ARE YOU A VICTIM OF CYBER SQUATTING?

DEFINITION

Cyber squatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the  Anti cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cyber squatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.

INTRODUCTION

After the dot com boom, it became apparent to business owners how vital the Internet would be to their success.  At this time there were few people ahead of those business owners who found a way to use this to their own advantage.  These people, or cyber squatters, realized the importance of the Internet as a part of business, and knew the business owners would soon wise up as well.  If you own a trademark and find that someone is holding it hostage as a domain name until you pay a large sum for it, according to www.nolo.com, you may be a victim of cyber squatting. 
 Victims of cyber squatting are protected under the 1999 federal law known as the Anti-Cyber Squatting Consumer Protection Act.  Victims can sue or initiate arbitration proceedings under the authority of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and win the name back.  This became known as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.  
In this report the beginnings of cyber squatting are outlined and discussed, some of the laws and acts that were born as a result of this problem compared and contrasted, example cases over domain names briefed, and our future outlook on cyber squatting is predicted as follows.

                                                                                                        I.            HISTORY OF CYBER SQUATTING

Before 1999, the business world was still resisting the need for the Internet as a tool for success.  They didn’t see the need to register their trademarks as domain names.  However, cyber squatters did see the increasing importance of the Internet, and saw the businesses making the mistake of ignoring it.  This is how cyber squatting was born and began causing problems.  Cyber squatters took advantage of those companies by registering domain names identical or similar to the business’ trademarks.  Domain name registrars accept all applications for domain names by applicants unless that exact identical name is in use. After the cyber squatter has the domain name registered, the company can no longer have their trademark as their domain name.  This causes a problem since customers and clients frequently try to find businesses online. 

One of the first cyber squatters were Dennis Toeppen in the early 90’s who registered some very famous marks before companies did.  He then demanded a ransom of $13,000 for each domain name.  This type of cyber squatting causes firms to lose money not only by paying cyber squatters to get their domain names, but as a loss of profit for what they could be making with an effective website.  Some of the cyber squatters made websites to slam a business using their own mark as a domain name for that page.  This could ruin the reputation of a company and now take away from business they had at one point.  Cyber squatting causes monetary losses and damaged reputations.  Businesses were not happy when these issues become apparent to them.  They have wised up since the beginning of cyber squatting, and now realize the harm it can cause to their business and customers.  They have learned of the important benefits of owning their trademark domain names. Congress decided to take action in 1999 to help out businesses and stop cyber squatting.  The laws and acts passed helped businesses battle the increase in cyber squatting from 1999 on.

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                                                                                                                     II.            Recognizing Cyber Squatting

How do you know if the domain name you want is being used by a cyber squatter? Follow these steps to find out.Check where the domain name takes you. As a general rule, first check to see if the domain name takes you to a website. If it does not take you to a functioning website, but instead takes you to a site stating "this domain name for sale," or "under construction," or "can't find server," the likelihood increases that you are dealing with a cyber squatter. The absence of a real site may indicate that the domain name owner's only purpose in buying the name is to sell it back to you at a higher price.

Of course, absence of a website does not always mean the presence of a cyber squatter. There may also be an innocent explanation and the domain name owner may have perfectly legitimate plans to have a website in the future.

If the domain takes you to a functioning website that is comprised primarily of advertisements for products or services related to your trademark, you may also have a case of cyber squatting. For example, if your company is well-known for providing audio-visual services and the website you encounter is packed with ads for other company's audio-visual services, the likelihood is very strong that the site is operated by a cyber squatter who is trading off your company's popularity to sell Google ads to your competitors.

If the domain name takes you to a website that appears to be functional, has a reasonable relation to the domain name, but does not compete with your products or services, you probably aren't looking at a case of cyber squatting. For example, if your trademark is "Moby Dick" for fine art dealing with whaling, and the website you encounter (www.mobydick.com) is for road cleaning machines, you do not have a case of cybersquatting. You may, under certain circumstances, have a case of trademark infringement. 

Contact the domain name registrant. Before jumping to any conclusions, contact the domain name registrant. To find the name and address of a domain name owner, you can use the "WHOIS Lookup" at whois.net. Find out whether there is a reasonable explanation for the use of the domain name, or if the registrant is willing to sell you the name at a price you are willing to pay.

Pay, if it makes sense. Sometimes, paying the cyber squatter is the best choice. It may cheaper and quicker than filing a lawsuit or initiating an arbitration hearing.

However there are some options available to help fighting Cyber Squatting:

• Sue under the provisions of the Anti-cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).
• Use an international arbitration system created by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Trademark experts consider the ICANN arbitration system to be faster and less expensive than suing under the ACPA and the procedure does not require an attorney.