Recently (like yesterday), I have had the pleasure of being the target of Cybersquatting. Well, not me personally, but my company.
Since this issue is fresh in my mind, I thought I would share experience in general, as well share the law, what you can do if you're a victim of Cybersquatting, and what your rights are. I also want to share this, so that people who have it in their minds to do something like to a company, know exactly what they're getting themselves into.
What is Cybersquatting
Definitions of Cybersquatting vary from country to country, as to what Cybersquatting consists of. However, it boils down to extortion.
Cybersquatting is the term used to describe the practice of registering and claiming rights over Internet domain names which are, arguably, not for the taking. The cybersquatter then offers the domain to the rightful owner at an inflated price, an act which can be deemed to be extortion.
Our Experience
Over the past few days, as I stated, we were the target of this. Monday, we were asked in public, what our intent was in regards to the ongoing development of one of our products, IntelloChat. We confirmed the ongoing development, and that our customers will see the product sooner than they may expect. On the same day, a customer of one of our resellers decided to register the domain name IntelloChat.com, and then yesterday sent me a personal email stating that in light of our current development of the product, perhaps we would like to buy the domain from him for a fee of $50, and if we didn't, he would make it available to the public to buy.
Since this course of action is not only illegal, but potentially damaging to our business, we exercised our right to suspend this user's product license (which is covered in the EULA).
This person then decided to post about it in public, and privately threatened to sue us for loss of profit.
What is the UDRP?
The Uniform Dispute Resolution policy is a document which governs how domain name disputes will be resolved within the gTLD namespace. It defines the conditions under which a genuine dispute may arise, and provides guidelines for administrative proceedings to settle the issue, outside of a court where possible. All registrants registering domains through OpenSRS (or any other registrar) are bound by the UDRP
http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm
Under the UDRP Paragraph 4 (b)(i) it states:
(i) circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name;
The remedy for this is in Paragraph 4 (i)
i. Remedies. The remedies available to a complainant pursuant to any proceeding before an Administrative Panel shall be limited to requiring the cancellation of your domain name or the transfer of your domain name registration to the complainant.
The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA)
This is in place to protect consumers and businesses with Federal law, against Cybersquatting. The stipulations follow the UDRP, and has additional remedies:
"The Act authorizes a court to order the forfeiture or cancellation of a domain name or the transfer of the domain name to the owner of the mark. In lieu of actual damages, the plaintiff may elect statutory damages and the court has discretion to award damages of not less than $1,000 and not more than $100,000 per domain name, as the court considers just. 15 U.S.C. § 1117(d)."
What can you if you are a target?
Immediately contact the domain registrar, where the domain was registered, or their upstream (or both), and immediately contact ICANN with the information you have pertaining to your case.
There is a good chance that the issue will be resolved quickly, without any court or legal proceedings.
However, keep in mind that legal proceedings are always a possibility in these cases. So you should prepare for it.
Don't just lay down and let some reem you with extortion. Fight for your business.
Since this issue is fresh in my mind, I thought I would share experience in general, as well share the law, what you can do if you're a victim of Cybersquatting, and what your rights are. I also want to share this, so that people who have it in their minds to do something like to a company, know exactly what they're getting themselves into.
What is Cybersquatting
Definitions of Cybersquatting vary from country to country, as to what Cybersquatting consists of. However, it boils down to extortion.
Cybersquatting is the term used to describe the practice of registering and claiming rights over Internet domain names which are, arguably, not for the taking. The cybersquatter then offers the domain to the rightful owner at an inflated price, an act which can be deemed to be extortion.
Our Experience
Over the past few days, as I stated, we were the target of this. Monday, we were asked in public, what our intent was in regards to the ongoing development of one of our products, IntelloChat. We confirmed the ongoing development, and that our customers will see the product sooner than they may expect. On the same day, a customer of one of our resellers decided to register the domain name IntelloChat.com, and then yesterday sent me a personal email stating that in light of our current development of the product, perhaps we would like to buy the domain from him for a fee of $50, and if we didn't, he would make it available to the public to buy.
Since this course of action is not only illegal, but potentially damaging to our business, we exercised our right to suspend this user's product license (which is covered in the EULA).
This person then decided to post about it in public, and privately threatened to sue us for loss of profit.
What is the UDRP?
The Uniform Dispute Resolution policy is a document which governs how domain name disputes will be resolved within the gTLD namespace. It defines the conditions under which a genuine dispute may arise, and provides guidelines for administrative proceedings to settle the issue, outside of a court where possible. All registrants registering domains through OpenSRS (or any other registrar) are bound by the UDRP
http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm
Under the UDRP Paragraph 4 (b)(i) it states:
(i) circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name;
The remedy for this is in Paragraph 4 (i)
i. Remedies. The remedies available to a complainant pursuant to any proceeding before an Administrative Panel shall be limited to requiring the cancellation of your domain name or the transfer of your domain name registration to the complainant.
The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA)
This is in place to protect consumers and businesses with Federal law, against Cybersquatting. The stipulations follow the UDRP, and has additional remedies:
"The Act authorizes a court to order the forfeiture or cancellation of a domain name or the transfer of the domain name to the owner of the mark. In lieu of actual damages, the plaintiff may elect statutory damages and the court has discretion to award damages of not less than $1,000 and not more than $100,000 per domain name, as the court considers just. 15 U.S.C. § 1117(d)."
What can you if you are a target?
Immediately contact the domain registrar, where the domain was registered, or their upstream (or both), and immediately contact ICANN with the information you have pertaining to your case.
There is a good chance that the issue will be resolved quickly, without any court or legal proceedings.
However, keep in mind that legal proceedings are always a possibility in these cases. So you should prepare for it.
Don't just lay down and let some reem you with extortion. Fight for your business.
