Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Internet listings for business

Illegal? Possibly. The problem with your analysis is that a Google search is a search for key words, not for domain names. If your domain name contains common words, or even relatively uncommon words, those will trigger "hits" by the search engine. For example, my domain name is bizlaw.ws, and if I Google "bizlaw," I get 1,130 hits, only five of which have to do with me, and they're buried far down the list.

If you are in the same business, and diversion of customers is actually occurring, this may fall under the heading of "cyberpiracy," a term you can look up on Google to see if your situation fits. You'll also find references to the Federal laws that make this practice illegal. As I recall, it is perhaps necessary that you have a trademark, and the cyberpiracy becomes illegal because it is a form of trademark infringement, although possibly a case could be made absent a protected trade name. However, domain names as such generally lack any protected or protective quality such as a trademark gives.

You may also be able to allege and prove old-fashioned causes of action such as unfair competition, fraud, etc. Finally, there is a related concept called "cybersquatting," which you should also research. There is a recent tendency for the definitions of cybersquatting and cyberpiracy to overlap or become confused with one another.