Cybersquatting – Moving With The times?

For those readers not so au fait with cybsquatting, the London law firm Kemp Little LLP has an article by Paul Garland that gives a good explanation of what it’s all about. The article begins:
Cybersquatting – the practice of registering internet domain names that are based on another entity’s brands or company name – is as prevalent as ever. As online business models have developed and converged, the cybersquatter’s methods have adapted accordingly.

Today, businesses routinely need to think about registering domain names simply to prevent others getting hold of them – in the wrong hands, a domain name can be used to divert business, confuse customers, dilute the brand and commit fraud.

It had been thought that the wide-spread use of search engines would significantly reduce the damage cybersquatting could cause, as users more commonly found websites through search and not typing in the URL. But this has not been the case – the prevalence of search engines has in fact become a useful tool in the cybersquatter’s armory.

The article then goes on to look at “Why domains still matter” and then “So, what can you do?” and “What procedures should a concerned brand owner be putting in place?”

To the latter, Garland gives five points:

1. look for any domain names similar to yours that you would hate to see fall into the hands of someone else
2. register domain names similar to any new product or service you or your organisation launches
3. “institute a domain name watching policy with one of the many watching services”
4. if you find a website operated by a cybersquatter, you may be able to get the host to take it down
5. if there is clear cybersquatting, take action to recover the relevant domain names, and don’t let the problem develop.

The full article is available from kemplittle.com/SL-Cybersquatting_Oct07.htm