Google Faces Class Action Lawsuit over TypoSquatting

Benjamin Edelman, a professor at Harvard Business School, has filed a class action lawsuit for trade-mark infringement against Google and several large “typosquatting” companies. The class action was filed on behalf of American trade-mark holders whose websites have been targeted by typosquatting websites. A typosquatting website has an address almost identical to the website that an Internet user wants to visit. It generates traffic by relying on mistakes, such as typographical errors, made by the Internet user when inputting the intended website address into a web browser. Should a user accidentally enter an incorrect website address, they may be led to the typosquatting website.

Typosquatters make money by selling space on their websites to advertising networks, such as Google, who in turn recruit advertisers. Professor Edelman alleges that when the Internet user clicks on Google-supplied ads on the typosquatting site, the advertiser pays Google money and Google in turn pays the owner of the typosquatting website. Professor Edelman estimates that if each typosquatting website earns USD$25 from Google each year, Google might charge advertisers between USD $32 and USD $50 per year to place ads on just one of these websites.

For additional information, visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typosquatting

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524698

Volume VI

Google Faces Class Action Lawsuit over TypoSquatting