Troutman Sanders' Domain Name Enforcement Program
>> The World Intellectual Property Organization reports that cybersquatting – the fraudulent use of a domain name to misrepresent or protect from other intellectual property – continues to expand, citing another record-setting number of allegation cases in 2008. Troutman Sanders’ Domain Name Enforcement Program has significantly reduced both the number of cases and the costs associated with fraudulent domain name use.
Troutman Sanders helps efficiently manage and protect your organization‘s brands against fraudulent, infringing and otherwise abusive domain names with proactive monitoring of potentially fraudulent domain name registrations and effective support from lawyers and paralegals to resolve issues.
The Domain Name Enforcement Program involves an effective three-step process to safeguard against problematic Internet scams and abuse:
STEP 1 – Potentially fraudulent, infringing, and otherwise abusive domain names are collected continuously from registration watch services and other sources and are reviewed and categorized by our experienced team into pre-agreed risk categories for priority of action.
STEP 2 – Regular user-friendly reports are provided to clients listing key information and recommendations for all domain names categorized for action.
STEP 3 – Enforcement actions are initiated based on a strategy tailored to the client's enforcement objectives, which are designed to take the most effective advantage of available resources. Such actions may include continued monitoring of select domains, a variety of inexpensive self-help remedies, or if necessary, formal actions such as take-down notices, UDRP proceedings or court proceedings.
Troutman Sanders’ professionals have reviewed and categorized more than 100,000 names and engaged in countless enforcement actions. This experience combined with proprietary database tools can anticipate likely outcomes and target actions best calculated to achieve the most cost-effective results; such as when a letter can achieve as much as a formal proceeding or when preliminary actions would only be a waste of time and expense. Troutman Sanders also offers support for domain name registration and enforcement policy creation and implementation.
For more information on this service, contact the firm's Intellectual Property practice.
How Much Is Cybersquatting Costing You? Research by the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse estimates that cybersquatting costs brand owners over $1 billion dollars every year in diverted Web traffic, loss of trust and goodwill, and legal fees. Some businesses may spend in excess of $1 million dollars per brand annually on enforcement expenses alone. |