As Consumers Shop, Brands May Pay

Cybersquatters Look to Intercept Holiday Shoppers

comScore reports that while spending to date for the holiday season is down by two percent, Cyber Monday proved to be a bright spot for e-commerce. $846 million was spent online during Cyber Monday this year, up 15 percent from 2007.

As mentioned in last week's Brief, cybercriminals are looking to take advantage of the heightened spending around the holiday season to increase their profits. To find out what cybersquatting is costing your brand, check out CADNA's Cybersquatting Calculator.

Internet Governance

Of the People, For the People?

ICANN has extended the public comment period for the Applicant Guidebook draft to Monday, December 15. FairWinds urges readers to post their comments; after all, ICANN is supposed to look out for the interests of the entire Internet community, so stakeholders should do what they can to express their needs and concerns. While it often seems as though the deck is stacked against those that are not contracted parties in ICANN, it is nevertheless important to continue pressing for equitable representation. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the Guidebook, please contact us.  

FairWinds recently posted a blog entry about the struggle for diverse stakeholder representation in Nominet- the nonprofit company in the United Kingdom that owns and operates the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD). Many at Nominet feel their organization is in danger of being hijacked from within, and Nominet's woes reflect a struggle that is commonly found in Internet governance organizations. FairWinds thinks that perhaps this is a result of the way that these organizations were set up in the first place. Let us know your thoughts on the matter by submitting a question or leaving a comment.

Decisions

Where Else? Creative Domains Online

Sears Brands, LLC brought a UDRP complaint against the Respondent “Domain Administrator” over the domain names searsoutlets.com, searscards.com, searsgiftregistry.com, searskenmore.com, searsoutletstore.com and searstires.com. Each of these names combines the Sears brand with a known product or service that Sears provides and altogether, these names bring in almost 400,000 visitors. This is not surprising- consumers tend to combine communicated brands, products and services to creatively navigate the Internet for desired content.

The Respondent was using these domain names to display advertisement links for the Complainant's competitors, and was deriving monetary benefit from doing so; now, with the panel's order to transfer these domains, Sears can claim the traffic that was likely meant for its sites. If used correctly, this could result in improved brand reputation and an increase in online sales.

The Sears slogan—“where else?”—may now have six new answers. If the six domains are used correctly, consumers that are used to looking to Sears for products will be able to find them easily online.