Hello everyone, I'm just now starting a business presence on the web. My partner already owns two domain names which are related to the name of the company. Considering the topic at hand, if you don't mind I'll refrain from using the actual domain names on this post. I'll instead call it them by a moniker; xptodomain.com and xptodomain.co.uk. What I have recently realized is that there's a miriad of related domain names, which presence in the web is nothing more than pages full of links to other websites (which business is related to ours) and no real content of their own. I've seen the following related domains: xpto.domain.com xpto_domain.com xptodomainfor.com xptodomain.co.uk.net netxptodomain.com I need the following from you: - Bibliography, web articles, white papers, google search strings, anything that better helps me understand this phenomena. What is it, how is it called and why is it done. I'm not interested in knowing how it is done unless it leads to a better understanding. - Information (here or through links to documentation) on how can I fight it before and after registering a new domain name. I would appreciate any help in better understanding this phenomena and how to fight it.
Well for starters domain stealing would be someone stealing you actual domain name. What you are referring to could be more like cybersquating. But that could also be argued. Depending on your friends domain and business name would shed a bit more light on the subject. Lets say your friend owned Microsoft. He has the two domains Microsoft.com and Windows.com. Microsoft is distinctive name which could only be associated with that company. And they have their brand trademarked. So anyone buying up word+microsoft, microsoft+ word or pretty much anthing with microsoft in it can pretty much be guaranteed they would be sued if the don't give it up freely. The fines can be as much as $100,000 per instance awarded to the TM holder if the defendant is found to be infringing on their trademark. Windows on the other hand is a generic word. While in this case Microsoft does happen to own windows.com anyone can own buywindows.com sellwindows.com or even windows.com. The reason being is there were windows (the glass kind) around before there was a microsoft. Simply put they didn't invent them. The owners of these types of names are better off not trying to sell software on their names and sticking to actual windows. If they do their setting themselves up for losing their name. Thats the simplest way to describe those two. Now things can get even more difficult. There are a lot of companies around this big world of ours that have the same name. So one company may have domain.com another domain.net another drdomain.com another selldomains.com etc etc. And not one of those people could go to war with the others and expect to come out on top due to the wide use of the term. If you friends name is very distinctive and trademarked in his country he should look in to filing UDRP. The cost of these run around $1600 plus attorney fees.
JMJ said it pretty damn well. It's pretty wise to think of this stuff before registering your domain name. I actually wrote a research paper on choosing a domain name before starting a web business regarding your exact situation. My conclusion? Change the name if you feel like people can take advantage of the name you want.
I will just suggest you toprotect your domain by using 'domain lock' and 'privacy protection' right now and a good registrar. One of my client was with a so-called bif registrar and his domain was stolen/hacked. It tool 8 months to get back that domain and finally he transferred that domain from that BIG registrar. Good luck, Toniya