Registering Misspellings

[rfontaine]

I am the webmaster for a newspaper that has been in business for over 150yrs and discovered someone has registered a slight misspelling of our name, which cannot reasonably be confused with anything else but our business.

Our business name is 16-letters long and this misspelling simply switches around one vowel pair as might happen when someone quickly types our name into the address bar of a web browser.

My question is, does this other entity have the right to to register this domain when it is blatently obvious what they are doing? Is it OK to register any name, however similar it is to that of an established business?

What do you think?

[bhartzer]

If you own the trademark for that name and you can prove that they have registered that name in "bad faith" (i.e., trying to capitalize on your business), then they can be forced to turn over the domain name to you.

I'm not a lawyer, so you should seen one regarding this. You can generally handle it three ways--send a cease and desist from your lawyer to get them to turn it over to you or sue them.

The third option is to go through the official "Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy" through ICANN.

[excell]

yup rfontaine - you have rights on the internet, just as you have rights in the real world - hasten the day when others will respect that and the powers that be will uphold it. If it's yours it will come back to you. *I hope*

[cyberair]

I had a similar thing happen to me once. A guy who thought was too clever, registered the name of my business with a one letter difference and started redirecting the traffic to his site (my competition).

Simple. We sent a Cease and desist letter from a top law firm, and the smart guy wasn't so clever anymore. He handed the domain over to us.

You have several ways to go. Try sending a Cease and desist letter. If that doesn't work, you can either take him to court if he's in the US or go through ICANN

[Andreals]

If the name hasn't yet been used fraudulantly there may be no infringement. But if its only possible use is fraudulant you might save an attorney's bill simply by emailing your intent to rigorously enforce your rights. That may deter the culprit, especially if he just registered the name on a whim...

A. (not a lawyer, not giving legal advice)