Domain Name Disputes and the Rising Threat of Cybersquatters

Abstract

In recent decades, the world has been taken over by the internet, giving rise to digital age menaces. The Internet is now being used for commercial purposes in recent years; this has led to the transformation in the businesses. With the changing trends of marketing and a paradigm shift of physical marketplace to e-commerce, many companies have been successful in their business and commerce positioning services online.3 As cyberspace takes over the businesses, the importance of domain names and trademark law increases. A domain name refers to a computer address by which a company or an individual can be located by any other internet users.4 The main aim to pose domain names is to distinguish and locate the different computers, users, files, and resources accessible over the Internet.5 In usual practice, the companies are inclined to choose domain names which are easy to memorize, everyday words and well- known trademarks by their consumers. The problem arises when two or more people claim the same name, which is forbidden under trademark law. Trademark law has often been referred to as it restricts the use of already registered trademarks because it tends to confuse a potential customer about the profile and true seller of the product or service involved. The same has been invoked to resolve disputes between computer users that obtain Internet domain names and the owners of the registered trademarks.6 There are various negative consequences of the transition to cyberspace in the form of trademark issues such as cyber-squatting, typo- squatting, mega tagging, renewal snatching etc.