Cybersquatting involves the registration in bad faith and/or use of another company’s trade mark or other distinctive sign in a domain name without having any legal rights or legitimate interests in that name. Rights owners have been particularly concerned about cybersquatting since the expansion of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) began in 2012.

The purpose of the EUIPO Observatory’s study was to quantify the phenomenon of cybersquatting to describe the methods and business models used by cybersquatters, thereby providing a basis for fighting the phenomenon more effectively. To access the study, click here.