Big Typosquatter to Sue Little Typosquatters

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/307172_msftsquatters13.html

Nobody is a fan of deliberate, malicious "Cybersquatting".  It's hard to beleive, but today in 2007 there are people who get up each morning and deliberately seek out Trademark intent domain names.  I place these folks in an entirely seperate bucket from large commercial registrants who accidentally pick up a few typographical variants of a marks as domain names (via automated / list-purchase) and don't know they have them.  It comes down to the intent.

So this morning when I read that Microsoft is planning a new round of lawsuits against "Cybersquatters" I had to shake my head..  You see Microsoft (as I and several others have pointed out) gets a boatload of Internet traffic for its web-properties from typos of other companies brands by taking over incorrect typo error searches in its browser and hijacking those visitors over to its sites. Typosquatting. They could easily stop it by running their Strider Typopatrol software against searches to their network...  but they don't. That would take away too much of "their" traffic I suppose.

As Microsoft brings this next round of lawsuits,  I don't pity the true Cybersquatters so much (most of whom are based in non-us/asian countries where typosquatting is not viewed with disdain or as a crime)  rather,  I pity the big and little guys who manage large portfolios of generic names and have a handful of Typos that generate little traffic. They are not really aware these problems lie in their system (non-malicious automated purchases).  It would be a pity to see these sorts of folks made an example of while one of the biggest and worst Cybersquatters roams free and continues to operate with impugnity.

I actually like Microsoft products and think the company has done some good things, so please do not interpret this as unabashed MSFT bashing.  Not my intention.

Comments

[Steven]

Frank ,
I just wanted to give you the heads up and let you know that IAB.net is going to be trying to acquire IAB.com as well. I was trying to represent them in the auction and they informed me they were already in the auction and planning to win the name.

Steven

***FS*** I hardly ever bid on random three letters.. I have bought them as part of portfolio acquisitions but don't seek them out. We do go for names like FAQ.net and AWD.com where they are acronyms for longer generic things.

[Derek P]

This brings up another very interesting potential scenario. Let's say, as an end user, I register 'XboxToPc.com' with plans to develop into a site giving users advice on how to connect their Xbox 360 to their PC (side note: there's a lot of advantage in doing so btw, it has been out for 18 months and already does everything Jobs is saying AppleTV will do).

I grab the name but aren't ready to start developing it yet. In the meantime, GoDadddy, Enom, whoever have it pointing to their default parking page hoping to make a few clicks on the back of my domain naivety. Microsoft come along and see parking PPC ads with no content on an 'Xbox' domain and fire off of a lawsuit to the name owner ... OUCH.
The name owner would probably come out ok in the end, but after what amount of stress and potential legal bills?

***FS*** Again.. excellent point. Typosquatting is not always black and white but shades of gray

[Adam]

Why seperate these large commercial registrants you refer to ? If anything they have greater resources available to clean up their portfolios and should have a greater responsibility to their investors/shareholders to be running a clean ship.

If you were an investor wouldn't you find it irresponsible of a large organization (or even an individual) to not have a grip on this? Admitting you don't know about a blatant MS typo in your portfolio because you bought in bulk (tasting or portfolio acquisitions or whatever reason) or feigning ignorance says you either don't know how to run your domain based business (which I doubt) or you're just plain irresponsible or you simply don't care. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Yes it comes down to intent and the intent of everyone involved in this is to make money just as it is with MS. Put them all in the same bucket Frank.

***FS*** Very good point Adam.. Bold question. Well I come back around and say you have a company with 50 microsoft related typos generating 100 uniques a day on average (2 unique a day) and you got those typos in a portfolio of 400,000 names generating say a million unique a day.. you got them by acquiring large blocks of names and they don't jump out at you. My point is: Its clearly not the intent of these folks to go after Microsoft. Compare that inequity to Microsoft who can clearly see that the vast 'majority' of all traffic entering their system is for 'other sites' or 'trademark variants' its just a huge dichotomy. Its kind of like the difference between going 2 miles over the speed limit on an open road or driving 100 miles an hour through a school zone. Both are wrong in the eyes of the law but the intent/malice is different. Those of us who drive, all speed or fail to signal or fail to come to full-stop.. everyday.. That doesn't mean we should loose our license. Hope this helps you see into my thought process.