In one situation a client of mine (a large organization) had registered www.theirtrademark.org, but had not registered any other spellings or domain name extensions.  Needless to say, there was a long list of similar domain names that had been registered by others- www.theirtrademark.com, www.theirtradmark.com, www.theirtrademark.net, etc., etc.

A good way to avoid this is to go ahead and register all the different domain name extensions when you first start using the trademark- they cost about $10/year.  But no matter what you do, someone could always come up with a creative domain name that is confusingly similar to your trademark to profit from your brand. What do you do in that situation?

uDRP

Well, there is a solution that is somewhat expensive (much more than $10/yr!) but much less expensive than litigation.  This method is to file an arbitration complaint under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (uDRP).  Every registrar and registrant must agree to this policy and is bound by it.  You file a complaint with one of the designated arbitration organizations and an arbitration panel decides whether the domain name is confusingly similar to your trademark and was registered in bad faith.  If so, the arbitration panel can award the domain to you and the registrar (GoDaddy.com, or the like) automatically transfers the domain from the cybersquatter to you.

The lowest arbitration panel fee is about $1300 and you can add to that whatever your attorney charges you to prepare the complaint.  The entire process from complaint to transfer can be completed in a few months.

Negotiation

Since the total cost may run to $3000 or more including attorney’s fees, you may be able to save some money negotiating with the cybersquatter/registrant directly.  You should be able to contact the registrant using the whois information for the domain.  Often, especially in egregious cases, it is possible to negotiate a transfer for less than the cost of arbitration.

Usually, I contact the registrant, identify myself as a lawyer representing the trademark owner, and politely explain the situation and that the owner of a registered trademark is legally entitled to the use of a corresponding domain name.  I then request that the domain be transferred without mentioning any fee.  Often this is effective and you will get your domain back practically free! Other times, a payment may be required.

So I again recommend identifying domain names you may be interested in early on and registering them.  Otherwise, it might cost you a few thousand dollars to acquire each one.