[ga-full] The Internet Daily: Fortune 500 ripe for cybersquatters-03/02/2000

["!Dr. Joe Baptista" <baptista@pccf.net>]

Fortune 500 ripe for cybersquatters 
 
More than half of the largest companies in the United States have 
failed to protect themselves in cyberspace. NameEngine.com, a company 
which registers Web domains and researches their ownership, reported 
Thursday 265 of the Fortune 500 own fewer of their domain names than 
do other companies and individuals. "I was shocked," said president 
Antony Van Couvering, who researched domain name registrations around 
the world. He found, for instance, American Express (AXP) has 
registered "americanexpress" in 19 countries, while in 11 others the 
registration belongs to somebody else. CBS has four of its own 
registrations, while other have 46, he said in an interview with 
CBS.MarketWatch.com. "On average, it costs about $50 to register a 
domain name, but anywhere from $10,000 to over $3 million to buy it 
back from a cybersquatter," he added. "It is at least 200 times 
cheaper to prevent, than to cure." Some of the best protected 
companies include Intel (INTC), with 104 registrations of its own, 
compared to other parties which have registered four. 

Companies which want to trademark their advertising slogans may be 
able to do so through Network Solutions' (NSOL) registration service. 
It will now accept domain names as long as 67 characters. Previously, 
there was a 23-character limit. "Now companies can register their 
slogans and products to drive traffic to their primary Web site," said 
senior vice president Doug Wolford. According to Network Solutions' 
data, the highest concentration of domain names are between 8 and 12 
characters. Approximately 45 percent of all domain names registered by 
Network Solutions fall in this range. 

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