Amber Bennett Cybersquatting

Introduction What is cybersquatting? Cyber: Internet Squatting: to live in a building or on land without the owner’s permission and without paying Cybersquatting: the registration of a commercially valuable Internet domain name, as a trademark, with the intention of selling it or profiting from its use.

History Started to become a real problem in 1999 Dennis Toeppen Registered about marks of famous companies Sued by Panavision Sued by Intermatic Inc. 1999: US Congress made it illegal to knowingly register websites containing trademarks (ACPA)

Types of Cybersquatting Cybersquatting, a.k.a. domain name squatting When a squatter buys a domain name that is usually a trademark of a company or the name of a specific company Typosquatting, a.k.a. URL hacking Someone buys a domain name that is similar to another domain with small, common typos

Typosquatter, John Zuccarini Registered domain names that were typos of sites frequented by children Used these sites to redirect children to porn sites Zuccarini made millions of dollars since the Internet was young Arrested 2003: new legislation protecting children online

Cybersquatting Cases Donald Trump vs. J. Taikwok Yung Julia Roberts vs. Russell Boyd Verizon vs. OnlineNic

Donald Trump vs. J. Taikwok Yung Yung developed four websites related to Donald Trump trumpmumbai.com trumpindia.com trumpbeijing.com trumpbudhabi.com Trump and lawyers wanted Yung to pay $100,000 for each domain name Yung paid $32,000 in damages to Trump

Julia Roberts vs. Russell Boyd Boyd bought juliaroberts.com Devoted to discussions about the actress Later, Boyd listed the domain on eBay and received a bid of $2,500 Boyd claimed he was never in it for the money and turned down Roberts’ lawyers offer of $2,500 Boyd: “I didn’t want the money then or now…if she had called me up and said ‘Can we talk about this?’ the domain would have been hers.”

Verizon vs. OnlineNic OnlineNic was accused of trademark infringement and illegal cybersquatting myverizonwireless.com iphoneverizonplans.com verizon-cellular.com In total, OnlineNic registered 663 addresses that were identical or confusingly similar to Verizon 900,000 domain names were registered similar to other companies Verizon was awarded 33.2 million dollars

Anti-Cybersquatting Piracy Act “Trademark holders now have a cause of action against anyone who, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of another’s trademark, registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that is identical to, or confusingly similar to a distinctive mar, or dilutive of a famous mark, without regard to the goods or services of the parties.”

Uniform Domain-Name Dispute- Resolution Policy “Most types of trademark-based domain-name disputes must be resolved by agreement, court action, or arbitration before a registrar will cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name.” Basically, this is the terms and conditions for anyone attempting to register a domain name and allows for complaints to be submitted without contest.

Questions?

References ml?_r=2& dictionary.reference.com/browse/cybersquatting dyn/content/article/2007/11/28/AR html uatter_arrested/