NameBearing Guides

GUIDE

"Domain Squatting: What It Is and How to Tell Your Risk"

You picked a name, checked that the .com was free, registered it, and started building. Then you notice yourbrand-app.com or getyourbrand.com is already taken by someone you have never heard of, with no real site behind it. That is not a trademark question -- it is domain squatting, and it is a different risk with a different set of options.

What domain squatting actually is

Domain squatting (sometimes called cybersquatting) is registering a domain name -- usually a variant of an existing brand or a name someone expects to become valuable -- with no intention of building anything on it, in the hope of reselling it later, often to the business whose name it resembles. Typosquatting is the specific version built on common misspellings or adjacent character swaps of a real brand (a transposed letter, an added hyphen, a .net instead of a .com). Neither term requires the squatter to have a registered trademark on anything; the entire business model is holding a name someone else wants.

This is genuinely distinct from the trademark collision covered elsewhere: a registered trademark gives its owner specific legal rights tied to a category of goods or services. A squatter holding a domain close to your name may have no trademark at all -- they are simply the first (or only) registrant of that string of characters, which by itself is not illegal. What makes a squatting case actionable is a separate legal test, not the registration itself.

How to tell if you are actually at risk

A few checks, roughly in order of how much they tell you:

  • Search close variants of your own name as domains. Hyphenated versions, common misspellings, alternate extensions (.net, .co, .io if you're a .com), and the name with a generic word added (get-, -app, -hq) are the patterns squatters use most.
  • Look at what is actually live at each variant. A parked page with ads, a "this domain may be for sale" notice, or a page that closely imitates your own site are all signs of squatting rather than a coincidental unrelated business using a similar name. A real, unrelated business using a similar name is a different situation entirely, and not one this guide is about.
  • Check how long the variant has been registered relative to your own domain. A squatter typically registers close variants either right around when a brand starts getting attention, or opportunistically once it does -- registration-date order is a meaningful clue, though not a certainty on its own.

None of this tells you definitively why someone registered a given domain. It tells you whether the pattern looks like squatting, which is the starting point for deciding what, if anything, to do next.

What recourse actually exists

Two mechanisms exist for a trademark holder to contest a squatted domain, and it is worth naming both accurately rather than vaguely gesturing at "legal action":

  • The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), administered through ICANN-approved providers (the World Intellectual Property Organization's Arbitration and Mediation Center handles the largest share of cases), is a private arbitration process built specifically for domain disputes. A complainant has to show the disputed domain is identical or confusingly similar to a mark they hold rights in, that the registrant has no legitimate interest in it, and that it was registered and is being used in bad faith. It is faster and cheaper than a lawsuit, and its only possible outcomes are transferring or cancelling the domain -- it does not award money damages.
  • The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), a US federal law (15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)), lets a trademark owner sue in federal court over a domain registered, trafficked in, or used in bad faith with intent to profit from the mark. Unlike the UDRP, an ACPA case can result in monetary damages, but it is a full lawsuit -- slower and more expensive than arbitration.

Both mechanisms exist specifically to require a trademark right the complainant already holds, plus evidence of the registrant's bad faith -- neither one is triggered just because someone else's domain resembles yours. Whether your specific situation qualifies, and which mechanism fits it, is a legal judgment call for a trademark attorney who can look at your actual registration and the other domain's use. This guide describes what each process is and is not able to do; it does not tell you whether to file one.

Where a review fits before any of that

Before deciding whether a close variant is worth pursuing at all, it helps to know your actual footprint: which close variants of your name are registered, what is live on them, and whether your own domain and trademark position are solid enough to make a claim worth making. NameBearing's $149 Domain Decision Review compares the shortlist you send against your business and reports what is observable for each name you give it: its registration lifecycle and whether a live service answers for it. It does not go looking for close variants you have not named, so it will not find a squatter on a name that is not on your list -- the variant search this guide describes is yours to run. See how the review works before you decide whether this is a research question or one to bring to an attorney.