One of the biggest problems today for industry and traders alike is that of Internet piracy, or what is now known as "cybersquatting".

This is becoming an increasing problem and is beginning to cost industry and commerce significant sums of money.

One of the most talked about instances of cybersquatting was when a group of students were taken to court after registering domain names for some major British companies.

The idea was to establish the names as domain names on the Internet and sell the resulting registrations back to the companies concerned at an inflated price.

The plan backfired because the individual companies jointly took action against the students with the result that f finished up paying costs of £65,000.

This case, however, was one in which a number of relatively rich companies took action to protect their interests on the Internet. But, despite recovering their financial costs, there was a considerable cost in time and effort in bringing the action in the first place.

The action was possible and successful because the companies already enjoyed trade mark registration protection. Had they not, their case would have been much more difficult and protracted.

Each of the companies would have had to prove that they had a substantial reputation in the trade marks concerned. This latter requirement is an onerous one and can more than double the cost of any enforcement action to protect a trade name or trade reputation.

It is imperative that companies should consider early registration of their trade marks and trade names in order to protect their name and reputation, not only on the Internet but also in the ordinary course of trade.

One of the major problems is that the Internet is still quite young and relatively unregulated. As a result there are many grey areas in which companies and individuals can operate which would normally constitute an infringement of another's rights.

The case involving the students is an example of one of the first steps in the "control" of e-commerce under national and international trademark law. More will undoubtedly follow, both in this country and overseas.

While it is heartening to trademark owners to be assured that the established controls of normal commercial activity will apply to the Internet, it is important to remember that prevention is still better than cure.

There are, of course, genuine cases where two companies may own the same trademark. One such is the trademark Astra.

This is registered in the name of pyrotechnics company Cosmic Fireworks and in the name of motor company Opel. In the normal course of commerce and trade, there would be no conflict as they are registered in two unrelated classes of the trademark classification system.

It is very unlikely that fireworks would ever be sold over the same trade counter as motor cars and hence the chance of confusion by the public is minimal.

However, both of these companies will want a domain name, and since there can only be one "Astra.co.uk" one of them will be disappointed.

The unsuccessful applicant for the domain name will not have any cause of complaint against the successful applicant and, provided the successful applicant does not use the domain name in respect of the trade of the other, then there can be no action for restraint.

The lesson here is obvious - "the early bird catches the worm".

If you have a trade name, you need to register it as a trademark as well as a domain name. The rights in both registrations belong to the first legitimate applicant.

Delay is severely damaging, particularly in a competitive market where there may be large numbers of similar names already in use.