Microsoft Increasing Pursuit of Growing Problem of Cybersquatting and Deceptive Domain Names

One continuing headache for companies and webmasters on the Internet is the matter of finding a good domain name, the .com, .net or other name by which the website is called in Internet language, and which is used to direct a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox to display the web content. Many of the "good" names are taken by others who want to use them, and many are also taken by companies who simply want to sell them at a premium.

An additional problem has arisen, even for those who do find a domain name for their site. Popular sites are being plagued by similar domain names being registered, variations on and misspellings of the proper site name. One of the earlier, and most notable ones was the establishment of whitehouse.com, a pornography site, as a trap into which those who meant to type whitehouse.gov, the website of the executive branch of the US government, would fall. Sites similar to gogle.com, or a foreign registration of a site which has not yet "gone global" in that country might be other examples.

While many people are frustrated by "cybersquatters" who are taking advantage of the domain name registration system, Microsoft has decided that it is time to take action against them, especially those whose website names infringe upon or are deceptively similar to their trademarked names, such as Xbox.

According to the BBC, Microsoft is pursuing hundreds of cases through legal channels in the US, and is now expanding to Europe, including five companies in the UK. A company called "Dyslexic Domain Company" paid 25 thousand pounds to Microsoft in addition to relinquishing the offending name late last year, a first for Microsoft. The company had 6,000 names registered, according to the BBC.

Although the BBC reports that Microsoft has prevailed in over 1,000 cases, the company says that an average of 2,000 names in infringing categories are registered each day. They are urging other trademark holders to come out and join the fight, and are looking to have loopholes and policies which allow or encourage speculation addressed by the governing bodies.