Cybersquatting appeared to be a giant problem almost right after domain names became available for everyone to purchase. One of the main problems with cybersquatting is the creation and registration of a domain name that implies being an already existing company, brand, or trademark.

The basic definition of cybersquatting, provided by the online legal glossary www.winston.com, is:

“An unauthorized registration and use of Internet domain names that are identical or similar to trademarks, service marks, company names, or personal names”.

Basically, what it means is someone creates a domain that claims to have an affiliation with a well-known successful trademark, or claims to be that trademark, or contains information about the trademark that is used for sales and making a profit. There are many sides to the definition of cybersquatting and many theories and opinions as to what can be considered a cybersquatting activity. The Harvard Low online page explains this term as explicitly as possible and gives a lot of information about different laws that include cybersquatting in them.

Cybersquatting involves the purchase and registration of domain names that are meant to capitalize on the recognition of famous brands, trademarks, and celebrity names. And of course, people are allowed to put the information about a trademark or celebrity on their domain, but they do not have the right to monetize that information or get any kind of profit from it without the legally recognizable consent of that person or company.

Once any famous person or company that is holding the trademark finds out about someone cybersquatting them, they can stop the cybersquatting. It can be done by filing DRP arbitration through the NAF or WIPO. The DRP is not too expensive and they make their decisions pretty quickly that would make them the first choice. As an option, the company or person can file a lawsuit to try and get the rights to the domain name(s) and be awarded damages. But a lawsuit usually takes too much time to be resolved and is often a very expensive way of litigation.

With all that said, keep in mind that most of the domain name investors are not cybersquatters. Moreover, any domain investor can be insulted if accused of cybersquatting since investing in domain names is a legitimate way of making a profit, while cybersquatting is not.