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Posted: 2008-12-29 07:00:00 Shortcut URL: http://t.conquent.com/w000 I read an article today about Verizon winning a $33 million lawsuit over a company that has been using domains like myverizonwireless.com and verizononline.com to grab traffic and spoof users (Verizon awarded $33.15m against cybersquatter). People have been fighting over domain names since the beginning. In the early days it was free to register domain names, so folks were getting domain names for their dog, or refrigerator, or grabbing up brand names with the idea that they could sell them to the companies who owned the brand. Free went out the window (and with a monopoly and at $75 a year Network Solutions was making serious bank) and ICANN made a very simple rule -- if you own the trademark, or if you have demonstrable prior use, you can take the domain name away from someone. Under this rule, Sting was able to get his domain name from a fan, but Madonna apparently had some trouble with the Catholic Church and prior use. Of course Sting, Madonna and the Catholic Church all have a lot of money to put together their cases before ICANN. Free has come back in a fashion -- OnlineNIC got all those domain names by being a registrar -- they could register them for a week without paying their ICANN fees, drop them and then re-register them. Of course, with $7 registration from GoDaddy, squatting (some say "speculating") is a pretty cheap game. We have a client who paid $26,000 for a domain name, just because he thought it sounded good, not for trademark reasons. What made the Verizon lawsuit interesting was that they got a judgment for $50,000 for each of the 633 domains Verizon claims were created specifically to be confused with legitimate Verizon brands, totaling up to that $33.15 million. That is, the got a judgment against OnlineNIC, but they can't actually find anyone who works for the company. Ironically, Verizon got what they could have with a simple ICANN complaint, that is, they got control of the domain names. I say "ironically" because they've parked all those domains with Network Solutions, who runs advertising on parked domains, which is exactly the complaint Verizon had with OnlineNIC. The end game is the same, only it's a friendly company getting the ad revenue instead of the obscure company Verizon sued.
Desarae: Re: Domain Squatting 2008-12-29 09:04:05 Interesting post. So everyone will be getting their trademark names? I think it sucks people can domain squat anyway. http://dveit.com Julie Brosterman: Re: Domain Squatting 2008-12-29 13:26:24 There is someone intentionally squatting on my trademarked domain name and wants $250,000 for it. Any suggestions on what I should do? She hasn't been active in anything remotely related to this name since 2006 and refused my recent offer of $1000 a month for 2 years. Thanks. Michael Bissell: Re: Domain Squatting 2008-12-29 19:07:08 Despite having dealt with domain names since 1995, I've never gotten into the real nitty gritty of disputing the ownership. From my research, the problem is that none of the registrars want to get involved without a court order -- it used to be a simple matter of faxing your trademark or articles of incorporation, but no longer. This explains the average going rate of $10,000 to buy a domain name -- that's about what it would cost to sue someone even in a legitimate situation where you know you'll win. |
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Using Dissent To Enhance Your Social Influence Online
Industry Profile - Author
Industry Profiles – Full Time Employees - Professional Writer
Some Thoughts On Freelancing
Building Your Online Brand
Marissa Mayer and the Change in Yahoo's Remote Workforce
LinkedIn for Professional Writers
Fake Republican Twitter Accounts
"Did you mean?" -- Google's chiding nanny of search results
Branded Technology
Sharingspree.com -- Stealing more than GroupOn's Idea
The Internet Isn't Entertaining Enough
It's not your bank... It's Apple's and Amazon's
Violated by Madison Avenue
Google+ Scares Me
"We need to..." Internet Marketing Myths
Facebook's deal with the Devil
My cool new phone is a little too cool.
You are never alone
Promotion vs. Distribution... You'd think they'd know that one...
Publishing Industry Watch
Content for Social Media
Social Media Slot Machine
Anonymous vs Me
News from the Twitter Follow Campaign Trail
The art of Indiscriminate Twitter Following
The Cloudy Meaning of The Cloud
The Demand For The Loss of Creativity
Alien Technology and Government Conspiracies
Time for a New Reality
The Death of Email
Protecting Free Speech... Anonymously (and geekily)
Amazon Shouldn't Have Shut Down WikiLeaks
The Superpowers of the Hive Mind
Time for New Ideas
Comcast, Netflix and the Mystery of the Modem
The Great Technical Disconnect
New for the Sake of New
A Retail Store Built Like the Web
Disposable Personas
When did Google Start Policing the Internet?
Getting back to HTML basics, thanks to Apple
Inspecting my Navel Base
A shoebox vs. an online backup
Is Your "Resume" Website Recruiter-friendly?
iBooks -- Creative Epicenter or Gatekeeper?
The Failure of Success
The Economy is Going to Get Worse, but that's okay
Time lost on Twitter
Client Vendor Relationships
Twitter's back alleys and dark places
Social Media is NOT Advertising
Microsoft Courier
Form (designers) versus Function (geeks)
PDXBOOM -- The power of social media and the portland pipe bomb
China and Apple -- Different organizations, same management
The volume of screens
Logorama
Google Adds Biking Directions to Maps
Transmedia
That magical little tablet
How your website can be in two places at once
Masterpieces created by sheer volume
Suing over lack of originality
A Primer on Internet Fame -- dancing babies, hamsters, numa numa, and more...
Checking my messages
Rules are made to be broken -- in a reasoned, systematic way
So many accounts, so few passwords
Who really uses Twitter? 60% of Twitter's traffic isn't on Twitter
The Web is a Jerry Rigged Kludge
Twitter: Asleep at the Mouse Wheel
Where regulation is good: Google Voice and Vonage
How Facebook is (unintentionally) forcing programmers to piss off users
The Twit Cleaner
Perfect Secretary's pitch for @Adbroad (and the Youtube API)
The Emotions of Text
The Shorty Awards Scandal -- Manual Spam is still Spam
Google Analytics, the cloud and missing numbers #fail
Helen Klein Ross & Michael Bissell Interview at Adweek's Social Media Strategies Conference
The Internet is the New 60's
Cougars from New Zealand (and I don't mean big cats)
Adding facts together, or why you can't charge your cell phone from wifi
Social Media and the Destruction of the World
Rabid Fans vs Passive Viewers -- The Coco vs Leno saga
How to tell someone to retweet (without using up your 140 characters)
You can't buy social media
A book unopened is but a block of paper
Building the LOST: The Final Season Sweepstakes
Holiday SPAM (or the lack thereof)
Archiving Twitter
Too Many Toolbars
Random Censorship with Google Adwords
Accessibility and Shopping Online
Twisted path to customer service
Flash: Shiny objects blinding your audience
Twollow and other gold rush scripts
GPS in a Laptop computer
Thinking outside the box... There was a box?
Twitter was designed for Text Messaging
It's not the corporations, damnit
Entrepreneur or Dreamer?
Adweek Social Media Twitter for Brands Presentation
Socializing is more than Social Media
Generational Marketing is a Myth (or Who's your Daddy?)
Social Media is Just the Way We Use the Internet
Twitter Followers Don't Matter (ask the porn sites)
The Internet is Gooder than Books
Sometimes you don't want your campaign to go viral
Best Twitter Branding Campaign
Like flies to crap, Spammy Twitter Followers don't really go away
iPhone SMS Security Hole
How Flipmytweet works
Cell Phones as Microscopes
Digg is not the Hijacker -- You Are
Steve Ballmer -- the walking dead?
Twitter as an open mic poetry reading
Automatic Social [un]Awareness
First splash for United Against Malaria
New Media/Old Media and the CLIO Awards
Interview at SXSW: Mad Men Twitter And Tracking
We've got an App for that -- it's called the Web
Understanding Google To Get Your Resume Noticed
The trouble with Wordpress and other templates
Wayward Words with Baggage
Speaking at SXSW March 17th
The fleeting Memory of the Internet
It's okay to say 'I don't know'
Nike Takes Over Conquent
Facebook owns this title
Excuses, excuses
A little on Social Media
Feeding on Content
Attack of the Bots
Web 1.0
Net Neutrality
Getting clever with data feeds
The Other Credit Crisis
The Broadband Inauguration
T-Mobile owns Magenta and Other Patent Stories
The Risk-takers, Doers and Makers of Things
The noise of 20,000+ Twitter Followers
30,000 feet, 500 MPH Suburban Strip Mall
Cellphones, toilets and the Inauguration
The End of Days (of song): Microsoft Songsmith Example
Browser Bigotry
The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith
Creative Development or Developing Creatively?
The Myth of Wikipedia (or the Wiki-1400)
Online/Offline Sales -- is it really that bad?
Is PayPal Tacky?
Old School Web Design Still Works
Domain Squatting
Green Chri$tma$
QA 101
Portland Snow
Get some return on that web traffic
I think they have a backup...
I'd love to have that problem
The [un]importance of statistics
Don't be a tool of viral marketing
Emails, discussions, blogs, wiki and web content
You Designed for Print First
You let someone else register your domain name
You figured .biz, .info, .us would work fine
What's after the Integrated Circuit?
Intelligent life is out there (but it's bugger all down here on earth)
Subject Matter Experts Talking Other Subject Matter
The Totalitarian Regime of Apple
Oversimplifying how people work
crowdSPRING
Creative Services for the New World
Reverse Anthropomorphism
The End of Time
Better Living Through Twitter
Lessons Learned From Apple
It's the Brand, Baby
Business Architecture vs. Web Construction
On Truth
Inverse Peter Principle
Random Knowledge
The Hive
RSS for this blog
With a career that has spanned advertising, production, technical services, and project management, Michael is able to articulate the wide range skills and professions that make the Internet work. This eclectic understanding and his desire to shine the light on those hiding behind techno babble has brought success to a wide range of projects.
Twitter @bissellLinked In
Past Postings:
Using Dissent To Enhance Your Social Influence Online
Industry Profile - Author
Industry Profiles – Full Time Employees - Professional Writer
Some Thoughts On Freelancing
Building Your Online Brand
Marissa Mayer and the Change in Yahoo's Remote Workforce
LinkedIn for Professional Writers
Fake Republican Twitter Accounts
"Did you mean?" -- Google's chiding nanny of search results
Branded Technology
Sharingspree.com -- Stealing more than GroupOn's Idea
The Internet Isn't Entertaining Enough
It's not your bank... It's Apple's and Amazon's
Violated by Madison Avenue
Google+ Scares Me
"We need to..." Internet Marketing Myths
Facebook's deal with the Devil
My cool new phone is a little too cool.
You are never alone
Promotion vs. Distribution... You'd think they'd know that one...
Publishing Industry Watch
Content for Social Media
Social Media Slot Machine
Anonymous vs Me
News from the Twitter Follow Campaign Trail
The art of Indiscriminate Twitter Following
The Cloudy Meaning of The Cloud
The Demand For The Loss of Creativity
Alien Technology and Government Conspiracies
Time for a New Reality
The Death of Email
Protecting Free Speech... Anonymously (and geekily)
Amazon Shouldn't Have Shut Down WikiLeaks
The Superpowers of the Hive Mind
Time for New Ideas
Comcast, Netflix and the Mystery of the Modem
The Great Technical Disconnect
New for the Sake of New
A Retail Store Built Like the Web
Disposable Personas
When did Google Start Policing the Internet?
Getting back to HTML basics, thanks to Apple
Inspecting my Navel Base
A shoebox vs. an online backup
Is Your "Resume" Website Recruiter-friendly?
iBooks -- Creative Epicenter or Gatekeeper?
The Failure of Success
The Economy is Going to Get Worse, but that's okay
Time lost on Twitter
Client Vendor Relationships
Twitter's back alleys and dark places
Social Media is NOT Advertising
Microsoft Courier
Form (designers) versus Function (geeks)
PDXBOOM -- The power of social media and the portland pipe bomb
China and Apple -- Different organizations, same management
The volume of screens
Logorama
Google Adds Biking Directions to Maps
Transmedia
That magical little tablet
How your website can be in two places at once
Masterpieces created by sheer volume
Suing over lack of originality
A Primer on Internet Fame -- dancing babies, hamsters, numa numa, and more...
Checking my messages
Rules are made to be broken -- in a reasoned, systematic way
So many accounts, so few passwords
Who really uses Twitter? 60% of Twitter's traffic isn't on Twitter
The Web is a Jerry Rigged Kludge
Twitter: Asleep at the Mouse Wheel
Where regulation is good: Google Voice and Vonage
How Facebook is (unintentionally) forcing programmers to piss off users
The Twit Cleaner
Perfect Secretary's pitch for @Adbroad (and the Youtube API)
The Emotions of Text
The Shorty Awards Scandal -- Manual Spam is still Spam
Google Analytics, the cloud and missing numbers #fail
Helen Klein Ross & Michael Bissell Interview at Adweek's Social Media Strategies Conference
The Internet is the New 60's
Cougars from New Zealand (and I don't mean big cats)
Adding facts together, or why you can't charge your cell phone from wifi
Social Media and the Destruction of the World
Rabid Fans vs Passive Viewers -- The Coco vs Leno saga
How to tell someone to retweet (without using up your 140 characters)
You can't buy social media
A book unopened is but a block of paper
Building the LOST: The Final Season Sweepstakes
Holiday SPAM (or the lack thereof)
Archiving Twitter
Too Many Toolbars
Random Censorship with Google Adwords
Accessibility and Shopping Online
Twisted path to customer service
Flash: Shiny objects blinding your audience
Twollow and other gold rush scripts
GPS in a Laptop computer
Thinking outside the box... There was a box?
Twitter was designed for Text Messaging
It's not the corporations, damnit
Entrepreneur or Dreamer?
Adweek Social Media Twitter for Brands Presentation
Socializing is more than Social Media
Generational Marketing is a Myth (or Who's your Daddy?)
Social Media is Just the Way We Use the Internet
Twitter Followers Don't Matter (ask the porn sites)
The Internet is Gooder than Books
Sometimes you don't want your campaign to go viral
Best Twitter Branding Campaign
Like flies to crap, Spammy Twitter Followers don't really go away
iPhone SMS Security Hole
How Flipmytweet works
Cell Phones as Microscopes
Digg is not the Hijacker -- You Are
Steve Ballmer -- the walking dead?
Twitter as an open mic poetry reading
Automatic Social [un]Awareness
First splash for United Against Malaria
New Media/Old Media and the CLIO Awards
Interview at SXSW: Mad Men Twitter And Tracking
We've got an App for that -- it's called the Web
Understanding Google To Get Your Resume Noticed
The trouble with Wordpress and other templates
Wayward Words with Baggage
Speaking at SXSW March 17th
The fleeting Memory of the Internet
It's okay to say 'I don't know'
Nike Takes Over Conquent
Facebook owns this title
Excuses, excuses
A little on Social Media
Feeding on Content
Attack of the Bots
Web 1.0
Net Neutrality
Getting clever with data feeds
The Other Credit Crisis
The Broadband Inauguration
T-Mobile owns Magenta and Other Patent Stories
The Risk-takers, Doers and Makers of Things
The noise of 20,000+ Twitter Followers
30,000 feet, 500 MPH Suburban Strip Mall
Cellphones, toilets and the Inauguration
The End of Days (of song): Microsoft Songsmith Example
Browser Bigotry
The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith
Creative Development or Developing Creatively?
The Myth of Wikipedia (or the Wiki-1400)
Online/Offline Sales -- is it really that bad?
Is PayPal Tacky?
Old School Web Design Still Works
Domain Squatting
Green Chri$tma$
QA 101
Portland Snow
Get some return on that web traffic
I think they have a backup...
I'd love to have that problem
The [un]importance of statistics
Don't be a tool of viral marketing
Emails, discussions, blogs, wiki and web content
You Designed for Print First
You let someone else register your domain name
You figured .biz, .info, .us would work fine
What's after the Integrated Circuit?
Intelligent life is out there (but it's bugger all down here on earth)
Subject Matter Experts Talking Other Subject Matter
The Totalitarian Regime of Apple
Oversimplifying how people work
crowdSPRING
Creative Services for the New World
Reverse Anthropomorphism
The End of Time
Better Living Through Twitter
Lessons Learned From Apple
It's the Brand, Baby
Business Architecture vs. Web Construction
On Truth
Inverse Peter Principle
Random Knowledge
The Hive
RSS for this blog