"Gripe" or "Suck" sites are websites created
for the purposes of complaining about and/or criticising a
business. In order to attract the attention they seek, gripe sites
often register a
domain name that incorporates the target business's
trade mark in some way. For example, in Leonard
Cheshire Foundation v Drake a disgruntled former
Leonard Cheshire employee registered the domain name
www.leonard-cheshire.com (whereas the "genuine" website
for the Leonard Cheshire Foundation was to be found at
www.leonardcheshire.org) and proceeded to use it as a gripe
site.
Invariably the similarity between domain names coupled with the
presence of the target's trade mark or branding on the gripe
site, can lead to a business's customers, or potential
customers, accessing a gripe site (where they will usually be
greeted by inflammatory, and often defamatory, material about the
business) instead of the target's own website. This can
inevitably cause real damage to the target
