Microsoft Sues New Breed of Cybersquatters
Microsoft filed 3 suits against alleged cybersquatters and “typosquatters” as part of a 3-pronged campaign to end the practices, it said Tues. A new wave of cybersquatter trading on recent growth in online ads is profiting from common errors in spelling Microsoft-related domain names. In one suit, the software giant said it aims to use subpoenas to identify 217 “John Doe” URL registrants masking their names via privacy protection services, and in doing so reveal how profitable the practice has become. The suits claim violations of federal and state law.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The company sued in federal courts in Salt Lake City, L.A. and Seattle. The first complaint alleges Jason Cox of N.M. and Daniel Goggins and John Jonas of Utah registered 300-plus domain names similar to Microsoft trademarks. The 2nd alleges that Dan Brown of Cal. registered 85 URLs targeting the company. The 3rd pursues the “John Does.” Microsoft Internet safety enforcement attorney Aaron Kornblum said that “could be one person who registered all 217, could be 217 individuals, but is probably” in between. The profit made by individuals accused of cybersquatting is “something we hope to learn a lot about,” he said.
Unlike “traditional cybersquatters,” the new wave use URLs to sell ads, he said. With URLs like gamesonxbox.com, or xboxx360.com, site operators hope to capitalize on browsers’ mistakes and sell ads for related, perhaps competing products and services, he added. “Time was, squatters used the ransom model,” he said, buying variants on a product name or other mark and selling them to the company. That was outlawed by the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, he said. Microsoft’s new campaign seeks to make clear the new practice’s illegality.
Microsoft also will be pursuing cybersquatters who use online auctions to sell URLs that draw high traffic volumes, Kornblum said.
A federal appeals court ruled last year for satirist Christopher Lamparello, accused by evangelist Jerry Falwell of infringing trademark by using fallwell.com (WID Aug 26/05 p3). After a battle that saw both sides win short-term victories (WID Aug 12/04 p2), the Supreme Court declined to hear the case (WID April 18 p5), giving Lamparello and other satirists and activists the victory. But the main factor in that case was Lamparello’s nonprofit status and the near impossibility that any visitors would believe they were visiting Falwell’s real site.