The UT System filed an arbitration against a company this month to obtain ownership of the domain name Universityof texas.com.
UT began a search in February for domain names that infringe on UT's trademark, said Craig Westemeier, UT's assistant athletic director.
"We're taking a stance for our rights as a trademark owner and taking it into domain names that are infringing," Westemeier said.
The search found thousands of domain names, but the arbitration filed for Universityoftexas.com, owned by Global Access, was the first legal action needed, he said. Most of the other entities UT pursued willingly provided the authorization codes for their domains.
An arbitration is a legal technique to resolve disputes without going to court.
The University owns other domain names, such as Utexas.com, which forwards to Utexas.edu. Westemeier said in this particular search process the University has obtained about 25 domain names.
"One, you need to look at the domain name and two, you need to view the content," he said. "What are they putting on that site? We try to take into account the total perception of the viewers to ensure that users are getting the most accurate and up-to-date information, which can be found on Utexas.edu."
Business professor John Allison said people and businesses that register a Web address that is the same as or similar to someone else's trademark are called "cybersquatters." A federal law, the 1999 Federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, makes it illegal to register such a domain name if evidence shows it was done with the intent to commercially exploit the other party's trademark.
There are several reasons why trademark holders need to take action against cybersquatters, Allison said.
People using the same or similar trademarks may confuse the public into thinking someone else is the source of goods or services, Allison said, or that the trademark owner sponsors or is affiliated with the other person who is using the same or similar mark.
Allison also said that if a trademark owner knows about an infringing activity and does nothing about it, he or she may eventually lose the right to do anything about it. This is sometimes referred to as "sleeping on one's rights," he said.
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