Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. Definition by Wikipedia.org.

Please, don’t be a cyber squatter. This is what makes our industry look bad. I know many domainers, myself included, who accidently wind up purchasing domains that are trademarked, because there are some that are not as obvious as others. I’m merely saying that as a whole, we should not make it a normal practice to knowingly register names with trademarks in them.

The following is a guest post by Sam Silverman of DNUnderground.com.

With an increasing number of trademark infringement cases coming up in the domain industry, it’s important to know when a domain name could potentially cause you trouble (due to trademark infringement). This poses the question: where exactly should a person look to find registered trademarks before buying a domain or starting any type of business?

There are two websites that I am familiar with using for searching for trademarks.

Valuate.com
I am very impressed with this tool. It’s very easy to use whether you’re searching for one or many domain names, which is one of the best features. I have yet to see a site offer a search service that allows you to perform a trademark search on multiple domains all at once. This is a great service to use, especially for those of you who own and invest in a lot of domain names. Perform a search by clicking on this link.

USPTO.gov
This one has a very user-friendly platform, but you need to enter one domain at a time, which can get tedious if you have a lot of domain names you are looking up. I highly recommend this site though, because it is a government website. Basically you’re pretty much guaranteed a high level of accuracy. Perform a search by clicking on this link.

I hope that by using these tools, many of us can avoid getting ourselves into trademark infringement disputes. It’ll not only save you time, but it’ll save you money and in this economy we need every last penny we can get. So why not use these free tools before making a domain investment or renewing that domain name you haven’t developed and aren’t sure whether it’s worth renewing? It can only help.

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Last month I wrote is PayPal safe for domain name transactions. The short answer is no. Not to take anything away from PayPal, they are a great company and one that I use every day. Unfortunately they just don’t have the protections in place for intangible property transactions. As I wrote in my previous article intangible property is something you own but not a physical substance. Because it’s not a physical substance it creates a problem for delivery confirmation.

This is nothing new and something most domainers already know. But for the few of you out their that don’t, Escrow.com is the solution. Escrow.com reduces the potential risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to Buyer and Seller instructions. Escrow services are provided by a  licensed and regulated escrow company.

Let me say this one sentence again, a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to Buyer and Seller instructions.

How much does this service cost?

Here you can see the fee schedule below. One great feature of their service is fees can be paid by the buyer, seller or split between both. To find out exact costs Escrow.com has an easy to use fee calculator.

A couple fun facts about Escrow.com:

• Holds a $4,000,000 bond
• Audited monthly by an outside firm
• Recommended by eBay for transactions over $500 – link
• In business since 1999

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Seth from FreshDrop.net just informed me of a new FREE software his team has created for sniping GoDaddy domain auctions. The new software is fittingly called uSniper. I did a quick Google search and could not find any comparable products. I did come across a domainer forum that was looking for a tool like this. Hmmm, maybe Seth read the forum and decided to create the solution.

What is auction sniping?
Auction sniping is the process of watching a timed online auction (such as on eBay), and placing a winning bid at the last possible moment (often seconds before the end of the auction), giving the other bidders no time to outbid the sniper. Some bidders do this manually, and others use software designed for the purpose.

How does it work?
Download the software from uSniper.com and install. The current version only works on Windows based computers and for GoDaddy auctions.

Once the program is installed, you simply open the software, log in and set the desired snipe bid time (i.e. 5 seconds remaining or 2 minutes and 5 seconds remaining). Simply add each domain name you want into USniper along with your desired high bid. Bids can be edited or canceled at any point before the auction ends.

The number one reason why I like this software is that you set your bid and walk away. For someone like myself who hates losing will continue bidding and bidding until I win. This software takes the emotion out of the auction process. With this I can set my educated bid and forget about it.

***UPDAT 3/12/09***

Software/GoDaddy compatibility issues have caused this program to be buggy and not work properly. It has been weeks now and these issues still have not been resloved. I have removed the links to uSniper.com, download at your own risk. My personal opinion, don’t use it. I really dislike when a company launches something and it is not ready!!!

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