If you own a trademark and find that someone is holding it hostage as a domain name until you pay a large sum for it, you may be the victim of cybersquatting.

Cybersquatting became popular prior to business becoming aware of the possibilities of the commercialization of the internet.

Selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark, that is cybersquatting. For the most part cybersquating is when someone buys up common domain names with the intent to later sell them to existing businesses in order to make a profit of off those businesses.

They will try to contact you and try to sell at advanced prices those domain names (it may be YourDomainName.org, or YourDomainName.biz.)

If that doesnt work, they could allow your competitor to get a domain that sounds like yours, and allow him to cause confusion or try to steal your hard-earned traffic, business and clients.

If cybersquatters go too far and infringe on trademarks, libel you or your company, you can, of course, sue. But domain-related lawsuits can take years and cost dearly. Arbitration can be successful, but also can be time-consuming and costly.

But, there’s nothing like prevention. It is easier and cheaper. To protect your company it is a good idea to register any and all common variants of your domain that way nobody else can get hold of them and do any damage , this is very easy to do and will not cost much.

Complete a document that locks in the authorized entities for your claim of different domain titles. You can buy these names and keep them under your roof. You will want to review your domain name register so that you know what will be needed, for example you will need to pay attention to contact information, who to be contacted if by chance someone attempts to register your domain.

You only have a narrow window of time to complete the authorized entry documentation. In order to ensure that you have a right to enter a claim you need to make sure that you enter it with in the allotted time frame so that the registering entities can check the relevant com, net or org name. They will not check the IP Claim Service database. Meaning, you could lose your .info or .net version of your domain name.

Opportunities for cybersquatters are rapidly diminishing, because most businesses now know that nailing down domain names is a high priority.

Don’t allow cybersquatters to intimidate you and destroy what you have worked to create online. Your domain name represents an investment that goes beyond your website. Go with your domain name registrar and get the rights and the authorization to similar or like names to your main domain name! And never allow them to expire or be otherwise compromised since that will cost you in the long run.

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Tags: computers, cybersquatters, e-commerce, internet frauds, Internet Marketing, internet scams, Search Engine Optimization, Site Promotion, web design, web development, web hosting, Webmaster Tools, webmasters

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