Microsoft goes after cybersquatters

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 14 March 2007 14:07

Your IT - Home IT

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) this week issued a statement warning that the use of computer software to automatically register expired domain names and their 'parking' on pay-per-click portal sites, the option to register names free-of-charge for a five-day 'tasting' period, the proliferation of new registrars, and the establishment of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) were combining to create greater opportunities for the mass, often anonymous, registration of domain names threatening the interests of trademark owners and cause consumer confusion.

Domain name tasting is a practice in which a person or entity (who may be affiliated with a registrar) registers a domain name for a five-day grace period without payment of the registration fee, and parks it on a pay-per-click website monitored for revenue. After expiry of the grace period, the name is dropped or re-registered by a new registrant. Only those domain names generating significant traffic are permanently registered. As a result of computer applications, tens of millions of domain names are temporarily registered on this basis each month, WIPO says.

"Practices such as 'domain name tasting' risk turning the domain name system into a mostly speculative market. Domain names used to be primarily specific identifiers of businesses and other Internet users, but many names nowadays are mere commodities for speculative gain," said Mr Francis Gurry, WIPO deputy director general, who oversees WIPO's dispute resolution work. "The rate at which domain names change hands and the difficulty to track such mass automated registrations challenge trademark owners in their pursuit of cybersquatters," he said.

He called for policy to be reviewed to remedy the situation.