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.

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.”

The small business owner is angry that Microsoft took him to court. He says that he would have been willing to hand the names over to Redmond with a simple cease-and-desist letter. But according to Tim Cranton, associate general counsel for Microsoft:

For this particular defendant, there is a well-established history – including 12 lawsuits we’re aware of – of typosquatting to this degree.

In 2009, the unapologetic typosquatter lost an uncontested lawsuit filed by Dell Computer for willful trademark infringement. The judge awarded the American PC giant $130,000.

It seems as though Temmes will never give up on cybersquatting. He has done it before, is doing it now, and will likely do it again. Often times I find myself on the side of defendants in intellectual property disputes, but this guy deserves whatever is coming to him. Eat him alive, Microsoft.

Source | Seattlepi.com
Photo | simonok

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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