www.heythatsmymark.com

It is a gross understatement to say that the Internet has revolutionized the way in which we live, from how we communicte to how we work. It has also made it a lot easier for people to infringe on other people's marks.

The first real wave of infringement that was recognized was when people would buy well-known marks as domain names and then sit on them waiting for the owner to pay them handsomely for the right to have their trademark in a domain name. This is known as 'cybersquatting'. A cousin is 'typosquatting' where the user relies on people's typos to find other versions of a trademark name and send them to a competitor's website.

Congress acted relatively quickly to make cybersquatting a civil offense by enacting the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which took effect in November 1999. Under the ACCPA, companies and individuals may bring a civil action against an alleged cybersquatter, but must prove, among other things, that the person who registered the domain name did so with a bad faith intent to profit from that registration.

Since its enactment, the ACCPA has been used numerous times by companies and individuals intent on reclaiming their intellectual property from squatters. But, are there other ways to protect your mark when it has been appropriated by a cybersquatter? As it turns out, yes.

ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - has established uniform policies for domain name dispute resolution and certifies several organizations to handle domain name disputes of certin top level domains (TDLs), including WIPO. Other domains may have to be handled by the regional registrar. For example, domain names ending in .uk can only be resolved through Nominet UK, the registrar.

Domain name dispute resolution can offer a less expensive method of obtaining a good resolution, namely the transfer of the domain name to you. You may not be able to obtain damages or other relief like you would in litigation, but it can get the most valuable asset - the domain name - out of the hands of the infringers and back to you as quickly as possible.

image: Rosewithan (through Creative Commons, some rights reserved)
All text © 2008, Hardy, Carey, Chautin & Balkin, LLP. All Rights Reserved.