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What is Domain Squatting? Is it illegal? Have you ever done it?



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What is Domain Squatting? Is it illegal? Have you ever done it?

I'm seeing more and more in IT news sites about domain squatting or "cyber squatting" today where people are registering a domain name that is similar to the original and then basically benefiting from that in a monetary way. This has actually been going on since the mid 90's but appears to be getting more and more rife today as people attempt to find ways to "piggy back" off of someone else's success.

Other forms of cyber squatting involve registering domain names that look very similar to the original domain name or trade-mark and is called "typo squatting". And the other form is when cyber squatters try to register a domain name the original owners had forgotten to re-register before it expires who then go on to try and sell it back to the original owners for very large figure because they know the original owners need it to run their business.

Have you ever had one of your domains squatted on or had someone do typo squatting on your domain name? If so, how did you or how can you deal with it?

If it happens to you, how can you reclaim a squatted domain?

Thanks!

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Beverly
There are laws in some places against cybersquatting if the purpose is to buy a domain that is identical or similar to a company name and then sit on that name until it can be ransomed by the owner. This happens often with celebrity names and it can be difficult to litigate due to jurisdictional issues.

Just basically if you're using a name that in any way belongs to a company, you are going to end up in court over it. They might not own the domain name but they do have rights to exclusive use of that name.

Even similar names can land a person in hot water, as
MikeRoweSoft - sad but true, Microsoft actually went after a highschool kid for his similar domain name. Big companies do not play around with their property
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else

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Everett
What's funny is that my legal name is very close to a basketball player, and a company that sell pajamas. I wonder if I somehow was able to buy a domain with my legal name in it, if these two parties could try to take me to court saying I am infringing upon copyrights, or because my name is too close to a pajama business name.

If that were to occur I would actually go to court, since It's completely legal for me to have this website name as my legal name, right? Maybe not. However, I wouldn't use the domain name to squat, or anything. I'll just make it a blog or website showcasing my work or history.



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Lynne
LOL I would say if it is your name you can use it, nobody can sue you for using your name as a domain name. That would be an interesting case.



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Corzhens
This is the first time that I have encountered the term domain squatting and from the way you explained, the domain is bought only to stagnate and later on sell for a higher value. That happened to my husband when he assisted a celebrity in creating a website. They were surprised that someone already owned the site that equals the name of the celebrity. When they contacted the owner, he replied once but did not reply anymore. Maybe they should have offered to buy the domain name?



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