Google gets control over similar sounding websites

Google gets control over similar sounding websites

The National Arbitration Forum has announced that search engine giant Google Inc. has the right to the similar sounding domains to their primary business site Google.com. Some of these copycat sites, which made use of typographical error from the users, include domains like googkle.com, ghoogle.com, gfoogle.com, and gooigle.com.

The company had filed a complaint with the authority in the month of May this year claiming right of ownership to domains sounding similar to Google. The owner of such domain names included an individual named Sergey Gridasov. He failed to respond to notices by the authorities. As a result, the arbitrator was entitled to accept all reasonable allegations and inferences in the complaint from Google as true, unless the evidence was clearly contradictory.

The agency also found that the Gridasov was using these domain names in bad faith by presumably profiting from the use of domains. The actions included forwarding users visiting these domain names to webpages, which tried to download spyware and adware components to user’s computers and harm them in the long run. All these actions made the job of Google easier to claim these domain names.