IT Glossary
Parking page
As a matter of principle, websites that exclusively host sponsored links are considered parking pages.
These sponsored links are targeted on specific keywords, particularly related to the composition of the domain name concerned.
The parking page can thus be part of a referencing strategy for a future website, or of traffic detour, notably in the context of cybersquatting or typosquatting activities.
The domain name holder, as well as the intermediary selling the advertising space, are then remunerated according to the number of visitors having clicked on these links (“pay per click”).
The parking page is often associated with an auction of the domain name concerned.
However, a parking page can also be used temporarily by the holder of a domain name, while waiting for the final website to be put online, with or without sponsored links.
In any case, the use of a domain name as a parking page constitutes a “passive use” of said domain name.
While the use of a domain name as a parking page is not necessarily punishable as such, in particular if the parking page is not used for profit, this use does not support the existence of a legitimate interest in registering a domain name similar or identical to intellectual property rights of third parties.
On the contrary, the passive use of a domain name is a practice condemned in extrajudicial proceedings, in particular in UDRP and SYRELI proceedings, especially when a third party’s trademark is included in the domain name concerned without any apparent legitimate purpose.
Point of legislation
“You must submit to a mandatory administrative proceeding in the event that a third party (a “complainant”) asserts to the applicable provider, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure,
(i) that your domain name is identical to, or confusingly similar to, a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights; and
(ii) you have no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and
(iii) that your domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.
During the administrative proceeding, the complainant must prove the truth of each of these assertions.”
Paragraph 4(a) of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
Point of jurisprudence
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has reminded us that “the disputed domain name points to a parking page. It is therefore a “passive use”, a practice that is always condemned, especially when a well-known trademark is included in the disputed domain name without any apparent legitimate purpose.”
WIPO, May 5, 2021, No. D2021-0778
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