Flying Under the Radar

Conclusion

As cybersquatters evolve and adapt to new opportunities for monetization and exploitation, it is important for brand owners to be one step ahead. Knowing that affiliate fraud provides a lucrative opportunity for cybersquatters and that the practice may gain popularity allows brand owners to take proactive steps to protect their brands.

While there are an endless number of domain names that an Internet user can type into their browser bar while seeking content, only those with the most intuitive brand and product/service combinations and the most common typo mistakes typically receive enough traffic to be of value to their owners. As a result, brands don’t have to worry about enforcing all possible infringements—not only is this not feasible from a monetary and time resource perspective, but it is not necessary for the adequate protection of a brand. Identifying the domains that are the most intuitive to Internet users and the most valuable for fraudsters can help prioritize which domains to register or pursue for recovery. Proper prioritization can only be done through an in-depth understanding of consumer behavior; how infringers select domain names and conduct domain abuse; who the top infringers tend to be; and what avenues are available for recourse. In other words, case-by-case domain analysis by seasoned professionals is the only true way to navigate this space. With such a partnership, brand owners are seeing a drastic reduction in the impact of cybersquatting through targeted domain name reclaim actions resulting in improved efficiency and effectiveness.

Addendum: The data for this study was collected in the beginning of this calendar year and, as we all know, the Internet landscape rapidly changes. As a result, the particular domain names in the data set may not resolve to the same content that they did when the study was first conducted.

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