Cybersquatting is generally bad faith registration of another’s trademark in as a domain name. Cybersquatting boomed in Britain in 2014. It’s illegal in the US, however somehow it remains totally legal in the UK.
These aren’t our words; these are the words of Dalton in Furness company ‘The Domain Directory Group Ltd’ – found here : https://www.thedomaindirectory.uk/premium-domains
Yet, despite this, The Domain Directory Group Ltd have recently been held to account for this very same ‘bad faith’ activity – an activity they themselves claim to help with ‘stop cybersquatting by identifying expired domain registrations and stopping malicious domain sales, helping to protect your business and your brand’.
A few of months ago, a client of ours received a cold-call advising that a number of as yet unregistered domains, containing the business name of our client, were about to be registered by someone else – and that they could secure those domains on our clients’ behalf for over £200 each.
Thinking the call unusual, it was ended, and our client made enquiries directly with ourselves. As domain name registrations are a fraction of the cost, we advised they should not proceed.
Upon checking the domains in question however, it became apparent that they had already been registered, only minutes prior - and registered by - The Domain Directory Group Ltd. In addition to cyber-squatted domain registrations – the domains were pointed towards a bogus website containing malicious malware.
With this information, and in order to protect our clients’ good name and reputation, we immediately recommended our client raise a formal dispute with Nominet, the UK’s official domain registrar.
After a thorough and independent expert review of the case, Nominet ultimately found in our clients’ favour – stating that the actions represented ‘abusive registration’. Subsequently, the domains were seized from The Domain Directory Group Ltd and returned to our clients’ rightful ownership.
Regional business owners are recommended to carefully review their digital assets and be on their guard of cold-callers offering similar services.