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Shutting Out the Squatters

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As a successful marketer, you’re well aware of your brand’s significant value. What you may not know is that there are people right now who, through a practice known as cybersquatting, may be literally holding a part of your good name hostage, damaging your carefully constructed brand through intentional, bad-faith domain name use ... perhaps irreparably.

You can protect yourself from cybersquatting by immediately registering your company name and your trademarked product brand name as domain names. Once registered, you own them. In addition, register the most common misspellings so you own them too, especially if your company or brand has an unusual name. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive.

But how do you know if the domain you want is already being held by a cybersquatter? Find out by following a few basic steps.

See if it’s real. Enter the domain name as you see it spelled into your browser to see if it takes you to an actual Web site. If it only goes to a site stating “this domain

name for sale,” or “can’t find server” or “under construction,” it may mean the domain name owner’s only purpose in buying the name is to sell it back to you at a higher price.

Check on the advertising. If the domain takes you to a functional Web site, but the banner advertising is focused on nothing but your competitors, you may also have a case of cybersquatting. For instance, say your company is known for high-end electronics and it turns out the ads are for every electronics firm BUT yours, it’s likely a cybersquatter trading off your reputation to sell Google ads to competitors.

Contact the registered owner. Before jumping to any conclusions, contact the domain name registrant. To find the name and address of a domain name owner, you can use the WHOIS Lookup. (whois.net) Find out whether

there is a reasonable explanation for their use of the domain name, if the registrant is willing to sell you the name at a price you are willing to pay or if they’ll voluntarily stop.