Stop, Squatter! Agency seeks to halt cybersquatters with dispute resolution rather than litigation

Imagine you launch a business and attempt to register yourproduct's Internet domain name www.mycoolproduct.com. Only youfind out someone has gotten wind of your creation and registeredthe domain first. Adding insult to injury, they want you to buy itfrom them--for thousands more than the usual $70 registrationfee.

It happened to Microsoft with such domains aswww.microsoftoffice.com and www.windows.com. And if it can happento Microsoft, it can certainly happen to you.

Domain speculators, or "cybersquatters," pay therequired $70 to register domain names similar to those ofwell-known or established corporations, and then negotiate a salewith the company. Prices average between $5,000 and $8,000, thoughsome have gone into the millions.

Thus far, this has been an uncharted territory--even to U.S.copyright and trademark law. Network Solutions Inc., an entity withdomain-issuing authority in the United States, can do little tostop it, says Cheryl Regan, the company's senior communicationsmanager. "We really have no ability to curb or stem that,unless they don't pay," Regan says. "Other than that,it's a free market."

Until now. The organizations that control global distributionand sale of the Internet's URL naming system are looking toclamp down on cybersquatters.

Calling squatting an "indefensible activity that should besuppressed," the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) issued proposed guidelines on protecting domain names fromspeculators this April, says Francis Gurry, WIPO's assistantdirector general and legal counsel. Among the protections WIPOproposes:

· Creating international standardsrequiring easy identification of domain-name owner in case ofdispute, and requiring registrars to cancel domain-nameregistrations if owners don't reply to disputes;

· Auniform dispute-resolution policy where domain-name applicantswould be required to submit to a dispute-resolution procedure ifrequested to do so by a third party. The policy is intended toresolve any intellectual property dispute arising out ofdomain-name registrations in cases of bad faith, and abusiveregistration of domain names that violate the rights of protectedtrademarks.

· Incases of abuse, disputes would be argued online, and a specialpanel appointed by the WIPO would order domains be canceled ortransferred to the winning party.

The proposed solution would end a "[the] wasteful diversionof resources that pursuing cybersquatting through litigation hasinvolved," says Gurry, "and would enhance consumerconfidence in the use of the Internet." The guidelines willcome up for a vote at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Namesand Numbers' next meeting this month in Santiago, Chile.

For more information, see http://wipo2.wipo.int or http://www.networksolutions.com/help/general/dispute.html

Contact Source
Network Solutions Inc.
http://www.networksolutions.com

Jeff Zbar is a homebased writer, speaker and author ofHome Office Know-How (Upstart Publishing).