Software giant Microsoft on Wednesday announced new legal actions against cybersquatters in the United Kingdom and the United States, which include the expansion of a lawsuit filed in Seattle in August, and the filing of a new federal lawsuit against the US company Maltuzi LLC for trademark infringement.
In addition to these new actions, Microsoft revealed it has settled a domain infringement settlement with the Dyslexic Domain Company Limited from the United Kingdom, and two US civil lawsuits filed against defendants in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.
According to reports, Dyslexic Domain will pay Microsoft in the region of GBP24,000, having been obliged to return ill-gotten profits secured as a result of the abusive domain name registrations.
Cybersquatters register Internet domain names (such as winowslivemessenger.com and www.micr0soft.co.uk) containing not only widely recognized trademarked names and brands but also misspelled variations of them, which often result in tricking unsuspecting computer users and illegally profiting from them through online ad networks.
Screens filled with pay-per-click advertisements greet visitors to these Web sites, which can generate revenue for the registered domain owner and the online ad network.
Microsoft revealed this week that it has reclaimed more than 1,100 infringing domain names worldwide in the past six months.
“These sites confuse visitors who are trying to reach genuine company Web sites, which can negatively affect corporate brands and reputations as well as impair the end-users’ experience online,” explained Aaron Kornblum, senior attorney with Microsoft.
He continued:
“With every ad hyperlink clicked, a registrant or ad network harvests cash at the trademark owner’s expense, while derailing legitimate efforts by computer users who are trying to go to a specific Web site.”
Microsoft is also investigating potential violations of intellectual property law in several other countries.
“We hope that our stance and activity on this issue will help motivate and empower other companies whose brands are abused to take action,” Kornblum concluded.
This follows the publication on Monday of World Intellectual Property Organisation figures which revealed that the number of cybersquatting disputes filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2006 increased by 15% as compared to 2005.
In a related development, the evolution of the domain name registration system is causing growing concern for trademark owners, in particular some of the effects of the use of computer software to automatically register expired domain names and their ‘parking’ on pay-per-click portal sites, the option to register names free-of-charge for a five-day ‘tasting’ period, the proliferation of new registrars, and the establishment of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).
According to WIPO, the combined result of these developments is to create greater opportunities for the mass, often anonymous, registration of domain names without specific consideration of third-party intellectual property rights.
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