Fergie's Tech Blog

The Great Internet Brand Rip-Off

Moira Herbst writes on Businessweek.com:

Sarah Deutsch is steaming. The attorney for Verizon Communications regularly scours the Web from her Arlington (Va.) office and finds hundreds of new sites that use variations of Verizon's name. A mid-December browse uncovers a constellation of Verizon-inspired domains such as verizonpicture.com, vorizonringtone.com, and varizoncellularphone.com.

What angers Deutsch is that none of the sites have anything to do with Verizon. Instead, they're registered by companies like Nassau (Bahamas)-based Wan-Fu China and Pompano Beach (Fla.)-based Moniker.com. They're engaged in a little-known activity called "domain tasting," a legal practice that lets registrars snatch up Internet domains for five days at no cost.

Typically, these companies jam the borrowed Web sites full of ads and pull in money as visitors click on the ads. Because they can use the Web sites for no charge, these firms are registering mass quantities of domain names each day, getting under the skin of companies trying to protect their brands online. "Domain tasting is destabilizing the entire domain name system," says Deutsch. "People are purposefully exploiting trademarks and misleading consumers."

posted by Fergie @ 12/18/2006 10:45:00 AM