Microsoft puts cybersquatters on notice

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A matter of today's paradigm?

It's true that cyber-squatters are abundant, registering domain names they think they can hold for ransom, all while taking their chances of being sued.

But... there are, at the same time, there are groups that are trying to build legitimate enterprises with the domain names they register. A good example is from a previous poster who has just registered exceldiets.com, etc.

What I find in the domain name litigation trend is that if a certain "word" or "name" is now making money, or will potentially be making money in the near future, companies such as MS will sue. Do you think MS would sue Wrigley's for registering excelgum.com? Doubtful. Of course the gum maker is in a completely product sector, so that may not count.

Look at Writely.com. MS has shipped MS Write with every version of Windows, and along comes Writely, the web word processor (same product sector) but I doubt MS will go after them because MS doesn't actually care about MS Write and doesn't actually make and direct revenue from it.

I, myself, for example, have registered about 7 domain names (hardly a squatter number of domains) because I am in development of businesses that will use some of these domains. Of course the domains are only still "parked" and not in use yet, simply because I'm still developing these applications. If a company with a similar name wants to sue me because I have no actual site up yet, should that be allowed? Would that automatically label me a squatter, too?

What about sites that offer great content but include terms such as IIS, ASP, SQL and such in their domain names. I don't see anyone (MS) going after these sites... why? Because they're promoting certain MS technologies, almost for free.

I think I'm making sense here. It just seems, that if a site is using a name or word that's part of one of today's hot new trends, MS and other companies will jump on them, otherwise they are left alone... until the day that "word" does become a money-making trend.

Brad

Posted by: Disrupted_z   Posted on: 08/23/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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