Many consumers believe that if businesses with which they are unfamiliar do not have a presence on the Internet, it smacks of illegitimacy or lack of class.Andrea Scarlett-LozerFor many, as soon as they hear of something new, the first thing to do is "google" it. Successful and growing businesses should try to ensure that when a person "googles" their name, as advertised on radio, television, print media or a directory, the search engine will actually direct the user to the legitimate business. This does not always happen, however.Cyber SquattingIn the early days of the Internet and web addresses (called domain names), it was quite popular for some entrepreneurs to register domain names which contain the business names, along with several variations, of popular and successful organizations and celebrities. Domain name registries operate on a "first come, first register" basis, and there is no investigation as to whether the applicant is justified in pursuing the registration. This practice is labelled as cyber squatting. The entrepreneur would then sell the domain name registration to the organisation or celebrity whose name is reflected in the web address. Some domain names have attracted millions of dollars as the purchase price.Fortunately, the law and practice associated with domain names have caught up with the technology and world of commerce. For a while, it was difficult to protect trade names from infringement via registration as domain names because there were no clear laws linking the property right in domain names to the ownership of trade names and the goodwill vested in those names. The legal ambiguity that existed before allowed a person who paid a few dollars (usually less than US$100)to profit significantly from valuable business names of other persons.Cyber squatting is distinguishable from the practice of persons who register domain names which at the time of registration had no business reputation, but which the owner believes could be valuable in the future.
For example, on August 4,2009 Microsoft bought www.office.com from ContactOffice Group. It is rumoured that Microsoft intends to use this domain name in its forthcoming release of its new Office 2010 software.
