Cyber Squatting is a Bogus Term! Domain Owners are Inventors!

[LaunchUp.com]

Many UDRP claims are bogus and we need to redefine cyber squatting and stop making people give domainers a bad name. We can't sit and let others define us. I've said before if you own an address in the real world, and someone wants to build their property on that land-- they can't go telling you to give it up or they have the rights to it!!

Intellectual rights go to the domainer. Because it's your work in researching name after name, having creative thought, Sometimes spending your money on software to help you discover names or invent names, or coming up with your ideas and then looking for a name to compliment it. To me registering a good name is like writing poetry or creating art!! It's is your intellectual property. One of the reasons I got into domaining, is for the potential to make money, but I stayed in it because I love coming up with ideas and inventing names..

I not too long ago sold Tripaly.com and I had to put in thought to reg it. Someone came and got a trademark Etc but they still purchased it. That I respect. Starting a business today didn't give them the right to someone's name even if it's a similar word or term. That person had to creatively come up with that name too just like you. And if they own it before your company then get the heck out of here with that udrp.

How can you squat when you own the name. Oh, you are not using it? Or doing anything substantial? Well I got news for you-- It's my address, it's my property.. How the heck can I squat on my own property???????

As long as it's in the city guidelines, I can throw a party, chill, sleep or do what the heck I want. I'm in my house now on the couch!!! I squat sometimes; well i work out. People have the audacity to use squatting. Squatting is when a building is abandoned and people who don't own it.. Try to use it for living or drugs etc.. But I own my property! We own out properties. Stop feeing guilty and put your feet down.

Yes I'm not naive to the fact that some people go and buy "applephone.net" just because they want to make money off the apple name. That is squAtting because Apple is already established and own the rights to their name. But Uber had to buy Uber.com and .org. They can't just come 10 years or even one year later and try to start a company then act like they are being robbed? They had enough respect and business integrity to buy the name and even give equity.
Most of the UDRP fillings need to fail. The term squatting and intellectual rights needs to be redefined.

 

[premkumar]

One More thing, Trademark is for particular field, Let say their can be 2 company with the name Apple one doing business in Tech and another doing business in agriculture or even selling Apples (fruits). Trademark restrict to country as well as company field of business. Example Iphone was trademarked by a local company in brasil and sued Apple for using the name Iphone in brasil.

 

[deez007]

I think that the the actual definition of a cyber squatter is exactly what you say it is above... when someone deliberately buys a domain of an existing established brand and simply "squats" on it until they get a decent offer.

The problem is that to outsiders/non domainers they are unable to actually differentiate the difference between a domain investor and a cyber squatter. I mean let say I owned runningshoes.com and you owned nikeshoes.com to us it's obvious which domain is owned by an investor and which one is owned by a squatter but to a non domainer chances are both of us will be labelled squatters....lol

 

[LaunchUp.com]

I think that the the actual definition of a cyber squatter is exactly what you say it is above... when someone deliberately buys a domain of an existing established brand and simply "squats" on it until they get a decent offer.

The problem is that to outsiders/non domainers they are unable to actually differentiate the difference between a domain investor and a cyber squatter. I mean let say I owned runningshoes.com and you owned nikeshoes.com to use it's obvious which domain is owned by an investor and which one is owned by a squatter but to a non domain chances are both of us will be labelled squatters....lol

True.. Honestly, non domainers just assume you are cyber squatting because you own a name they want.
Also, I'm seeing too much UDRP's filed by people and businesses that have no legal right to the name..

 

[nick3]

I think it's an interesting discussion and I had a conversation with someone because I would like to know what is cyber squatting and what is not. I heard that you are cybersquatting when you buy a domain name and have no association (business, service or product) with the domain and only hold it for someone to pay you for it.. So wouldn't that make us all cybersquatters?
I also heard that a company has the rights to your domain name if they used this name first. So for example, if someone WITHOUT a trademark on this name has a business called NirvanaEye (something random) and you own NirvanaEye.com (registered after this business was started) they have the rights to this domain?

I'm just a newb and would like to know these things before creating a portfolio

Thanks!

 

[Lox]

@deez007 - deliberately buys a domain of an existing established brand and simply "squats" on it until they get a decent offer.
--------
Correct definition!

 

[LaunchUp.com]

I think it's an interesting discussion and I had a conversation with someone because I would like to know what is cyber squatting and what is not. I heard that you are cybersquatting when you buy a domain name and have no association (business, service or product) with the domain and only hold it for someone to pay you for it.. So wouldn't that make us all cybersquatters?
I also heard that a company has the rights to your domain name if they used this name first. So for example, if someone WITHOUT a trademark on this name has a business called NirvanaEye (something random) and you own NirvanaEye.com (registered after this business was started) they have the rights to this domain?

I'm just a newb and would like to know these things before creating a portfolio

Thanks!

1. Yes, it's cybersquatting if a business is already using a name and then you go register that name after or a version of that name. So, you can't go buy amazonly.com, because Amazon is already an established company and has the rights to the name. Like i said above, a work of art is your intellectual and creative rights just as a domain name. But if the art is a replica of another artist work, then not so much right? There are websites too where you can check for trademarks. However, a some names used by companies can be used too. Example, I owned bolt.org(sold last year.) a business was using bolt, facebook had a new app called bolt, there was a bolt movie, the fastest man was bolt, a bus company was boltbus... So some names are generic and can be used by numerous companies. The only catch is the uses have to be different. Facebook and another company couldn't use the same name for a app, especially if the app was similar.
2. No, it's not cybersquatting just because you don't have a business built on the name. Why is realestate a business? people own countless properties the don't live in or use. They wait for a buyer or rent the property. Can you go and say hey, you are not using this apartment or land or garage space, so you are squatting? No right? The Owners had the sense to buy the properties for a deal and invest in them in the hopes to live or to flip. Also, you can't squat on a property that you own. Like dude, why are you laying on your couch...Dude why are you in you house.. Dude why are you throwing a barbecue on your land? Also, domain names are ideas... just like how you write poetry or make art and it's your intellectual property and you have the rights immediately. Example.. I wanted a travel/vacation name.. and I thought about it and brainstormed and researched and finally came up with "HappyEscape.com". I've got offers on it from startups..who decided to use a similar name.. some are using it in other extensions.That this is not just registering a name.. it's inventing a name from an idea and then checking for it's availability. It's an invention, it's an idea, it's intellectual property. The domain community need to define this business better. It's phony for someone to come years later and talk about cybersuatting. Obviously somebody had the idea before you. They had the property before you.

 

[Lox]

That this is not just registering a name.. it's inventing a name from an idea

& Pulling an idea out of a dream into reality + Vision of Prosperity.

 

[nick3]

1. Yes, it's cybersquatting if a business is already using a name and then you go register that name after or a version of that name. So, you can't go buy amazonly.com, because Amazon is already an established company and has the rights to the name.

But Amazon has a trademark, what if Amazon didn't have a trademark? I mean if they were a small start up or something like that, would it still be illegal to register amazon.com?

 

[todaygold]

I'm not sure how this thread from last year got brought up...but I will say, everyone compares owning a domain to owning land...which in a lot of ways is true, but in a lot of ways is not.

First, in actual real estate you will find prices of land/homes to be incredibly similar for a given neighborhood. That is, if you look at any real estate catalog or website, two pieces of similar land in the same neighborhood will be pretty close in price. That is because no real estate agent is going to list something they know won't sell or is a ridiculous price. But that's not the case with domains, where the owner of 'runningshoe' for example, may list it for $500 on 1 market site. The owner of 'runningshoeS' may list their domain for $50,000 on the same site. To most people outside the domain industry, this is like price gouging or asking an insane price for no reason. In real estate, something like that doesn't usually happen.

Second, people say that if you own land you have the right to own it for no reason and go camping there or whatever and argue that's the same with owning a domain...you should have the right to just own it and do nothing with it. The thing is, with land there is no business connection. If I want to build my business on your land and you say 'it's not for sale' or ask a crazy price...no major harm done. I just go look for a different piece of property. But with domain names, I can't really do that. If I own the company 'Ace Plus Heating' and you own 'AcePlus' or 'AcePlusHeating' and you decide to put a porn site on it, that has a direct effect on my business. Not saying you should have to give it up, but a domain name that can contain a companies name is a bit different than a piece of land that has no connection to a business unless they actually develop on it.

Third, as far as UDRP's and trademarks...this is a tricky issue as well. Let's say there are a dozen companies with a trademark with the name 'Ace Plus' (such as Ace Plus heating and cooling, Ace Plus Automotive, Ace Plus real estate, etc.)...and I own 'AcePlus'. Now what? Does one of them have supreme rights to my domain because they have a trademark? OR, what if there are two companies that both have a trademark on 'Ace Plus Heating'...but one is in the U.S. and one is in Switzerland or whatever...and I own 'AcePlusHeating'...Does one of them have the right to file a UDRP on me? Which one?

 

[todaygold]

But Amazon has a trademark, what if Amazon didn't have a trademark? I mean if they were a small start up or something like that, would it still be illegal to register amazon.com?

Even with the trademark, if Amazon.com was available to register, you could register it and build a website about the Amazon rainforest. Amazon has a trademark, but they don't own the word...Amazon was a word in the dictionary long before Amazon.com came around.
As far as your question, you don't have to register just to have a trademark. If you are selling goods or services under a brand name, you basically have an 'unregistered' trademark. But as far as registering that name it would depend.
If I started the company 'Orange Flooring' and you registered orange.com, no problem because Orange is an everyday word and can be used for a lot of things. However, if I started a company called 'Frelmnder'...a word that doesn't actually exist and you registered it, then you would probably have an issue, because there is no legit use for the domain other than for my company. Of course these are hypotheticals, there are tons of things that need to be looked at in any actual case, so it's hard to give exact answers to a general question like this.

 

[nick3]

There are so many trademarks violated if this is true. I see so many weird names only purchased for reselling (and relevant for 1 company), but probably the legal costs are high to recover a domain?

 

[korganian]

Cybersquatting
When a person other than the owner of a well-known trademark registers that trademark as an Internet domain name and then attempts to profit from it either by ransoming the domain name back to the trademark owner or by using the domain name to divert business from the trademark owner to the owner of the domain name.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/cybersquatting

 

[todaygold]

Cybersquatting
When a person other than the owner of a well-known trademark registers that trademark as an Internet domain name and then attempts to profit from it either by ransoming the domain name back to the trademark owner or by using the domain name to divert business from the trademark owner to the owner of the domain name.

Kind of a basic definition. If I may add, this may be helpful, it discusses the idea of cybersquatting in a bit more detail: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

 

[Steven McEvoy]

Is it cybersquatting/illegal, if you just buy a trademark domain just to have it redirected to one of your websites?