What is Cybersquatting?

About Cybersquatting:

• It is an act of registering or using a domain name to profit from a trademark, corporate or personal name of an individual. 
• Usually, cybersquatting is seen as a form of extortion or even as an attempt to take over business from its rival. 
• Types of Cybersquatting

• Typo squatting: These domains are bought with typological errors in the names of well-known brands. Examples of such misspelled domains are yajoo.com, facebok.com etc. The intention behind this act is to divert the target audience whenever they misspell a domain name.
• Identity theft: In cases pertaining to identity theft, the website of an already existing brand is copied with the intention of confusing the target consumer.
• Name jacking: It involves impersonating a well-known name/ celebrity in cyberspace. Instances of name jacking would include creating fake websites/ social media accounts with a celebrity’s name.
• Reverse cybersquatting: It means an event whereby a person/s falsely claims a trademark as their own and falsely accuses the domain owner of cybersquatting. In essence, this act is the opposite of cybersquatting.

• In India, there are no specific laws that condemn, prohibit or penalize the act of cybersquatting. 
• However, domain names are considered as trademarks under the Trademark Act, 1999. Hence, any person who starts using an identical/similar domain name will be held liable for trademark infringement as described under Section 29 of the Trademark Act, 1999.