Digital Journal — Microsoft is angry. And we all know what market leaders do when they’re pissed off — they sue like they have an endless army of lawyers.
This time, Microsoft is targeting cybersquatters and their devious cousins “typosquatters” in an effort to curb the growing surge of online trademark infringement.
The Redmond-based software giant is incensed that these criminals register Web addresses with trademarked terms or with common misspellings in the hope of luring Net surfers who mistype addresses into their browsers. Sites such as xbox36.com and msnfinance.com are blank pages but have pay-per-click ads served by online-ad networks, Microsoft says. Close to a quarter of the sites hide their identity using privacy services.
Microsoft is going after four men in a civil suit who supposedly registered 400 domains that deliberately leverage off Microsoft-owned trademarks. Microsoft also noted it will soon dish out subpoenas to more domain-name registrars.
It’s about time. Microsoft has finally realized how its name and trademark is being abused by cybersquatters, a practice that has gone on for years right under the company’s nose. What took Microsoft so long in announcing these suits? Did a high-ranking executive get tired of being funnelled to blank pages after constantly spelling the company’s name wrong?
If successful, this legal action could ripple through the tech world and send shivers up the spines of other nefarious criminals looking to profit off misspelled business names. As it should. After all, no one likes to be trapped in a fraudulent site just because they typed a URL too quickly.
Next up, Mr. Bush should go after that White House website.
