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Simple English definitions for legal terms
cybersquatting
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A quick definition of cybersquatting:
Cybersquatting is when someone who is not the owner of a famous brand name or trademark registers that name as a website address and tries to make money from it. They might try to sell the website address back to the real owner for a lot of money, or they might use it to trick people into going to their own website instead of the real one. To prove cybersquatting, the real owner of the brand name has to show that the person who registered the website did it on purpose to make money from it and that the website address is very similar to the real brand name.
A more thorough explanation:
Cybersquatting is when someone who is not the owner of a well-known trademark registers that trademark as an Internet domain name and then tries to make money from it. This can happen in two ways:
- The person who registered the domain name tries to sell it back to the trademark owner for a lot of money.
- The person who registered the domain name uses it to take business away from the trademark owner.
To prove that someone is guilty of cybersquatting, three things need to be shown:
- The trademark owner has a well-known trademark that deserves protection.
- The domain name that was registered is the same as, or very similar to, the trademark.
- The person who registered the domain name did it on purpose to make money from it.
For example, if someone registered the domain name "nike.com" and then tried to sell it to Nike for a lot of money, that would be cybersquatting. Or if someone registered "mcdonalds.net" and used it to sell hamburgers, that would also be cybersquatting.