Cybersquatting and Typosquatting

1094 Words3 Pages

Whose name is it anyway? With the explosion of the commercial internet industry names and domain registries have become the preverbal golden goose for some and a nightmare for others. Many famous people and well know companies have fallen prey to cybersquatters and typosquatters. The terms cybersquatting and typosquatting are two topics that are separate and distinct however they are closely inter-related. Cybersquatting is defined as registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else's trademark. Typosquatter is registering domain names which closely resemble high-traffic websites, but feature common misspellings and consumer confusions .

Cybersquatters unethically register domain names in hopes that someday a person or group will want to register a website with the intent that that person would be willing to pay a large amount of money to recover the rights to the domain. Due to the increasing commercial use of the internet the act of cybersquatting has cause a lack of availability of domain names for people, business and organizations wishing to conduct online activity. Many well know organizations, celebrities and private citizens are suffering greatly from cybersquatters registering domain names. Cybersquatting is a simple act to conduct. The cybersquatter can simply register a name for a very low cost and hold onto to it in hopes of selling it for big profits.

Many people, companies and organizations believe in the simple belief that their name is their property. Furthermore many companies and organizations that have legally registered trade mark names should be granted protected to file a domain name under their trademark without having to fight for the righ...

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