Cybersquatting Alert – It Does Not Pay!

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Cybersquatting is the practice of using a domain name that is either 1) a recognized name brand and which would otherwise raise trademark or copyright suspicions if used in another context or 2) that is close enough to a recognized name brand that it could be confused with the name brand by unsuspecting consumers.

Examples of cybersquatting web addresses would include:

• Gogle.com
• searchengineotpimizationjournal.com
• wamlart.com
• mcdonallds.com

As you can see, the clear intent is to confuse people who might not notice the missing o in Google, the rearranged t and p in optimization, the rearranged l and m in Walmart, or the extra l in McDonalds.

One court ordered a cybersquatter to pay a hefty $33 million to Verizon for the nefarious activity. Perhaps this is a turning point in favor of honest business dealings online and cyber integrity.

Cybersquatting is a practice that is controversial and has been happening online since the early days of the Internet, but it has largely gone unpunished. The practice relies on searchers misspelling their search queries and landing on the fake site instead of the real one or by typing the incorrect address into their web browsers. Either way, an error could become a costly bit of confusion for the searcher and for the company whose name and brand are squatted. I guess we can chalk this one up to justice.