According to a recent study conducted by independent Harvard University researchers, Google may be earning as much as $500m a year due to the practice known as “Typosquatting.”
Essentially, Typosquatting involves deliberately misspelling the name of a popular website, and then registering the misspelled domain in the hopes that Internet users will also misspell the name and visit their site instead. This is a common practice, and can actually be profitable if visitors to the site click on Google sponsored ads.
Google’s policy is to remove ads from these types of domains only if the site owner of the trademarked website name files a complaint. If the results of this study are correct, then unless such a complaint is registered, these sites can continue to generate revenue for their owners; revenue that should be going to the owners of the trademarked site.
What should you do if you find a site with a domain name suspiciously similar to your trademarked site? Contact Google and the site owners. Even if it isn’t technically copyright infringement, it still has the potential to cost you, and your organization, plenty of money.
If you need help getting a typosquatter off of your back, contact us and we’ll point you in the right direction to get help.
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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