What is Cybersquatting?

Cybersquatting occurs when a party registers a domain name in “bad faith” with the intent to profit.

Cybersquatting occurs when a party obtains a domain name that corresponds with pre-existing trademarks, with the intention of selling the domain names to the trademark owner at a grossly inflated price.

A well known case involving cybersquatting is the Verizon v. OnlineNIC case in which the defendant OnlineNIC registered various domain names in “bad faith” that correspond with a pre-existing trademark; in this case a few of the disputed domain names were “myverizonwireless.com” and “buyverizon.net.”   In this case the United States District Court decided that these domain names were “confusingly similar to the Verizon marks” and “[registered in] bad faith [with] intent to profit from trademark” and therefore OnlineNIC Inc. was ordered to transfer the domain names to Verizon.

To read this case  

What is Typo-squatting?
 Typo-squatting, is a variation of cybersquatting, it occurs when a party registers a domain name in “bad faith” with intent to profit, however unlike general cybersquatting, typo-squatting occurs when a party registers a domain name that is confusingly similar to a pre-existing trademark, often involving the misspelling of a pre-existing trademark.

A well known case involving typo-squatting is the United States of America v. John Zuccarini. In this case Mr. Zuccarini registered confusingly similar domain names with slight “typographical errors of popular children’s programs” in this case a few of the disputed domain names were “harrypottor.com” and “digmon.com.” Programs associated with children.  In the United States of America v. John Zuccarini case the United States District Court decided that that Mr. Zuccarini wilfully and knowingly registered confusingly similar domain names to children’s registered trademarks for the purposes of “generating advertising revenue” and ruled that he should be imprisoned.

To read the case

What is PPC or Pay per Click?

Pay per click is a form of internet advertising in which an advertiser pays the host website or search engine based on the number of times a person clicks on their name. When advertising with search engines advertisers bid on keywords or phrases that will attract their target audience. An example of pay per click advertising is the sponsored link section in Google.

Why are cybersquatting and typo-squatting a problem?

Typosquatting and Cybersquatting are a problem because they deviate potential consumers from the websites they intended to visit. They also may turn consumers away from a particular brand because there is a belief the website is associated with the intended brand.

What is Natural Traffic?

Natural Traffic also known as Direct Traffic or Organic Traffic occurs when a person types a domain name directly into the web browser. It does not involve search engines, directories or pay per click advertising and is considered the most valuable form of advertising because the users have a specific interest in the website’s content.

What is mousetrapping?

Mousetrapping is an effort to keep people from leaving a website. It is when “common internet commands fail to function properly.”   Mousetrapping is often accomplished by disable the ‘back’ button and continuously generating and opening pay per click pop-up windows. An example of a case involving mousetrapping is the case of The United States of America v. John Zuccarini in which Mr. Zuccarini developed websites in which users were “bombarded…with unwanted advertisements.”

What is ICANN doing to combat cybersquatting and typo-squatting?
To combat the problem of cybersquatting and typo-squatting the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) developed the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) which “allows certain disputes concerning abusive domain name registrations to be resolved without the need for recourse to national court systems.”

By Natalie Ledra, Summer Student at the Muscovitch Law Firm (2009).