Microsoft obtains patent for "Cybersquatter Patrol"

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Microsoft a patent today for an investigative tool called “Cybersquatter Patrol.” The tool is designed to generate lists of typosquatting and cybersquatting domains, then figure out who owns them and how the domains generate revenue.

This isn’t the company’s first foray into the anti-cybersquatting world. It released an add-on for Internet Explorer in 2005 called Typo-Patrol that blocks domain typos.

According to Microsoft, some 40% to 70% of typo domains are parked with six top domain parking services. Going after thousands of domain owners to enforce a trademark is very difficult, but going after a handful of advertising companies isn’t. Some day, the domain parking services will likely feel Microsoft’s building wrath.

Serial cybersquatter refuses to give up

Meet Alf Temme. His portfolio of more than one thousand trademark-violating typo domains has landed him numerous lawsuits over the years from a range of companies. These include Dell, Air France, and America Online. He admits to being a typosquatter, using names like d3ell.com to sell exercise machines on his website. Now Microsoft is going after Temme, and once again, he refuses to give up.

The Redmond company initially sued Temme last month for trademark violation. A number of his domains, including ho0tmail.com and hot5mail.com, are allegedly confusing users of Microsoft services. The firm originally asked for $2.4 million, but has now offered to settle for $500,000. Despite admitting to violating the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Temme sees nothing wrong with his actions. “OK, so I did a naughty, right?” he said. “But a punishment that’s the same as the death penalty? That’s ridiculous.”
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Google may be benefiting from typosquatting

A recent study conducted by researchers at Harvard reveals that Google may be earning as much as $500 million a year from typosquatting. How could this be so?

Recall that typosquatting is the registration of misspelled domaina to siphon traffic from more popular websites. The study tracked the 3264 most popular websites and found that each one had an average of 280 typosquatting domains.

While Google itself doesn’t own any of these names, the registrants often display Google AdSense advertisements on the typo-names. The researchers behind the study suggest that as many as 60% of these rogue sites display the Mountain View company’s ads, so Google is indirectly benefiting from trademark infringement.

Travelocity victorious in domain dispute

Universally-recognized travel site Travelocity.com won a dispute this week filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain tavelocity.com. The company famous for its gnone claimed the name was confusingly similar to its own brand and won the case.

In the domain industry, registering a name like tavelocity.com is known as typosquatting. People who register common misspellings of trademarks are hoping to cash-in on users who haven’t honed their typing skills. While less common now than in the past, it is still very prevalent. However, trademark owners are increasingly cracking down on these type of registrations.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

AOL wins domain dispute

American web media giant and ISP AOL has won a dispute at the National Arbitration Forum over the domain 4ngadget.com. AOL claimed the name violated the trademark of its gadget blog Engadget.

At first glance, but two may not seem confusingly similar, but because “4″ is located right next to “e” on most keyboards, some visitors to Engadget probably ended up at 4ngadget.com by mistake. AOL asserts that because the registrant displayed PPC advertisements on the site, he or she was essentially profiting from typo-prone Engadget users . This is commonly known as typosquatting.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

Premium .cm names sell at auction for big bucks

It hasn’t even been two months since Cameroon made its .cm domain available for public registration, but premium versions of the extension are selling like wildfire.

The biggest sales so far have been Hotels.cm and Sex.cm for £50,097 ($81,000 USD) and £31,542 ($51,000 USD) respectively. Other notable sales include:

taobao.cm- $35,100

mail.cm- $30,100

porn.cm- $23,050

coupons.cm- $20,100

free.cm- $17,800

pornhub.cm- $15,100

creditreport.cm- $11,100

insurance.cm- $10,200

youporn.cm- $10,100

lawyers.cm- $10,008

domain.cm- $9,580

These names are not necessarily selling as investments, but instead to make money through typosquatting. Hotels.cm, for instance, is a common typo for the popular hotel booking website Hotels.com. No doubt Cameroon is making quite a bit of money from these sales.

Source | The Domains

WIPO Orders Transfer of Two Domains to Wikipedia

Yes, anyone can edit Wikipedia. Anyone can theoretically add their input into the participatory encyclopedia that has been both lauded and shunned, depending on who you ask. With 262 languages and hundreds of thousands of articles, nearly everyone has access to it. But not everyone can be Wikipedia, as Kevo Ouz also called Online Marketing Realty, has discovered.

According to the documentation of the case, the respondent registered wikipeadia.com and wikipediia.com in an effort to capitalize on inevitable typos. The practice has become a common sub-hobby within cybersquatting called typosquatting. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. owns the trademark Wikipedia, and it is clear to anyone who can read that the two domains are confusingly similar. It actually took me a few seconds before I could even see the difference. The foundation owns both wikipedia.org and wikipedia.com.

The respondent did not bother to even respond to the case, and the WIPO ruled that the respondent had registered the domains in bad faith. He even went as far as putting the Wikipedia logo on the fake websites and then linking to commercial sites for pay-per-click revenue. The respondent also has a pattern of similar offenses against other trademarks, including such ingenious concoctions as appl-e.com, aple.com, newyorktime.us, and wwwworldcupsoccer.com. He should at least get points for creativity.

Source: WIPO
Photo: Flickr

Should falsifying domain contact information be illegal?

Few Americans know that it is in fact illegal to to falsify personal details when registering a domain. With the enacting of the Truth in Domain Names Act in 2003, it became a crime to “knowingly and with the intent to defraud” provide false contact information to a domain registrar. Offenders are punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or fines.

The law was enacted with the goal of protecting Internet users and to fight child pornography online. To help support their case, the bill’s sponsors gave the example of John Zuccarini, a notorious typosquatter who faced several lawsuits for his cyber crime. However, those behind the lawsuits were unsure if the name– obtained from the WHOIS database– was even accurate.

A number of organizations, including the ACLU, have criticized the law for being over ambiguous and violating civil liberties, most notably the right to privacy. While I think it is important to keep the Internet honest, I don’t see how this law is doing much good. It does nothing to impose regulation at the registrar level and is designed to be enforced after the fact. As in the case of Zuccarini, even if false contact data is provided, how can the authorities track down the real registrant?

According to one estimate, 10% of all domain registrations are under false names. That seems like an awfully high number. My guess is most of these people do not know about WHOIS privacy services and are simply trying to protect their identities. Perhaps this situation would be better handled by registrars. A much more effective deterrent would be to force registrars to verify domain contact data and then purge registrations if the details do not match up. But of course, nothing will ever be that easy.

Sources | JCIL & iBLIS

.CM domain is a hot target for cybersquatters

Experts are warning that the country domains for the Republic of Cameroon are easy targets for cybersquatters wishing to cash in on typos. This form of cybersquatting, which is developing its own name: typosquatting, takes place when someone registers a domain spelled similarly to another popular domain so that people who mistype it are sent to the wrong site, often laced with ads or, even worse, malware.

With the .CM top-level domains, it is easier than ever. Someone who intends to type Amazon.com need only miss one letter, the “o” in .com. According to the experts, “google.cm” receives up to 20,000 his per day, which means a good amount of traffic is being diverted to the incorrect site. This can be damaging for businesses and even dangerous for users.

“It’s a trick-to-click model. They’re trying to trick people into thinking they’re at a legitimate site,” said Enrico Schaefer, founding attorney of Traverse Legal, based in Traverse City, Mich., which specializes in Internet law and online brand protection. “Most companies do not have a clue that this cybersquatting or typosquatting is going on. But they are becoming more aware of it all the time.”

Source: Legal Technology
Photo: Wikipedia

Comcast's typosquatting is a "service"

Comcast has announced a new “service” in which customers who type in a domain name incorrectly are redirected to a “help page” that happens to also contain ads. It will be on by default for Comcast customers, although they are offering an opt-out setting for customers who do not want to be redirected. This new addition is called “Domain Name Helper Service” and is being tested in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

Comcast claims to have done research on the issue and has submitted a white paper arguing that it is a “best practice” to redirect the confused masses to the appropriate guidance, which includes their paid advertisements. But already the domain world is buzzing that Comcast is the latest ISP to institute typosquatting, the practice of doing just that, redirecting mistype domains to advertisements.

When an individual capitalizes off of typos, they are ostracized and possibly even face litigation. When a major corporation does it, they are considered innovative and benevolent for offering a “service” to their customers, the hapless dolts who cannot correct their own domain name typos. Just as soon as you finish clicking Comcast ads after typing in gooooogle.com, a tiny balloon pops up to remind you that you that you have unused icons on your desktop. Welcome to the 21st century.

Photo: Flickr