Domain Glossary – Typosquatting

Posted December 22nd, 2008

Welcome to the domain glossary, a quick reference for domain terms.

Joining us as the author of our first entry is attorney Daniel Greenberg.

 Click the jump to learn more about Typosquatting and how it works:

 

DOMAIN NAMES MISSING THE POINT


Typosquatting has moved to centre stage in the domain name industry. Typosquatting is the practice of registering domain names that are misspellings or likely typographical errors of heavily trafficked sites or well-known trade marks. These domain names are then used to generate pay per click revenue, through an affiliate marketing website, from internet surfers who accidentally mistype a domain name.

Affiliate marketing is a performance based internet marketing program in which affiliates are paid for sending customers or traffic to a website. Affiliate programs are driven by affiliate marketing software which tracks and logs commission for promoting the partner’s website.

So is there in money in typosquatting? Yes and plenty of it. So how does it work?

Step 1: register a domain name that is a misspelling of trade mark (e.g. mersedesbenz.com).
Step 2: sign-up to an affiliate marketing program.
Step 3: direct the domain name to a webpage part of the affiliate marketing program, which generates advertising based on targeted keywords.
Step 4: wait for the misspelling and confusion to begin.

The average click earns approximately $0.05 for the domain name registrant, assume a site receives 100 clicks a day that equates to $150 per month or $1800 a year. If the registrant has a portfolio of 100 similar domain names it would generate $180 000 a year. Some typosquatting sites can generate over a 1 000 clicks a day. All the revenue is derived from infringing upon a trade mark by relying on the confusion caused from a common misspelling.

In order to establish whether a trade mark has fallen victim to typosquatting it is advisable to conduct a domain name audit and to implement a watch service to assist in identifying potential infringements.

The most successful form of typosquatting is the use of the prefix “www” (World Wide Web) as part of a domain. This type of registration relies on the Internet user omitting the point (period or full stop) between “www” and the domain name.


Over the years the National Arbitration Forum has decided over 270 UDRP complaints involving domain names that had incorporated the prefix “www”. This form of infringement is increasing and trade marks owners should consider the defensive measure of registering all their valuable or well-known trade marks with the prefix “www” as part of the domain name.

 

Daniel Greenberg, is a South African Attorney, UK Solicitor and a director of the domain name management company Lexsynergy Limited. He is a co-author of Cyberlaw@SAII contributing the chapter on Trade Marks, Domain Names and Meta Tags. He has also published numerous articles relating to intellectual property in Sweet & Maxwell’s European Intellectual Property Review, Your Business Franchise Magazine and Computer Patent Annuities (CPA) monthly magazine. His business interests are now focused primarily on domain names, including portfolio management, administration, litigation and watch services.

 

 

 

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Posted in Domain Glossary, Internet Security, Know Your Domains by Daniel Greenburg