Will Be Welcome at TRAFFIC East — Not Everyone

Don’t take the headline too literally. Read on.

I just booked my plane tickets to this month’s TRAFFIC conference at Disney World. It ought to be a great event with wonderful surroundings. But there are handful of people who probably won’t be welcome at this event: Disney cybersquatters.

“Disney” is certainly one of the most cybersquatted brands. In particular, typosquatting is rampant since many of the people looking for Disney sites are kids.

A quick look through National Arbitration Forum proceedings shows 54 cases involving Disney Enterprises. There are likely many more under different corporate names.

There are traditional cybersquatting cases such as MickeyMouseClub.com, DisneyLandHotel.com, and DisneyOutlet.com. Then there are the typosquatting cases, such as Desperate Housewives typo DesparateHousewives.com, and disneychannal.com and disnay.com.

Of the 54 cases I found, Disney won all but one: Tinkerbell.com.

So if you own any Disney related domains, perhaps you shouldn’t visit Orlando.

I, on the other hand, would like to sell Disney on a “proactive registration service” so it won’t have to spend so much on legal fees getting these domains back following-the-fact.

I’m arriving in Orlando Tuesday May 20 and heading out during the auction Friday afternoon. If you’ll be there, drop me a note so we can connect.