Retailer Land's End will get a trial in its case against defendants accused of profiting from the company's online affiliate program through a scheme that gave "typosquatting" a new twist.
"Typosquatting" is the practice of registering misspellings of famous trademarks as domain names. Most typosquatters do this to divert Internet users who are seeking the trademark owner's Web site or to attempt to sell the domain name to the trademark owner.
In this case, though, the defendants sent users to the real Land's End site, but only after funneling them through "affiliate" sites so that the defendants could collect commissions on any purchases the users made from the Land's End site.
Land's End filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin against Thinkspin Inc., Braderax Inc. and Michael Seale, alleging cybersquatting, fraud and breach of contract.
Details here from Andrews Publications via Findlaw.com.