CYBER SQUATTING ;KONGA V. JUMAI

There is this rumor everywhere that the fast growing online retailers in Nigeria are at war over cyber squatting rights, it was gathered that JUMAI has hijacked all the look alike names KONGA might want to use in the nearest future, they used its business name and added few names, this is most likely going to send a wrong signal to its prospective clients that they are dealing with KONGA .

Aside this fact they will not be able to use their business name where they intend to open an online shop in the affected countries.

This is called cyber or domain squatting, it is the use, registering of a domain name that belong to another with the intent to make profit from the good will of a trademark belonging to someone else, one of the effect this usually have on the affected company or individual domain name is that when they intend to use the names the cyber squatters then offer to sell to them at an inflated price because the name has already been registered.

if you must do anything make sure you do it well, regstration of its business name under Trademark is an added advantage to pursue the case against a squatter to get one's domain name back.

The law governing cybersquating in the United State of America is the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.

Cyber squatting is an illegal act and also a trademark infringement that is frown at,it is as good as registering a name that is likely to confuse or defraud customers of the rightful owner of a name,.

Take this company law famous case in Nigeria, NIGER CHEMIST V. NIGERIA CHEMIST  where it was held that the name is very close and can confuse outsiders to think they are dealing with the same company, it was decided in this case that the party that first registered the name should retain it while the other should drop the name. This is one of several advantages of registration; we help in registration of companies, varying from Private, Public, Companies limited by guarantee etc.

The remedy available to KONGA in this case is to proof beyond reasonable doubt that JUMAI squat their business in bad faith, this can simply be proved by stating they are their major competitor in Nigeria and their domain me will revert back to them without having to pay so much as this has happened to a lot of celebrities in the past, celebrities like Madonna, Julia Robert’s names were hijacked but they were able to get their domain name because the man who used their names claim he did to get their attentions in other to get them to read a document he has written on rain forest and then use their status to shed light on the situation.

They can also follow the laid down procedures by the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDP), this can also be handled by us if your domain name has been hijacked based on our experience in the area of internet and intellectual property.

Thank you.

Oyenike Alliyu-ADEBIYI LLB(hons)BL