IP Topics
By
Michelle Mancino Marsh and Eric T. Schreiber
- February 15, 2007
Reprinted with permission from INTA Bulletin, Vol. 62, No. 4 – February 15, 2007, Copyright © 2007 the International Trademark Association.
Imagine you own a new business and are finally getting around to selecting a domain name. You are thrilled when you find that the domain name you envision for your company or new product is available for registration. Satisfied, you return a day or two later to purchase the name, only to find out that someone else beat you to the registration. How could this have happened? Is it just a coincidence?
Certainly it is possible that a registrant simply searched the same name and happened to register it before you. However, a more likely and frustrating possibility is that an entity somehow tracked your search and registered the name between the time of your search and your attempted purchase. The entities engaging in this practice, which we have dubbed domain name spying, purchase particular domain names only after covertly determining that someone has checked the names’ availability. domain name spying is not a rare occurrence, as some companies appear to make spying their entire business model.