Businesses and organizations have two main options when attempting to enforce trademark rights against a third party, it has been suggested.
Writing for Lawdit.co.uk, trademark lawyer Paul Bicknell explained that on some occasions, people register domain names featuring another party’s intellectual property – a practice known as cybersquatting.
This has the potential to damage the reputation of brands, and direct web traffic away to ‘fake’ websites, meaning it is important to take defensive action.
Mr. Bicknell said trademark owners can either engage in dispute resolution or resort to litigation in order to secure the domain names featuring their intellectual property.
He explained that the World Intellectual Property Organization operates a dispute resolution policy through its Arbitration and Mediation Center to resolve these kind of disputes.
“The more costly and lengthy route is litigation,” the lawyer said.
“When it comes to tackling those that have purchased a domain name, there are more ways to skin a cat. Alternative Dispute Resolution is the cheaper and fast option over litigation.”