Online squatters kicked off .sg sites
Singapore combats cybersquatters, Internet users who register domain names in the hopes that well-known companies will buy them back
Straits Times
Sunday, March 18, 2007
By Melissa Sim
You are a large multinational company, setting up an operation in Singapore. You need a website, of course, but when you come to register your company's ".sg" domain name, you find someone has got there first.
Google, McDonald's and Samsung have all found themselves in this position, victims of a practice called cybersquatting.
Cybersquatting involves registering the domain name of a well-known brand, like google.com.sg or samsungmobile.com.sg, in the hope that the companies will pay handsomely to buy it back.
Other cybersquatters register domain names like "googl.com" to capitalise on any mistyped web addresses of popular sites.
Over the past five years, 10 cases of cybersquatting have been handled by the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Service.
The owner of google.com.sg, for example, was quick to register the domain name in Singapore, but was eventually forced to give it up.
Others like mcdonalds.com.sg and samsung mobile.com.sg were also returned to their rightful owners.
Cybersquatting made the news last week when Microsoft launched a series of lawsuits in the United States and Europe that it hopes will encourage other trademark owners to follow.
This came just days after the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) -- an organisation that handles intellectual property disputes -- issued a statement warning that cybersquatting is on the rise.
In 2006, WIPO received 1,823 complaints, up from 1,456 in 2005. This was the highest figure since 2000, when there were 1,857 complaints.
Since 1999, when the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) was put in place to deal with the cybersquatting problem, WIPO has heard from 4,709 complainants and 4,233 respondents originating in the US.
Singapore has had its share of disputes, with 29 complainants and 28 respondents since 1999.
In Singapore, a party can claim priority right to a domain name if it can prove that it has been registered by another party in bad faith, or with intention to create confusion and mislead potential customers.
The claimant and respondent submit their defence to a panel, which then decides on the outcome.
Said panel member Joyce A. Tan: "When you register for a domain name, one of the conditions is that you have to comply with the decision of the panel if there is ever a dispute. So after arbitration the decision is immediately enforced."
At the root of the cybersquatting problem, according to WIPO, is the emergence of new registration practices and alternative business models.
For example, there is "domain name tasting," which allows someone to test the traffic on the site for five days, thus making it easy for someone other than the trademark holder to use the name, even if it is just for a few days.
There is also the problem of domain name "parking" and pay-per-click advertisements. In this situation, people use familiar trademarks to draw traffic and earn from pay-per-click advertisements on their site.
There is a lot of money to be made even from a generic name. For example, Sex.com was sold last year for $12 million, while diamond.com went for $7.5 million.
Since Singapore, unlike the US, does not have an online business culture, IT lawyer Adrian Tan does not feel that cybersquatting is as much of a problem here as it is there.
"Cybersquatting as a way of making money is not too common. What happens here are usually disputes between two companies with legitimate claims to a certain name," said Mr Tan.
But as the experience of Google and Samsung has shown, even in a small market, no company is immune.
