13 cases, involving firms such as Samsung, handled since 2001
By
Khushwant Singh
A YEAR ago, Chinese national Zheng Zhongxing registered the domain name sonyericsson.com.sg in Singapore for $40.
Some resort to 'typosquatting'
ANOTHER kind of cybersquatting is known as 'typosquatting' in which a person registers a domain name - slightly misspelt - of a well-known brand, but still clear enough to be associated with it.
Complaints to the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy's (SDRP) secretariat are sometimes about this kind of squatting.
Four months later, he tried to sell it to Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications for ¥4,000 (S$8,000). The company offered ¥400 but Mr Zheng demanded ¥3,600. Sony Ericsson complained to the Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC), the national registry of .sg domain names.
Registrants must abide by SGNIC's dispute resolution framework, known as the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (SDRP), which is administered by the Singapore Mediation Centre.
After studying the complaint, SDRP panellist Joyce A. Tan ordered that the domain name be transferred from Mr Zheng to Sony Ericsson last June.
She observed that while Mr Zheng's website claimed to be a gateway to Internet sites for Sony Ericsson phones, it also featured competitive products.
Such use of the domain name was 'clearly calculated to mislead Internet users into believing that his website was associated with Sony Ericsson'.
Resolving the cybersquatting dispute cost Sony Ericsson some $2,750.
Since 2001, the SDRP secretariat has handled 13 cybersquatting cases involving companies such as Samsung, Linguaphone and Teletext.
