SOFTWARE GIANT Microsoft has decided to drag a group of US cyber squatters into court to stop them using variations of its name in their scams.
Vole has also sorted out a domain-infringement settlement with the Dyslexic Domain Company in Blighty and two US civil lawsuits filed against cyber squatters in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.
The various organisations have used names like winowslivemessenger.com and www.micr0soft.co.uk which are often used when the user is a bit under the weather or typing too quickly. The cybersquatter makes cash by selling advertising on the page, or even selling the name back to the company whose name it resembles.
Vole has been on the hunt for cyber squatters lately. Instead of paying them off it is calling in the courts. So far it has reclaimed more than 1,100 infringing domain names in six months.
The men in grey suits at Microsoft reckon that such sites confuse visitors who are trying to reach a genuine company.
This can only stuff up corporate brands and reputations, not to mention the user who gets to see bogus adverts.
Latest in Volish sights are Maltuzi which Microsoft claims registers large blocks of domain names, some of which infringe on its intellectual property rights.
Sule Garba, Darin Grabowski and Yi Ning have been named as defendants in the case of 217 domains which have Microsoft variations in the title. When Vole called foul on the site they found that the three had hidden their names during the registration process to avoid detection.
Vole has filed a civil lawsuit in state court in Seattle against 54 unnamed defendants to determine the identities of people infringing on Microsoft trademarks. µ
L'Inq
Computerworld
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