Preventing Domain Name Infringement: An Introduction to Approaches Adopted by the United Nations, the European Union, and Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The boom in e-commerce around the world since the COVID-19 outbreak has indirectly yet markedly affected business brands and the marketing strategies they use to promote products and services. To effectively respond to this e-commerce trend, companies must formulate plans to navigate the new digital business landscape and to ensure that their brands stand out from those of competitors. A domain name is a string of text that represents a company. Users type a domain name or URL into a browser's search bar to reach a particular website that they wish to view. All registered domain names are unique and cannot be used by anyone other than their owner. For these reasons, some scholars suggested that domain names must be protected through intellectual property laws. However, because the owner of a registered domain name is only entitled to use that particular domain name for a specific period and thus does not have full ownership of it, domain names are not protected by copyright. Because domain names can be used to promote businesses, improve companies' reputation, and create business opportunities similar to any other form of intellectual property, many cases of domain name infringement have been occurred. Such cases include copying of the domain name owned by somebody else to deceive customers into believing a camouflage website is the corresponding official website. Various preventive measures and policies have been adopted in many countries to resolve such disputes. Taiwan's legal system, however, has not yet taken action to avoid such disputes. Any cases regarding the infringement of domain names can only be handled through negotiation, investigation, and evidence collection. First of all, this paper will introduce the definition of a domain name and then describe the types of infringement may occur in various situations as well as the policies regarding domain name management and protection. This study can serve as a useful reference for Taiwan's legal practitioners and future researchers.