You know that you have become a victim of cybersquatting if someone is holding your domain name hostage until you pay a large sum of money for it.

The practice that’s come to be known as cybersquatting originated at a time when most businesses were not savvy about the commercial opportunities on the Internet.

Selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark, that is cybersquatting. For the most part cybersquating is when someone buys up common domain names with the intent to later sell them to existing businesses in order to make a profit of off those businesses.

They will try to contact you and try to sell at advanced prices those domain names (it may be YourDomainName.org, or YourDomainName.biz.)

If that doesnt work, they could allow your competitor to get a domain that sounds like yours, and allow him to cause confusion or try to steal your hard-earned traffic, business and clients.

You can sue cybersquatters if they go as far as ti infringe on trademarks or if they in any way make you or your company libel for their actions. But domain-related lawsuits can take years and cost dearly. While it may be effective, arbitration can also be expensive and time-consuming.

But, there’s nothing like prevention. It is easier and cheaper. To protect your company it is a good idea to register any and all common variants of your domain that way nobody else can get hold of them and do any damage , this is very easy to do and will not cost much.

It is as simple as completing a form that will lock in authorized entities associated with your claim and other domain names. You can buy these names and keep them under your roof. Your domain name registrar will provide you information to include, such as contact information, who should be contacted if someone wants to register your domain.

You have a small window to accomplish filling out an authorized entry form. Failure to enter a claim during a certain time frame means the registering entities will not check to see if there is an equivalent com, net or org name. They will not check the IP Claim Service database. Meaning, you could lose your .info or .net version of your domain name.

As most business have become aware of the importance of nailing down domain names the opportunities for cybersquatters are beginning to diminish.

Do not permit any cyber-squatters to blackmail your business and destroy what you have worked hard to create on the net. An investment in your domain name is much more than an investment in your web site. You will also want to do your best to obtain the rights and authorizations to any domain names that are similar to yours. Allowing your domain names to expire or become compromised can be even more dangerous and result in costing you even more money in the long run.

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