Corporate Cybersquatting what is it?

First of all, cybersquatting can be split into three categories: "catchall" typosquatting, reverse domain hijacking and DNS wildcards. We can now examine each case in greater detail.

"Catchall" typosquatting: Typosquatting is the acquisition of a domain name that resembles that of a popular website, with intent of selling it to the victim website thus making a profit. More and more corporate companies are employing this Black Hat SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) technique in order to make a profit. This entails taking advantage of their visitors’ typos by redirecting them to the intended web page instead of displaying an error. Companies that are rumoured to use this technique include Microsoft, Paxfire, Verizon and Charter Communications.

Reverse Domain Hijacking: This is an illegal strategy employed by large corporate companies which entails them accusing the legal owner of a domain name which includes a phrase that is normally associated with their company but is not trademarked. A famous example of this is the attempt of German television channel Deutsche Welle to acquire the domain name "dw.com" from Diamond Ware, a software company. The case was dismissed as reverse domain hijacking in 2001. Another highly regarded case is the Nissan vs. Nissan case of 2002. Uzi Nissan’s company NCC (Nissan Computer Company) has been the legal owner of the domain name "Nissan.com" since 1994. In 2002, the Japanese car company of the same name accused Uzi Nissan of using their brand name to trick internet users into visiting his website, i.e. cybersquatting. Uzi Nissan used the power of the internet in order to bring the media into the case and as a result he is the rightful owner of "Nissan.com" to this day.

DNS Wildcards: DNS stands for Domain Name System. This technique is similar to "catchall" typosquatting, the difference being that the visitor is redirected to a non-existent webpage or one with an unregistered domain name. The .cm registry of Cameroon has been accused of employing this illegal technique by redirecting misspelled .com addresses to a page full of advertisements instead of returning an error, thus making an illegal profit. Another example is VeriSign’s Site Finder which redirected traffic to unregistered domains. This caused a lot of complaints to be made and as a result the service was disabled soon after.

As cybersquatting cases get more and more press coverage, so did public awareness. This called for the creation of a legal body which cybersquatting victims can turn to. The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) was enacted in 1999 and it enables victims of cybersquatting to take legal action. As a result we see more and more cases of cybersquatting and similar rogue techniques being settled in court.

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