The National Arbitration Forum Blog

The general interest web magazine, Slate, explores two common registration abuses that often lead to domain name disputes.

Typosquatting
Paul Boutin in The Typo Millionaires (Slate Magazine, 2/11/2005) reports that studies show 10 – 20% of all hand-entered URLs are mistyped, adding up to at least 20 million wrong numbers per day. A form of cybersquatting, typosquatting involves the usage of a domain name that contains a misspelling, or typo, of someone else's trademark.

Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting involves the registration and use of a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark. Christopher Beam in Is Cybersquatting Against the Law? (Slate Magazine, 12/12/2008) reviews trademark infringing domain names, and the recent domain name debacle over GeorgeWBushLibrary.com. Beam explains that the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) were set up "to protect companies, celebrities, and even Joe Schmoes from having their names exploited online for commercial purposes".

The National Arbitration Forum administers a domain name dispute resolution program guided by policies such as the UDRP. Resolutions are typically quick and inexpensive. Filing a dispute over a domain name costs just over a thousand dollars plus legal fees, and lasts less than two months on average. See the FORUM's webpage for more details.