BlackRock Seeks Crackdown on Copycat Domain Names

In a lawsuit, the giant asset manager says more than 30 domain names are “confusingly similar” to the BlackRock trademark.

BlackRock has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against more than 30 domain names for cybersquatting under the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and trademark infringement.

BlackRock states that its “invaluable rights in the distinctive BLACKROCK mark have been deliberately infringed through the bad faith registration, use, and/or trafficking of the Defendant Domain Names,” which are “confusingly similar” to the BlackRock trademark.

According to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, recent studies have shown that more than 95% of the 500 most popular sites on the internet are the subject of “typosquatting.”

Typosquatting involves the “registration or use of a domain name that represents a typographical error of the legitimate site—and which is typically used to display advertisements related to the legitimate site, to distribute computer viruses or ‘malware,’ to collect visitors’ personal information for inappropriate or illegal uses, or to send ‘business impersonation’ emails.”

Typosquatting, the suit states, “harms consumers by causing confusion with the legitimate sites being sought by the consumers and very often results in consumers’ computers being infected with computer viruses, ‘bloatware’ or other unwanted software, consumer’s personal information being collected and misused, and/or consumers being presented with an endless stream of unwanted advertisements.”

One of the domain names, for instance, is BALCKROCK.com which is registered to an unidentified person/entity using Fundacion Privacy Services Ltd. to conceal his/her/its identity and location, the suit states.

The Balckrock.com domain is a “typographical error of BlackRock’s protected BLACKROCK mark,” the suit states. The website to which the domain resolves is currently being used to display pay-per-click links related to investment and financial services of the type offered by BlackRock, the suit states.

BlackRockinvestments.com is an Internet domain name registered to “Guojianguang” located in Beijing, China. The domain combines BlackRock’s protected BLACKROCK mark with the descriptive term “investments,” which is related to BlackRock’s services, the suit states.

Another domain related to BlackRock’s services is BlackRockInvestors.com, which is registered to an unidentified person/entity using the Domains By Proxy, LLC privacy service to conceal his/her/its identity and location.

Other domains named in the suit include: