Registering a domain name with malicious intent or in bad faith is popularly called Cybersquatting in WWW. This is usually done for monetary reasons whereby one books a domain similar to a registered trademark or copyright of any known company and then tries to sell it to the concerned company at an exorbitant price.
For example, if one registers a domain nike.net and then attempts to sell it back to Nike, it is cybersquatting. It will be in addition a violation of law if he/she puts up a website on nike.net describing Nike products and services in bad taste. On the other hand, if someone own a company trademark like Nike Foods and host a food website on nike.net, there is no cybersquatting or violation of law. So, it is the intention and not just the name which amounts to cybersquatting. Cybersquatting was made illegal by the passage of a federal law in 1999 known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The law became necessary because numerous large companies were forced to pay large sums to buy their domain names from third parties. These companies included such notables as Panasonic, Fry's Electronics, Hertz and Avon.
Cybersquatting is quite common specially against the popular brands but most of the time, the victim company doesn't know about it. How do you know if a company is a victim of cybersquatting? Type in a name that is a trademark or copyright like Sakshay preceded by "www" and following by ".com", ".net" or ".org". If you get a valid web site which looks like it is related in some way to the domain name, then there is no cybersquatting in effect (although this could be a simple trademark violation). However, if you get one of the following results, then this could be a cybersquatter.
- Can't find server
- under construction
- page with no relationship to domain name
Of course there could be a reasonable explanation for each of these results, so they do not always mean there is cybersquatting occurring. It's a good idea to contact the domain name owner before taking any legal action to find out what's going on.
Since there can be many reasons both in favor and against cybersquatting in any specific case, how can one prove someone is cybersquatting?
- The domain name registrants intention was to profit from your domain name in bad faith
- Your trademark was in effect and widely known at the time the domain name was registered
- The domain name is identical to your trademark
- And you have actually registered the trademark
How do you know there is a bad faith intent? Well, there is probably no bad faith intent if one of the following is true:
- domain name is the same as the person's name or nickname or company providing services or products in different domain.
- They are actually selling or intend on selling something on their web site - They have registered the domain prior to your trademark registration and have been using the domain name for some purpose or other.
- Does the web site owner actually have a legitimate use of the domain name? This would be, for example, true for a company named "Nike Foods". They would have a legitimate reason for owning the "Nike" domain name.
Some clues that cybersquatting is occurring include:
- The domain name owner has put up a web site which in some way harms your company. For example, if you had somehow purchased "TATA.ORG" and created a web site about how inferior are TATA products, you are cybersquatting.
- If the domain name owner never legitimately used the domain name and simply offered to sell it to you, he is cybersquatting. If a person buys up a lot of names and has sold them over and over, there is a pattern of cybersquatting.
- If the domain name is the same as a very famous trademark, then it has a greater likelihood of being considered cybersquatting.
What can happen if someone is found guilty of cybersquatting is they can be ordered to hand over the domain name. In addition, if the domain was purchased after 1999, they can be ordered to pay monetary damages.
If you are a new Internet business owner, you likely have spent a good deal of time trying to determine what domain name will be best for your operations. To this end, you may have taken the steps necessary to determine the availability of a particular domain name. In fact, finding that it is available may have made you very pleased. Not registering the domain name upon your first visit, you return a couple of days later ... to find that someone else has registered the domain name you wanted in the interim.
Of course, this all could have been a coincidence. Nonetheless, in this day and age, a more likely possibility may be that another entity actually tracked your search for a particular domain name and intentionally registered that domain name itself. Those entities that are now engaging in this insidious practice are said to be domain name spying. In fact, there now appear to be operations that solely engage in domain name spying.
The reality is that there is nothing new about operators interfering with a bona fide business's attempts to register a domain name. Cybersquatting involves registering a domain name confusingly similar to another trademark and then offering to sell that domain name to the trademark's actual owner for a greatly inflated price. There are other practices that interfere with legitimate attempts to register domain names, including domain name tasting and domain kiting.
Domain name tasting is a process that takes advantage of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) policy that allows a five day grace period in which a domain name can be returned. A domain name taster registers numerous domain names in order to generate advertising income from short term ownership to determine which domain names might be most profitable over the long haul. If the registrant finds that certain domain names don't meet his or her goals, the domain name simply is returned.
Domain kiting actually takes the tasting concept a step further. Through kiting the ICANN grace period is abused. As with domain name tasting, the registrant will return a domain name at the end of the ICANN five day grace period. The different between kiting and tasting is that when the registrant returns the domain name, the registrant will then quickly reacquire the same domain all over again. In short, a registrant engaging in kiting will retain ownership of the domain name in question over an extended period of time and will never pay for that ownership.
Understanding domain name tasting and kiting, a reader can appreciate how domain name spying is an outgrowth of these practices. The difference rests in the fact that domain name spying is intended to target those domain names that someone else or another business enterprise has a specific interest in owning. At this juncture, it is not specifically known how a domain name spy gathers information relating to another business checking on the availability of a domain name.
Some victims of domain name spies may have at least some recourse through trademark and cybersquatting laws. However, if a domain name spy does not violate these laws, a business actually may have no remedy at this juncture.
If you find that you have been victimized while checking the availability of domain names, you probably will end up with two choices:
1. select another domain name
2. pay the domain name spy a premium for the domain name you actually do want
The best way to avoid becoming a victim of domain name spying is to purchase immediately any domain that you may have an interest in. Remember, if you elect not to use a certain domain, you have five days to return that domain name with no charge to you.
Both Ravi Chamria & Robert Masud, Esq. are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ravi Chamria has sinced written about articles on various topics from Domains, computers and the internet and Marketing. Dr Ravi Chamria is the CEO, Sakshay Infosystems Pvt Ltd. He can be contacted at ravi@sakshay.net or you may visit