Cybersquatting Thrives for Lack of a Strong Deterrent
Introduction
Download the Full ArticleCybersquatting, the bad-faith registration of a domain name that includes or is confusingly similar to a trademark, is damaging to the stability of the Internet and harmful to members of the Internet community.
If there is any doubt as to the impact of cybersquatting on brand owners, one only has to look at the numbers. A good way to value the cost of cybersquatting is to assess the value of lost impressions. Consider the impact of cybersquatting on the well-known social networking site “MySpace.com.” This hugely popular Web site may collect millions of advertising dollars per day in the near future because its pages are prime real estate visited by millions daily. Now consider that the misspelling “Mypsace.com” receives more than 300,000 visitors per month. Ideally, MySpace would own this name and would reroute Web traffic to its intended destination, providing Internet users with their desired content and MySpace with profit. Instead, a third party owns Mypsace.com, and earns referral fees when visitors click ads on their adult-oriented Web site. In other words, the domain owner and the ad sellers that set up advertisements on Mypsace.com are siphoning potentially positive impressions and user experiences – as well as money – from MySpace.
What is the opportunity cost to MySpace? Taking a conservative number like 10 cents per impression and multiplying it by the annualized number of visitors, the value of lost opportunities for this one domain name is just under $400,000 per year.
For companies that rely on product sales and the continued trust of their customers, the losses would be even greater. With the growing assault of cybersquatters on brand owners and their customers, it is time for brand owners to go on the offensive to protect their businesses and consumers by effectively making use of the best options available to them.
