Microsoft has now issued a detailed overview of its anti-cybersquatting campaign on its website, giving an easy to read background to the the Jonas, Goggin, Cox and Brown lawsuits as well as the overall problem. Microsoft’s information release is a great educational piece for members of the structured settlement/settlement planning and structured settlement factoring industries and highlights the fascinating and comperhensive amount of effort that Microsoft is giving to protecting its intellectual property rights.
I am particularly interested in Microsoft’s taking action to unmask defendants who have used privacy protection services to conceal their identities. The challenge according to Microsoft attorney Kornblum is that some domain registrars have created services that protect the registrants’ personal information at a minimal cost. These privacy services designed to reduce spam to domain registrants have actually been a great obstacle to catching sploggers. To unmask those identities, Microsoft is filing a ‘John Doe’ lawsuit aimed at identifying "cybersquatters" and "typosquatters" who have used privacy protection services to conceal their identities.
Link to the Microsoft information release can be found here
Link to the Complaint in Microsoft v Cox et al. Utah District Ct. 2:06-cv-00692-TS can be found below
Download msft_complaint_v_coxjonas_gogginsutah_district_ct_8212006.pdf
Link to Complaint in Microsoft v John Does 1-217 in Western District of Washington at Seattle Case: C06-1192 RSM which deals with the concealed identities issue
Leave a Reply