If you own a trademark and find that someone is holding it hostage as a domain name until you pay a large sum for it, you may be the victim of cybersquatting.

The practice that’s come to be known as cybersquatting originated at a time when most businesses were not savvy about the commercial opportunities on the Internet.

Cybersquatting is registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark. It generally refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses.

They will try to contact you and try to sell at advanced prices those domain names (it may be YourDomainName.org, or YourDomainName.biz.)

If that doesnt work, they could allow your competitor to get a domain that sounds like yours, and allow him to cause confusion or try to steal your hard-earned traffic, business and clients.

You can sue cybersquatters if they go as far as ti infringe on trademarks or if they in any way make you or your company libel for their actions. But domain-related lawsuits can take years and cost dearly. While it may be effective, arbitration can also be expensive and time-consuming.

Prevention is cheaper and easier. It is not only inexpensive and easy it is the smart also very smart for you to register common variations of your domain yourself, this will help to prevent others from doing so therefore preventing any possible damage that can be done.

Complete a document that locks in the authorized entities for your claim of different domain titles. You can buy these names and keep them under your roof. You will want to review your domain name register so that you know what will be needed, for example you will need to pay attention to contact information, who to be contacted if by chance someone attempts to register your domain.

There is only a limited amount of time for you to finish filling out the authorized entry form. If there is an equivalent com, net or org name, there would be a failure to enter a claim during a certain time frame means the registering entities will not check to see over. They will not check the IP Claim Service database. Meaning, you could lose your .info or .net version of your domain name.

As most business have become aware of the importance of nailing down domain names the opportunities for cybersquatters are beginning to diminish.

Do not permit any cyber-squatters to blackmail your business and destroy what you have worked hard to create on the net. An investment in your domain name is much more than an investment in your web site. You will also want to do your best to obtain the rights and authorizations to any domain names that are similar to yours. Allowing your domain names to expire or become compromised can be even more dangerous and result in costing you even more money in the long run.