Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting refers to the buying of website addresses or domain names that sound very similar to existing well-known brand.

16:47 17 November 2015

Protecting a brand name online used to be simpler when the number of extensions, such as .org or .info were severely limited. However, this became a bit challenging after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - the international body responsible for co-ordinating all these addresses - began issuing hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as .xyz, and .nyc.

 

"When ICANN proposed allowing these new generic top level domains, the trademark world was not receptive to that idea because they were so concerned about cybersquatting and poaching," says Deborah Lodge, partner at law firm, Squire Patton Boggs.

 

It turned out that those concerns were justified.

 

"We've seen almost twice the number of cases involving these new gTLDs this year versus last year," explains Brian Beckham, head of the internet dispute resolution section at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

 

"In the distant history you had .biz or .info and things like this coming online in a small round of five or six new gTLDs," he says. "I think brand owners were much more willing to pay a couple hundred bucks to get Apple.biz for example."