Google recently won two UDRP decisions against cybersquatters involving what I refer to as “lookalike” domain names because of their visual similarity to Google’s trademarks: <g00glemaps.com> (which replaced the two letter o’s in “Google” with two number zeros instead) and <qooglemaps.com> (which replaced the first letter “g” in Google with the letter “q” instead).
I discuss both of these decisions in a new case study video about interesting and important decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
As I explain in the video, it might be obvious that these two domain names don’t actually contain the Google trademark. But often, cybersquatters use lookalike domain names in various ways where consumers aren’t paying close attention, such as in links on other websites or in phishing emails. In those cases, the differences can easily be overlooked, so it’s not as if cybersquatters are relying on anyone to actually type out these misspelled domain names.
And, in fact, the cybersquatters in these cases found nefarious ways to use the domain names. When I visited the websites associated with each domain name shortly after the UDRP decisions were issue, I found, in one case, a page that tried to get me to install a suspicious “URL Safety” extension in my web browser; and, in the other case, a so-called “Windows Defender Security Center” notice urging me to contact “Windows Support” at a phone number that was displayed to me.
Both of these cases were easy wins for Google, with each resulting in a decision ordering transfer of the disputed domain name. On the first element of the UDRP – whether the domain names were identical or confusingly similar to Google’s trademarks – one of the panels said, as usually happens in cases of lookalike domain names
[V]isually similar misspellings of a complainant’s mark in a domain name do not prevent confusing similarity between that domain name and the complainant's trade mark pursuant to the Policy…. Both the GOOGLE and GOOGLE MAPS marks are clearly recognizable in the disputed domain name.
These lookalike domain name disputes should remind trademark owners that there’s really no end to the deceptive techniques that cybersquatters will employ, but fortunately the UDRP is usually a very effective way to deal with them.
(For links to both of these UDRP decisions, see the description in the video.)
