by Playfuls Staff |
23rd August 2006
Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it has filed two lawsuits against so-called "cybersquatters" or "typosquatters" who use the company's product names to profit illegally from online advertising.[more]
CyberSquatters, or online miscreants who allegedly earn illegal profits from thousands of Web sites, which infringe on a company’s trademarked name, are now being taken to court by Microsoft.
Aaron Kornblum, the company's Internet Safety Enforcement attorney, said in an official statement, “Microsoft has witnessed a virtual land rush for Internet domain names with the goal of driving traffic for profit. With each click, revenue is generated for both the advertising network and the person who owns the site. We found hundreds of infringing domains that do this, and we've whittled down the list to 217 domains that were most egregiously infringing [on Microsoft trademarks]".
The company's director of operations for its internet identity, Rod Rasmussen, monitors the use of Microsoft terms online. He said that more than 2,000 addresses a day are registered using Microsoft related terms, and that 75% of those are owned by professional domain name holding businesses.
The company is taking action against three people it believes are conducting a business in trade mark violating domain names. One suit alleges that Jason Cox of Albuquerque, Daniel Goggins of Provo, Utah and John Jonas of Springville, Utah registered 324 domain names targeting Microsoft. That suit has been filed with the US District Court of Utah.
The Redmond software giant has taken up legal actions against cybersquatters who use the misspelled domain tactic to "illegally profit through the misuse of Microsoft's intellectual property" using the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of 1999. This is a law that calls for a fine of up to $100,000 for anyone who registers a domain name that is identical, similar or derived from an existing trademark with an intent to profit.
In a separate lawsuit (filed in California), Dan Brown, of Long Beach, Calif, is alleged to have registered 85 domain names that directly target Microsoft via a firm called Partner IV Holdings.
On the other hand, Danny Sullivan, a Web search industry analyst, said this:
Going after people with a domain name is no big deal. If Microsoft did go after someone like Google or Yahoo and said 'We're going to sue you because you are not being responsible enough for keeping that stuff out of there,' that's more going to the source."
Yahoo spokeswoman Kristen Wareham said her company has a rigid set of guidelines to deter trademark abuse of domain names or terms used by advertisers. It does not accept obvious typos of brand names, such as www.didney.com, or references to illegal activities, celebrities or libelous content, she said.
Google spokesman Brandon McCormick said Google's AdSense for Domains programs allows owners of large numbers of inactive Web site domains to display ads and links on Web pages. It does not intervene directly in disputes between domain owners and trademark holders, but Google will respond when trademark owners file complaints to the company on infringing domains.
Microsoft stated it is still unclear who is responsible for policing intellectual property on the Web and it hopes to gather more information from advertising service providers about the profits these illegal domain registers are making.
"We're not 100 percent certain which ad services these pages are using. That's one of the things we intend to learn through our litigation," Microsoft's Kornblum said.
In addition, Microsoft also is working to shut down online auctions that resell website domain names that contain its trademarks, he added. "In the past, we have done some irregular requests to online auction companies to take these down, but we'll be doing this more systematically for auctions [now]," Kornblum said.
