[...] As alleged in lawsuits announced by the company, “cybersquatters” and “typosquatters” have registered these domain names containing trademarked terms or misspelled words – and hundreds of other domain names like them – with the goal of illegally profiting from them via online ad networks. Thousands of such domains targeting Microsoft are being registered each day.

First, Microsoft has filed two civil lawsuits against a total of four named defendants who allegedly are profiting from domain names that infringe on Microsoft trademarks. These two lawsuits include federal law claims under ACPA and the Lanham Act as well as state law claims for statutory unfair competition and common law unfair competition and conversion. The defendants named in these actions are:

Jason Cox, of Albuquerque, N.M.; with Daniel Goggins, of Provo, Utah, and John Jonas, of Springville, Utah, and d/b/a/ Jonas and Goggins Studios LLC and Newtonarch LLC. Microsoft alleges these three individuals are working together to target marks owned by Microsoft and have registered 324 domain names targeting Microsoft. This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, Cause No. 2:06cv00692 TS.

Dan Brown, of Long Beach, Calif., d/b/a Partner IV Holdings. Microsoft alleges that Mr. Brown registered 85 domain names that directly target Microsoft. This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Cause No. 06 cv 5247 R.

Second, Microsoft also is taking action to unmask defendants who have used privacy protection services to conceal their identities. This can be challenging, Kornblum says, because some domain registrars have created services that protect the registrants’ personal information at a minimal cost. 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, and naming as defendants:

John Doe defendants 1-217. Microsoft soon plans to issue subpoenas to multiple registrars of domain names infringing on Microsoft’s intellectual property. This lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Cause No. C06-1192 RSM.

Lastly, Microsoft is working to aggressively halt online auctions of infringing domain names. With increasing frequency, people purchase a domain name and, if it generates a compelling amount of traffic, resell the domain name for a profit. To address the problem of domain auctioneering, Microsoft will expand its systematic searches of such auctions and seek to have them removed from the auction Web site.

[Press Release]