Trademark Issues: How is Social Media Becoming the New Target for Cybersquatting?
A trademark refers to a legally registered word or symbol representing a specific product or service of a company. It helps the public at large to identify the products and services of one and distinguish them from those of others. Therefore, we can say that a trademark serves as a helping hand in gaining more uniqueness and popularity everywhere, including on platforms as prevalent as the internet. When it comes to the term ‘cybersquatting,’ it refers to the phenomenon in which fraudulent entities use the internet domains of widely recognized brands and companies to extract benefits from their reputation and goodwill. Such fraudulent entities often utilize the names or other identifying markers without obtaining permission from the entity to which the name or the identifying marker belongs. At a later stage, these fraudulent entities attempt to sell the internet domains in question with the Registered Trademarks to the brands or companies to which the names belong, with the intent of making colossal profits. The term cybersquatting is derived from the term ‘squatting,’ which refers to the act of occupying an unoccupied section or space not belonging to the squatter. Generally, it is described as using widely-known trademarks as internet domain names for earning profits by reselling them. It is essential to note that the registrant of the internet domain name doesn’t possess any rights over the trademark. To be specific, the act of cybersquatting is nothing but infringing upon the exclusive Trademark Rights of the owner.