Microsoft suing to evict ‘cybersquatters’

Microsoft will on Wednesday launch a series of lawsuits in the US and Europe against “cybersquatters”, and will urge other companies to help tackle what it says is a growing problem on the internet.

Cybersquatting is the registration of a trademarked domain name – or one very similar to it, such as “micrsoft.com” – with the intent to profit from it.

Cybersquatters will generally either offer to sell the name back to the trademark owner for an extortionate price, or make money from internet traffic accidentally landing on their page. The practice is a nuisance for the growing number of companies that do business over the internet and are loath to lose valuable traffic to rogue websites.

Microsoft’s move comes in the same week as the World Intellectual Property Organisation warned of a growing threat to trademark owners from cybersquatters, revealing a 25 per cent rise last year in the number of disputes it handled over internet domain names.

Microsoft is launching cases in the US against companies it alleges have registered trademarks that infringe on its intellectual property. It also plans lawsuits in the UK, Germany and Italy. Details of these have not been released. Microsoft hopes its example will encourage other trademark owners to bring similar lawsuits.