they believe someone else will want at some point. When the time comes, cybersquatters will often agree to sell these websites to the very company whose intellectual property they have infringed.

Cases in this area can be extremely high profile. For example, Jennifer Lopez just won her court case over the bad faith use of two domains (jenniferlopez.net and jenniferlopez.org) which had been registered by a third party named Jeremiah Tieman. Mr. Tieman had registered the two domain names and was procuring financial benefit from them.  Both the domain names were ordered to be transferred to the complainant as the evidence showed that they had been used and registered by Mr. Tieman in bad faith.

There is an avenue for resolution of domain name disputes other than the Court. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) provides a mechanism for trade-mark owners to obtain domain names from cybersquatters, namely a “Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy” which is an arbitration procedure designed to promptly resolve domain name ownership disputes.

What can you do? Police your domain names vigorously and when registering your domain name, try and register all the top level domains that you are able to (i.e. the .com, .ca, .net, .org and .info).