Reprinted with permission from CNet.com.
When it comes to cybersquatting, there's a new sheriff in town: the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse.
A nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., with a roster of members, including the likes of Yahoo, AIG, Dell, Eli Lilly, Hilton, HSBC, Marriott, Verizon and Wyndham, the coalition has launched a national campaign against the fraudulent abuse of domain name registration that is at the core of cybersquatting. Even more, the group has targeted cybersquatting as a threat to the future viability of Internet commerce.
Even though anticybersquatting legislation was enacted as far back as 1999, the practice still remains a threat. The number of .com domain names has actually doubled since 2003, while the number of cybersquatting disputes filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization has increased by 25 percent from 2005 to 2006. Just in the last year, cybersquatting has soared by 248 percent.
