HPWeb.com: Cybersquatting?

A guy in Korea has been ordered to hand over the HPWeb.com domain name to Hewlett-Packard.

Cybersquatting? No, not really. If you ask me, the HPWeb.com domain name is fair game. So why would he be forced to give it up?

Well, it's all about how you use a name. To be accused of cybersquatting with the domain name HPWeb.com is a stretch, but the guy who was holding the name was using it for an email service, so anyone who received emails from e.g. webmaster@hpweb.com would most likely think that they were in fact receiving correspondence from someone under the employ of Hewlett-Packard. Not good.

Now if the Korean gentleman who was holding the HPWeb.com domain name instead used it for e.g. a website about his (hypothetical) web hosting service that uses nothing but the latest and greatest servers made by Hewlett-Packard, I doubt that Hewlett-Packard would have gone after him, especially if he placed the following disclaimer (or something similar) at the bottom of every page:

This HPWeb.com website is not owned by or affiliated with
The Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Good idea to use a disclaimer like the above as an email signature as well, just to be on the safe side. Of course, the above situation assumes that the Korean gentleman was not using "HPWeb" or "HPWeb.com" as his company name.

As long as the above hypothetical web hosting company was running an honest operation, I highly doubt that Hewlett-Packard would have had a problem with it.

So all you domainers and developers out there with similar domain names: be careful how you use them. If you develop a website, blog or any other type of service, be sure to make it clear that you are not trying to pretend to represent some other company, especially a company with deep pockets!

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