How To Ensure Complete Safeguard Of Your Trademark By Protecting Your Domain Name From Violators

In this day and age, when all types of business are conducted on the internet, it has become quite easy for other persons to take advantage of a business’s brand and reputation. All they have to do is to obtain a URL similar to the URL of the business entity, thus extracting undue profits from that entity’s brand reputation.
Cybersquatting refers to acquiring a domain name which is identical to someone else’s trademark or domain name in order to deceive people and gain undue profits. It is of various types and the most common are renewal snatching which means snatching the domain name when the actual owner forgets to renew it and typosquatting which is by manipulating the word formation of the domain name. Furthermore, this type of cybercrime is of a global nature, i.e., a person sitting anywhere in the world can commit this crime to a business in India.
Cyber squatters deliberately misuse the first come first basis for obtaining a domain name with the intent to later sell it to the actual trademark owner for a price that is way more than the actual price thereby deriving profits from it. Another way in which such violators cause a business undue loss is by diverting traffic from the website of the Trademark owner to their own website, thereby selling counterfeited products to the customers, who are under the impression that the counterfeited product is the product of the actual business owner.
In India, victims of cybersquatting have been provided with a number of ways to deal with it like sending cease-and-desist notice to the cyber-squatter, opting for arbitration under ICANN’s rules or going for a trial to a district or high court.
A proprietor who may have fallen victim to this type of crime can approach the courts under Trademark Acts as the Supreme Court has made it clear through numerous judgments that a domain name may be treated as a trademark and all such rights provided to a trademark owner would be provided to the owner of the domain name.
It is also highly advisable to get your domain name registered as a trademark in order to ensure a higher degree of protection to both your domain name and your brand identity.
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