According to a recent study on trends of disputed domain names, companies could save millions on legal costs by being more proactive about registering the names first. "The results indicate more than $220 million was spent on reclaiming domain names from third parties through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)," says Corporation Service Company (CSC). "If brand owners had registered these domain names proactively, it would have only cost them $1.1 million (£600K), yielding a cost savings of $219 million."
Additionally the study also found close to 4,000 domain names were allowed to expire after they were handed back to the brand owners. Close to 3,000 domain names that were allowed to lapse after they were won were later re-registered in some cases by third parties again. Apparently "several companies have disputed the same domain name up to three times because they continued to allow it to lapse," says CSC.
Related topics: Cybersquatting, Domain Names, Law
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The only reason they were fought is that there are typosquatters willing to register them to glom on some tiny amounts of PPC traffic .. directly infringing the corporation's brand, and they're bound to fight any misuse or infringement of their brands and trademarks, or risk losing them.
As I said in a previous circleid post Are Domain Name Portfolios Actually Worth What They Are Touted to Be? - most of the so-called "value" assigned in those domains is simply the notional value in an overinflated, even incestuous market, with one domainer selling to another.. the only outflow from that pool is where a domain is reclaimed after a UDRP/lawsuit, or where a shady registrar is forced out of business by a lawsuit. Infinitesimal revenue, if any, from PPC.
Which is why the domains get junked. Because they are useless.
Defensive domain registration is a mug's game - useless assets being acquired one by one, or even a few dozen by few dozen, in direct competition with typosquatters who register in bulk, randomly .. I must admit, far less domains get registered now that ICANN's had the good sense to finally trash the AGP - but still in sufficient numbers to make it a mug's game.
Far easier, and scales far better, to fight individual UDRP cases, and to sue individual registrars who'd be responsible for several thousand typo domains - and have you noticed the uptick in the number of cases targeted at registrars who facilitate in and/or engage in typosquatting? These cases are meant to sue them out of business, and in several cases, have succeeded.
People quote Sun Tzu all the time and I'm tired of that. I'll quote another, much more modern Chinese combat genius .. Bruce Lee.