(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — In the largest cybersquatting ruling ever to be upheld by a federal court in the Northern District of California, domain registrar OnlineNIC (www.onlinenic.com) was ordered to pay Verizon (www.verizon.com) $33.15 million in damages for cybersquatting 663 of Verizon’s domain names.
The case involves OnlineNIC’s attempts to exploit Verizon and Verizon customers by using certain domain names that can easily be mistaken for actual Verizon names.
The judgement is the most recent development in the case against OnlineNIC, which had illegally registered at least 663 domain names that were either identical or similar to Verizon trademarks.
The court had previously found in December 2008 that OnlineNIC’s registrations of Verizon-related domain names were intended to attract Internet users who were looking for actual Verizon websites, awarding Verizon $50,000 per domain name.
The court ruled on Tuesday that OnlineNIC is “a serial cybersquatter,” that blatantly violated the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act by registering Verizon domain names to “prey on consumer confusion” and “divert consumers searching for Verizon’s websites.”
In addition to upholding the original decision, the court also ordered OnlineNIC to pay Verizon its attorneys’ fees and costs.
“We hope the court’s decision goes a long way toward protecting consumers from becoming targets of Internet abuses and frauds,” says Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice president and associate general counsel. “Verizon is determined to protect our brand and consumers from cybersquatters whose businesses are based on misleading consumers.”
In previous cybersquatting cases, courts granted contested preliminary injunctions against four different violators.
Verizon says it continues to increase its enforcement activities in trademark cases as part of a greater effort to protect its brand.
