Chapter 6

Domain Names and Cybersquatting

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Domain Name

 Internet domain name is a combination of typographic

characters used to describe the location of a specific
location online.
 It is known as the Uniform Resource Locator or URL. It is
considered the identity of a Web site.
 We have addresses for our homes and offices.
 In the same way, domain names are nothing but simple
forms of addresses on the internet.
 These addresses enable the users to visit a specific
website in an easy manner.

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Domain Name

 Domain name corresponds to various IP (Internet

Protocol) numbers which connect various computers and
enable direct network routing system to direct data
requests to the correct addressee.
 The Internet domain name is very important for the small
businesses who want to establish their name on internet.
The two organizations cannot have same domain
names.

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Components of a Domain Name

 A domain name typically combines a number of

components.
 For example, the domain name 'www.example.com.sa'
has the following components:
 www - to indicate it is a worldwide web address.
 example - the domain name that you register.
 com - to indicate the category of domain name you have
registered, which is also called a top level domain name.
 sa - to indicate the domain name's country of origin.

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Components of a Domain Name

 Example – www.google.com ; www.yahoo.com, etc.

 'WWW' means that site is linked to World Wide Web.
 'google' is the name you choose to your site, and ideally is
readily identifiable with your organization name or core
business.
 '.com' is known as top-level domain name and it indicates
that your organization name or core business.
 Sometimes '.sa' is being used in place of '.com' that means
that company is registered in India (Eg: ebay.in, olx.in,
airtel.in, etc.)
 In the above example only google.com is being used
shows search results from Global servers, Google.co.in is
more targeted to local Indian Market. 
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Components of a Domain Name

 You will always see difference in search results for both

cases on Google.co.in you will get results of more India
related sites, who primary operate in or for India specific.
 The last two or three letters of a domain name or URL
(e.g.- .com, .in, .org ) are known as its top-level domain.
 The top-level domain which are used earlier are for
Example '.org' generally describes a nonprofit, charity, or
cultural organization site; '.gov' indicates a governmental
site; and .net, which is most often used by network-related
businesses.
 Some other common top-level domains are country codes,
like .us for United States and .au for Australia, etc.

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What are the top level domain names or categories?

 The following top level domain name categories can be

used by the following types of domain name users:

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Can the country of origin component be omitted
from a domain name?

 Anyone can register a domain name that omits the

country of origin.
 For example, an Australian applicant can apply for a
domain name with the '.com' without any country of
origin component.

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What type of domain name can I have?

 A business will often want its domain names to be the

same, or similar to:
 its trademark
 its company name, or
 its business name.
 This will obviously make it easier for the business'
customers to remember the domain name.
 As well, a domain name can be a powerful part of an
overall branding strategy.
 A business that has a number of trademarks and other
names, may in fact seek to have all the corresponding
domain names. 9
What type of domain name can I have?

 A business will often want its domain names to be the

same, or similar to:
 its trademark
 its company name, or
 its business name.
 This will obviously make it easier for the business'
customers to remember the domain name.
 As well, a domain name can be a powerful part of an
overall branding strategy.
 A business that has a number of trademarks and other
names, may in fact seek to have all the corresponding
domain names. 10
Domain Name

 Domain name registration system started on the basis of

the "First come First serve" basis.
 The registrant authority which was initially the "Internic"
did not take the responsibility for checking the ownership
of the name.
 Later when the internet became popular, large popular
companies wanted to enter the internet with their own
websites and often found that the domain name they
were seeking had already been booked.
 So companies which wanted the same domain name
had to pay a price, which were sometimes
unimaginable. 
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Domain Name

 This increasing cost of buying back of domains resulted

in 'Meta society' trade mark owners coming together and
claiming that their intellectual property rights on a
registered trade mark should be extended to "domain
name".
 This has resulted in considering "Registration of Domain
Names without the intention of using them" as
cybersquatting.

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Importance of Domain Name

 They are important because of the following reasons:

 Promotion of business and building up of customer base
online and offline by way of advertising on the web.
 Establishment of the credibility of the website and the
business on the internet.
 Easy access to customers and prospective customers.

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Types of Domain Name

1) Top-Level Domains(TLDs)
2) Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLDs)
3) Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD)
4) Top-level domain (nTLDs)

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Types of Domain Name

1) Top-Level Domains(TLDs):
 They appear in domain names as the string of letters
following the last (rightmost) ".", such as "net" in
"www.example.net".
 Most commonly used TLDs are .com, .net, .edu, .jp, .de,
etc.
 Further, TLDs are classified into two broad categories:
generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and country-code top-
level domains (ccTLDs).

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Types of Domain Name

2) Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLDs):

 It is a generic top-level domain name that identifies the
domain class it is associated with (.com, .org, .edu, etc).
3) Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD):
 It is a two-letter domain extension, such as .uk or .fr,
assigned to a country, geographic location or territory.
4) Top-level domain (nTLDs):
 It refers to new top-level domain names that are geared
towards brands organizations and services, as they're
more customized, flexible and relevant.
 Some of the Examples of nTLDs include ".voyage",
".app", ".ninja", ".cool", etc.
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A domain name dispute

 A domain name dispute is a conflict that arises when

more than one individual or group believes it has the
right to register a specific domain name.
 Most commonly a domain name dispute would occur
when a domain name similar to a registered trademark is
registered by an individual or organization who is not the
trademark owner.
 All domain name registrars must follow the ICANN's 
Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDR
P
).

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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

1. Pay attention to the administrative details.

2. Ensure communications with your domain name
registrar
3. Lock the transfer of your domain
4. Monitor expiration dates
5. Register your domain name as a trademark
6. Implement extensible provisioning protocol
7. Obtain similar domain names
8. Beware of spammers and others with evil intentions

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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

1. Pay attention to the administrative details:

 In connection with registering your domain name,
ensure that you are listed as: the “registrant” (the
legal owner of the domain name), the “administrative
contact” (the individual with rights to alter the domain
record) and the “technical contact” (the individual
responsible for addressing any technical issues with
the domain).
 It is especially critical that you, the domain owner, do
not permit employees, website developers or other
third parties to be listed as either the registrant or the
administrative contact. 

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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

2. Ensure communications with your domain name

registrar.
 Protect access to your account with your domain registrar
with a strong password.
 Confirm that emails sent by your domain registrar will not
be blocked by your spam filter and be certain to provide
the registrar with a permanent email address in case your
domain provider needs to contact you.
3. Lock the transfer of your domain”
 Many domain name registrars provide domain lock/transfer
lock/register lock to stop your domain name from being
deleted, transferred or modified without your prior and
explicit permission.
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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

4. Monitor expiration dates

 Establish a procedure to monitor the expiration date of
your domain name’s registration to ensure you do not
unintentionally forget to renew its registration.
 Domain owners with multiple domains should consider
consolidating the expiration dates of all of their domain
names to make renewal more methodical and easier to
remember.
 One option is to renew your domain name for multiple
years rather than annually.

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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

5. Register your domain name as a trademark:

 If your domain name identifies your goods or services, it
may be possible to register your domain name as a
trademark or service mark with the United States Patent
and Trademark Office.
 Registration of your domain name with this agency may
prevent other parties from utilizing similar domain names.
6. Implement extensible provisioning protocol
 EPP requires that a particular code be provided to a new
domain name registrar before a transfer, and provides an
extra layer of security.
 By implementing EPP for your domain name, you greatly
reduce the risk of it being improperly transferred. 22
Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

7. Obtain similar domain names:

 Domain name holders should consider registering similar
domain names as well as domain names with alternative
top-level domain names such as .biz, .net and .org and
domain name variations based on misspellings and the
plural version of the domain name.
8. Beware of spammers and others with evil intentions
 Domain owners must be cautious when responding to
mail and emails from parties pretending to be the registrar
of your domain name.

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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

 In today’s Internet age, your company’s domain name

may be its most valuable asset.
 Implementing these simple precautions and exercising
caution in matters relating to your domain name will help
to avoid unpleasant surprises and protect this asset.
 If you are the registrant of a domain name, then it
belongs to you, nobody can take it from you, unless you
allow it to expire and fail to renew the fees, even then
you have a grace period where you do not lose it until
that time is expired.

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Steps for Protecting a Domain Name

 Using a domain name very similar to an existing one

may result in trademark infringement -- the violation
of someone's trademark rights. 
 If you infringe someone's trademark, a court might order
you to stop using the name and pay money damages to
the other domain name owner.

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Trademark

 A trademark is used to identify a product or service in the

marketplace and to distinguish it from other products and
services.
 Do I need to register it? No, but it is prudent to do so.
 A registered trademark enjoys the protection of the
general law.
 A registered trademark must specify the types (or
classes) of goods and services in relation to which it is
used.

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Relation between domain name and trademark

 In today's world Domain name serves as an on-line

trademark.
 It also indicates quality and a repository of the goodwill
of an organization.
 Alphabetical domain names were developed to make the
addresses easier for humans to remember and use
when communicating on the Internet.
 Such names are catchy words or well-known names of
individuals or companies, for example, "nokia.com" or
"samsung.com".

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Relation between domain name and trademark

 A Domain name serves the same purpose online, which

a trademark serves in the offline business transactions.
 It helps the customers identify the source of
goods/services provided by the owner of such goods and
services.
 Therefore, Domain names are of utmost importance in
online businesses.

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Relation between domain name and trademark

 The existence of domain names without the requirement of

the registration brought the concept of "first come, first
served".
 This has created the disputes among the owners of the
trademark because many speculators have started to
register domain names in order to resell them for a higher
price to the trademark owners.
 The problem arose with the trademark owners because of
their entitlement to IP rights make them feel ripped off by
this new practice named as "cybersquatting". 
 Thus, anyone who wishes to register a domain for the first
time which is trademarked can do so; whatever problems
may arise will have to be faced later. 29
Relation between domain name and trademark

 The reason of the increase in the incidence is the

growing importance of domain name in the e-commerce
trend.
 Domain name hold a good importance as there can be
only one user of a domain name unlike the trademark
law where there can be two or more users of a same or
similar trademark for various classes of goods and
services under the honest concurrent use if such use
does not amount to infringement or causing confusion or
dilution.
 But this kind of provision is not applicable in the case of
domain names.
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Relation between domain name and trademark

 Since, the domain registration system follows the "first

come, first served" policy.
 So, once a person registers a domain name similar to a
trademark, any other person using a similar mark is
denied registration of another domain name similar to
that trademark.
 That means only one user is allowed to use a particular
domain name and any other application for the same
domain name will be refused.
 This is the main reason as to why trademark owners
prefer to get their trademarks registered as their domain
names for business.
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Relation between domain name and trademark

 The cases of trademarks and domain names conflict

mainly involve issues related to the use of goodwill of a
trademark by an infringer in the domain name to divert
the potential customers of the owner of the trademark to
a website not associated with that trademark, or use of
meta-tags resulting in dilution of trademark or
unauthorized registration of the trademark as domain
name with the intent to extort money or to prevent the
owner from using the trademark.
 The Cyber squatters quickly sell the domain names to
other non-related entities, thereby enabling passing off
and diluting of famous trademark or trade names.
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Cybersquatting

 Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting):  

 is registering, trafficking in, or using an 
Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from
the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
 The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the
person or company who owns a trademark contained
within the name at an inflated price.
 It generally refers to the practice of buying up domain
names that use the names of existing businesses with
the intent to sell the names back to that company for a
profit when they want to set up their own website.

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Cybersquatting

 Cybersquatting is a type of domain name dispute which

is prevalent in the world.
 It is one of the most significant challenges related
to Internet fraud. 
 The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
reported in March 2018 that it had handled more
cybersquatting cases in 2017 than ever before.

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Cybersquatting

 Although domain names are cheap, they are sold on a

first-come, first-served basis, so cybersquatters aim to
profit from owning a URL that others will find desirable.
 You’ll know your URL has been claimed by a
cybersquatter if you see a parked website, a site “under
construction,” or something with a clear “domain for sale”
landing page.
 There are many cybersquatting examples out there,
though big-name companies today make buying
variations on their domain a priority before launching,
especially if they have a strong trademark.

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Types of Cybersquatting

 There are various types of cybersquatting.

 typo squatting:
 where a cyber-squatter registers domain names
containing variant of popular trademarks.
 Typo squatters believe that the internet user will make
the typographical errors while entering the domain
names into their web browsers.
 It is the most commonly used one.
 Some common examples of typo squatting includes:
 The omission of the "." in the domain name: wwwexample.com;
 A common misspelling of the intended site: exemple.com
 A differently phrased domain name: examples.com
 A different top level domain:example.org
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Recognizing Cybersquatting

 How do you know if the domain name you want is being

used by a cybersquatter? Follow these steps to find out:
1) Check where the domain name takes you.
2) Contact the domain name registrant.
3) Pay, if it makes sense.

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Recognizing Cybersquatting

1) 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
cybersquatter.
 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.

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Recognizing Cybersquatting

 Absence of a website does not always mean the

presence of a cybersquatter.
 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 cybersquatting.

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Recognizing Cybersquatting

 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 cybersquatter 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
cybersquatting.

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Recognizing Cybersquatting

 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.

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Recognizing Cybersquatting

2) 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.

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Recognizing Cybersquatting

3) Pay, if it makes sense.

 Sometimes, paying the cybersquatter is the best
choice.
 It may cheaper and quicker than filing a lawsuit or
initiating an arbitration hearing.

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How cybersquatting impacts a website

 There are many ways that cybersquatting can hurt your

website and, more significantly, your brand.
 In trying to safeguard your site, it’s important to be aware
of the following concerns:
 Reputation:
 Once you no longer own that domain, you can’t control
what it hosts.
 Cybersquatting examples show sites that are full of ads,
say negative things about the original owner of the URL,
host harmful content, or even just shut down.

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How cybersquatting impacts a website

 Legal costs:
 If you can’t reach an agreement to buy the domain from
the cybersquatter, you can start legal proceedings. In the
U.S., the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act has
provisions for suing, or you could start ICANN arbitration.
 SEO ranking:
 Your SEO ranking is based on a variety of factors,
including the quality of content, volume of traffic, and site
reputation. If you change the URL, domain, or subdomain,
your SEO ranking will take a hit.

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How cybersquatting impacts a website

 Organic traffic:
 And if you rely on a steady flow of organic traffic to run
your business or blog, then any changes or issues with
your URL can cause the traffic to dry up.
 People who navigate to your site will see changes and
might think you’re no longer operating — or worse, the
cybersquatter might mimic your site but mess with your
content.

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Real-world cybersquatting examples

 If you’ve been a victim of cybersquatting, take heart —

even Google has fallen prey. Sanmay Ved was able to
purchase Google.com for just $12 in September 2015,
though they quickly bought it back, The Independent
 reported.
 Businesses aren’t immune: there are cybersquatting
examples involving names like BBC News, Dell, Bank of
America Merrill Lynch, Kodak, Verizon, and eBay.

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