As a business owner in Maryland, one of the first steps to building and expanding your business is to make sure you have an online presence. Your domain, or online address, is essential to making sure your customers can easily find you and have access to your goods and services.
Common domain name disputes
However, claiming your domain name may not be as easy as you think. Sometimes multiple parties may claim that they have the right to a specific domain name and a dispute may arise. These disputes can be costly and time-consuming. During the time you’re trying to resolve the dispute, your business could be losing customers due to confusion over its domain name.
Some common disputes include:
- Cybersquatting: Your trademark is a part of a domain being used by another party.
- Reverse-cybersquatting: Someone with a trademark tries to take your lawfully registered domain name.
- Typosquatting: Someone else purchases a domain very similar to your domain name, so that people trying to access your site will be directed to their site if they accidentally type your address in incorrectly.
These types of disputes can be extremely harmful to a business, resulting in thousands of dollars in lost profits and permanently damaged reputations.
In some cases, you may seek to resolve the domain name dispute under the Uniform Domain Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
To recover monetary damages, however, consider consulting with a business and commercial law attorney specializing in these matters to help you file a claim against the other party under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).