Opportunists snap up websites with royal baby names

Cyber squatters - or opportunistic buyers on internet who use a domain name with bad intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark - have already registered domain names referring to the new royal baby, Prince George Alexander Louis.

Within moments of the royal baby's name being announced, domains such as "GeorgeAlexanderLouis.com" and "princegeorgecambridge.co.uk" were taken, BBC reported.
Purchase of domain names mentioning the name "George" rose by 106.9 percent.

Buyers snapped up royal baby-related names well before the prince was born. A website "royalfoetus.com" was bought in December last year.

Matt James, buyer of a royal baby-related domain "hrhprincegeorgecambridge.co.uk", has put it up for sale at 10,000 pounds.

"I was glued to the TV, excited about the birth and thought a baby prince domain name had potential," James told BBC.

Web-hosting company Names.co.uk has noted over 400 individual domains that contained one or more of the words Royal, Baby, HRH, Prince, George, Alexander and Louis.

BBC said that ICANN -- the organisation responsible for overseeing the domain name system -- will roll out custom-made domains, paving the way for suffixes like .google and .apple. The BBC has applied to have .bbc.

The report said .prince was still available as a suffix, but .george has been requested by Wal-Mart, reportedly in relation to a clothing brand.