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Type www.z10.com into your browser and you'll arrive at an Amazon page on which "Global Mobiles" sells unlocked BlackBerry Z10 phones. What? Did you expect to be directed to a BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) site just because the Z10 has been touted as the phone that will help make or break the struggling company? What happened? A savvy domain speculator realized that his or her domain name had become a hot commodity... more»
Cybersquatting the domain name of a celebrity and selling it for a king's ransom was one of the great get-rich-quick schemes of the early internet. But since courts now tend to favor the star over the squatter, a new kinder, gentler cybersquatting tactic has emerged.
These days, cybersquatters seek to register a star's domain before that person becomes famous, and then develop a business relationship with the new celebrity, offering website hosting or design work. These so-called soft squatters are registering the domains of hundreds of amateur athletes, musicians and other would-be stars in the hope that one or two of the names will become well-known. more»
In my last post we talked about the value of introducing new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) to Tribes. We discussed what a Tribe was and how communities of people sharing knowledge and experiences can benefit from new TLDs. In the next three posts from my blog we'll discuss how brand owners can either benefit from creating a tribal home and/or come together with other tribes for the benefit of their members. more»
The U.N. copyright agency (World Intellectual Property Organization) that arbitrates more than half the world's "cybersquatting" cases saw a 25 percent increase in complaints last year. WIPO received 1,823 complaints in 2006 alleging abusive registrations of trademarks as Internet domain names. more»
As the fall of 2012 begins the implementation of rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) for new gTLDs is reaching a critical stage... Given the half year interval between the upcoming Toronto ICANN meeting and the following Beijing meeting in April 2013, it is highly desirable, and perhaps essential, that community discussion in Toronto result in a clear consensus on how RPM implementation should proceed if new gTLDs are to launch without further delay and if potential registrants are to perceive them as acceptable platforms for speech and commerce. more»
Internet domain name arbitration disputes have risen by more than a quarter since January 2005 -- despite the expansion of generic top-level domain addresses like .biz and .info -- as cybersquatters find more sophisticated ways of encroaching on legitimate Web sites.
...Typosquatting, a form of cybersquatting that involves capturing another company's Web traffic by registering misspelled versions of a well-known Internet site or brand name, is driving much of the growth in domain-name disputes, according to intellectual property lawyers. more»
New regulations will make it more difficult for companies to protect their domain names from cybersquatters in China.
Under the new rules, foreign and local firms will need to prove malicious intent and act quickly to have any hope of retrieving stolen domain names, according to a regulatory official interviewed by Chinese news site Sina. The new rules appear to give a green light to cybersquatters who buy up domain names which are similar to brand names in the hope of selling later for a profit. more»
Really ICANN? The Trademark Clearinghouse provides unprecedented protection. According to your recent announcement it does. Do tell, ICANN -- in what way does the Trademark Clearinghouse protect anything? more»
The headlines this week say that over 200 million domain names now exist on the internet. Pretty impressive... But consider the explosive growth of Social Networks. The top twenty social networks alone have over 2 billion user names. With User Names on social networks rapidly becoming the Internet's new brand identifiers, I wonder: is it time that we apply the same trademark rules we have for domain names to user names as well? more»
Kenzie is a security researcher who has registered numerous domain names that are typographic errors of well-known trademarks (e.g., rnastercard, rncdonalds, nevvscorp, rncafee, macvvorld, rnonster, pcvvorld). He points the domain names to the actual sites in question (e.g., rncdonalds points to mcdonalds.com), but he is looking to demonstrate how these typo domains are used for "social engineering" attacks. more»
Microsoft is launching a string of court actions in the United States and Europe against cybersquatters, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
"Cybersquatting is a growing problem for brands around the world and we hope to educate other brand holders and encourage them to take action," Aaron Kornblum, a senior Microsoft lawyer, told the business daily. more»
Malicious hackers who are able to hijack an organization's Web domain may be able to steal traffic from the legitimate Web site long after the domain has been restored to its owner, according to a recent report.
Design flaws in the way Web browsers and proxy servers store data about Web sites allow malicious hackers to continue directing Web surfers to malicious Web pages for days or even months after the initial domain hijacking. more»
Microsoft on Tuesday launched a new offensive against cybersquatters who allegedly gain illegal profits from thousands of Web sites, such as WindowsLiveTutorial.com and HaloChamp.com, that include the company's trademarked names.
Redmond filed three lawsuits in federal court this week claiming that some Web site operators have registered and operate hundreds of domain names with the sole purpose of reaping "bad faith" profits and in violation of federal and state laws. more»
Europe must reboot its fledgling domain name to avoid a system crash, critics say, after alleged missteps allowed cybersquatters to stockpile trademarks for auction.
...Diana Wallis, a British liberal European Parliament member on the body's legal affairs committee, has asked the Commission to give a "full explanation of how the .eu domain allocation has been handled."
"If the scale of the abuse is anything like what appears to have taken place, this will represent a major EU scandal and commissioners will need to be brought to account," she said. more»
The IDN ccTLD Fast Track program is moving along rapidly, with ICANN's announcement that both the Simplified and Traditional Chinese script versions of .china have passed the string evaluation phase of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Program. Alongside this, ICANN have also announced the release of a proposed implementation plan for 'Synchronised IDN ccTLDs' that will create the rules by which these variant IDN ccTLDs will coexist. more»
