Internet Scams, Cybersquatters

Is your trademark being held hostage by a cybersquatter? You are if you own a trademark and someone else is holding a domain name that is the same and wanting to charge you money.

Cybersquatting became popular prior to business becoming aware of the possibilities of the commercialization of the internet.

Selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else's trademark, that is cybersquatting. For the most part cybersquating is when someone buys up common domain names with the intent to later sell them to existing businesses in order to make a profit of off those businesses.

They could register YourDomainName.org, and do the same thing with YourDomainName.biz, therefore contacting you and try to sell you those names at advanced prices.

If that fails, they may urge a competitor to get a domain similar to yours, and facilitate the theft of your traffic, business, and clients.

If cybersquatters go too far and infringe on trademarks, libel you or your company, you can, of course, sue. But domain-related lawsuits can take years and cost dearly. Arbitration can be successful, but also can be time-consuming and costly.

But, there's nothing like prevention. It is easier and cheaper. To protect your company it is a good idea to register any and all common variants of your domain that way nobody else can get hold of them and do any damage , this is very easy to do and will not cost much.

Fill in a form that locks in authorized entities of your claim of other domain names. You can buy these names and keep them under your roof. Go through your domain name registrar, it will provide you information to include, such as contact information, who should be contacted if someone wants to register your domain.

There is only a limited amount of time for you to finish filling out the authorized entry form. If there is an equivalent com, net or org name, there would be a failure to enter a claim during a certain time frame means the registering entities will not check to see over. They will not check the IP Claim Service database. Meaning, you could lose your .info or .net version of your domain name.

Opportunities for cybersquatters are rapidly diminishing, because most businesses now know that nailing down domain names is a high priority.

Don't allow cybersquatters to intimidate you and destroy what you have worked to create online. Your domain name represents an investment that goes beyond your website. Go with your domain name registrar and get the rights and the authorization to similar or like names to your main domain name! And never allow them to expire or be otherwise compromised since that will cost you in the long run.