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Cybersticks and Cyberstones: Cybergriping after Bear Sterns and Taubman Company

By Loren K. Newman
September 07, 2003

Cybergriping occurs when one party (a 'cybergriper') i) establishes a Web site (the 'complaint site' or 'attack site') dedicated to the publication of complaints, claims, criticism, or parody of or against another party (the 'target company'), and ii) registers the Web site under a domain name comprised of the target's trademark and a pejorative suffix, such as 'sucks.com,' 'crooks.com' or 'ripoff.com.'

Typically, a cybergriper incorporates the target company's trademarks in the attack site's domain name to increase the likelihood that potential customers will retrieve the complaint site whenever they attempt to locate the target company's official Web site or search the Internet for information regarding the target company. In this way, a cybergriper can divert potential customers from the target company's official Web site to the attack site, or at least use the attack site's derogatory domain name to denigrate the target company in the eyes of the inquiring consumer.

Because cybergriping can deter online sales, target companies that use the Internet as a distribution channel, rather than merely as an advertising medium, are especially at risk.

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