“How can I Evict a ‘Cybersquatter’ Cheaply?”
I saw the following interesting post at Slashdot.com here. A series of great comments followed it; page down on the page to read them.
“Slashdot has covered stories where big mean companies threw poor little people off of web sites with names too close to that of the company. But what about when you are the company and the cybersquatter isn’t even using the name? I have a small (ok, basically just me) company. The web site that exactly matches my company name has been registered since 2001, which is before I legally registered my company name but after I started doing business. Despite being registered for 4 years, the site is still nothing but a pile of banner ads - not even a hint as to why they want that particular name for their site. I contacted the owner, but they are not interested in selling (at any price, they said). If I read the ICANN guidelines correctly, domain name owners who have ‘no legitimate claim for the name’ can be evicted by people who do, so I think I should be able to demand they hand the name over. Has anybody ever tried this, or heard of a case where somebody with very limited funds (ie, not enough money to hire a lawyer) has been able to evict a squatter? Or do you always have to hire a lawyer and pay thousands in court fees to make this happen?”
Of all the comments, I love this one the best:
This is a great idea! I’ll find some web site which has nothing but banner ads. Then I’ll start a business with the same name. After I do that, I’ll go to court and sue, demanding that the owners of that domain turn it over to me.
Maybe the current domain owners are holding on to the domain in the hopes of one day starting a business in their state/country with that name. Maybe they are ranked well enough search engines that the banner ads are profitable. Whatever the case may be, it’s their domain and I don’t understand why you think that your business interests should trump theirs.
Face it: You screwed up. You started a business without registering the domain(s) appropriate for that name.
By they way, I found this story by reading the Google Feed I set up in the sidebar on the right. All those feeds are really useful, but I see hardly anyone ever clicks on them. You’re really missing out.
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And I found your post by my site mentioned above
Hmm… sounds a lot like imminent domain issues of late. “How can I evict a land-squatter who is obviously doing nothing with it, so that I can build a Wal-Mart? Heck, we’ll pay more local taxes than this guy will.” Thank God no one is taxed on cyber property YET — oh wait, I guess we are since we have to pay a fee to register it.