What is Cybersquatting?

About Cybersquatting: 

• It is an act of registering or using a domain name to profit from a trademark, corporate or personal name of an individual. 
• Usually, cybersquatting is seen as a form of extortion or even as an attempt to take over business from its rival. 
• Types of Cybersquatting
  • Typosquatting: In this domains are bought with typological errors in the names of well-known brands. Examples of such misspelt domains are yajoo.com, facebok.com etc. The intention behind this act is to divert the target audience whenever they misspell a domain name.
  • Identity theft: In cases pertaining to identity theft, the website of an already existing brand is copied with the intention of confusing the target consumer.
  • Name jacking: It involves impersonating a well-known name/ celebrity in cyberspace. Instances of name jacking would include creating fake websites/ social media accounts with a celebrity’s name.
  • Reverse cybersquatting: It means an event whereby a person/s falsely claims a trademark as their own and falsely accuses the domain owner of cybersquatting. In essence, this act is the opposite of cybersquatting.
• In India, there are no specific laws that condemn, prohibit or penalize the act of cybersquatting.
• However, domain names are considered as trademarks under the Trademark Act, 1999. Hence, any person who starts using an identical/similar domain name will be held liable for trademark infringement as described under Section 29 of the Trademark Act, 1999.

Q1: What is Phishing?

It refers to an attempt to steal sensitive information, typically in the form of usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information or other important data in order to utilize or sell the stolen information.

Source: JioHotstar domain impasse: What is Cybersquatting? Is it punishable in India?