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ARTICLE · 28 AUGUST 2014

Further Protection Against Cybersquatters

ENS
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Many African brand owners will be familiar with the remedies that exist in cases of so-called ‘cybersquatting’.

South AfricaIntellectual Property
Vicky Stilwell
Vicky Stilwell
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Many African brand owners will be familiar with the remedies that exist in cases of so-called 'cybersquatting'. The brand owner who feels aggrieved by the fact that its trade mark has been registered as a domain name by a third party can lodge a complaint and request that the registration be cancelled or transferred to it. In the case of a .co.za registration, the complaint will be handled in accordance with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations. But in most cases – for example with a .com or a .net name –the complaint will be handled in terms of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Either way, the issues will be roughly the same – the complainant needs to show that it has trade mark rights to the name, that the person who has registered the domain name (the registrant) does not have any legitimate right or interest in the name, and that the name has been registered in bad faith.

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