Cyberspace is the electronic network of communications that includes the INTERNET and the WORLD WIDE WEB. Cyberspace is growing rapidly and creating a variety of new issues and concerns for global businesses. In general, economists applaud the rapidly diminishing barriers to COMPETITION resulting from increased communication and access to market and other information through cyberspace. As with any revolution, rapidly changing market conditions are resulting in problems that did not exist just a few years before. Cyber-attacks (viruses diffused through cyberspace, crippling computer networks or gaining unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems) are a growing problem. Responding to fears of cyber-attacks on U.S. financial and electronic business systems, in 2001 President George W. Bush created the position of cyberspace security advisor, thus recognizing that cyberspace is both a concrete foundation of 21st century business and a vulnerable network of electronic communication. Another major issue concerns domain names in cyberspace. Domain names are unique Internet addresses. In the United States, initially one company, Net Solutions, was the sole registry for domain names. Other companies now provide domain-name registration, but a variety of problems, including cybersquatting, cyberhustling, and typosquatting, have emerged. Cybersquatting is the registration of a domain name that has no meaningful relationship to the person or company registering it. Cybersquatters hope to either sell the domain name to someone who wants it or use it to draw traffic to their websites. One cybersquatter received $7.5 million for business.com, while Bank of America paid $3 million for loans.com. Related to cybersquatting is the more recent practice of cyberhustling. Cyberhustlers purchase the rights to domain names that are not renewed by the original owner. In an embarrassing situation, a technical college that switched its URL (universal resource locator) later found its old URL was purchased by a cyberhustler and then used to sell space to a variety of website promoters. People visiting the technical school’s old URL found a variety of noneducational promotions, including pornography links. Typosquatting is the registration of common misspellings. Cyberspace visitors typing in the wrong URL wind up at a typosquatter’s site. Amazon.com challenged a typosquatter who had registered amazo.com. Businesses and individuals faced with typo- and cybersquatters can file complaints with the WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION (WIPO) and other arbitrators of names in cyberspace. The WIPO, an agency of the United Nations, uses three criteria in determining whether a complainant has been harmed.
• The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a TRADEMARK or service mark in which the complainant has rights.
• The person who registered the domain name has no rights or legitimate interests in it.
• The domain name was registered or is being used in bad faith.
Cyberspace, like space itself, provides infinite possibilities for global businesses. Business use of cyberspace will continue to be a dynamic and important force requiring careful and continual scrutiny by managers.